eLearning based traning hub

I'm a teacher in De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, teaching theology... eLearning was the fruit of my second masteral degree. My first was in Religion & Values Education [MEd] then my second was in Education [MaLT] both from De La Salle University.

I really would be willing to help those who intend to roll out their training course online or online training course. As a matter of fact I'm a member of the team that facilitated the creation of training courses online of some of my friends. You may visit the sites @:

http://teachertom.info/
http://www.slcm-elearning.com/moodle/

The best way to start an eLearning based traning hub or center is to Know your LMS' Project Status/Plan: I'm suggesting that you answer the following questions, then we can start discussing on how you wish to plan and execute your web-based training hub or center.

1. Will you host you LMS (Learning Management System) or is your LMS hosted or installed behind your company's firewall?

• Hosted
• Installed behind firewall
• Others (please specify)

2. Approximately how many users (students, teachers, employees, customers, and/or partners access and use your LMS?

• Under 500
• 500 to 999
• 1,000 to 5,000
• More than 5,000

3. What vendor/company/partners will provide or provided your LMS?

• Blackboard
• WebCT
• Moodle
• Other (please specify)

4. Do you expect to or are you obtaining the expected benefits of your installed/will be installed LMS?

• Yes, why?
• No, why?

5. Will you be or are you using the latest version of the LMS offered by your vendor/company/partners?

• Yes, why?
• No, why?

6. Why will you or did you choose this LMS over the other? (Check all that apply.)

• Budget
• Technical resources
• Do not need features and functionality offered by other LMS
• Other (please specify)

7. When will or did you implement your LMS?

• This Year (2009)
• Next Year (2010)
• Within last year
• Within last two years
• Over two years ago

8. Who had primary responsibility for implementing your LMS? (Check all that apply.)

• Training
• IT
• HR
• Third party
• Other (please specify)

9. Will you or did you use a third-party services provider for any part of the LMS implementation project?

• Yes, why?
• No, why?

10. How will or did the LMS implementation correspond to the implementation budget?

• Under budget
• Right at budget
• Over budget
• Other (please specify)

11. How long will or did the implementation phase take?

• Less than six months
• Six months to one year
• One to two years
• More than two years

12. How would you describe the implementation time frame?

• Went as planned and scheduled
• Took longer than expected
• Took much longer than expected

13. What were your biggest challenges in the implementation process? (Please check all that apply.)

• Integration
• Lack of application experience
• Customization
• Skilled technical resources
• Other (please specify)

14. What will be or is your average annual operating budget of the LMS, now that it will be or is implemented? (Note: This includes all maintenance and customization costs.)

• Less than $50,000
• $50,000 to $99,999
• $100,000 to $300,000
• More than $300,000

15. Who will be or is in charge of maintaining your LMS?

• IT
• Training
• HR
• Third party
• Other (please specify)

16. What will be or is your biggest maintenance challenge?

• Lack of application experience
• Customization
• Integration
• Skilled technical resources
• Other (please specify)
  

The LMS or Learning Management System we are using in our school is MOODLE. MOODLE application is (to me) the most user friendly LMS tool for online training. This venture is a team effort. However depending on the size and budget of an organization,
a team could include either 3 persons or an entire team of people.

Since the mode of teaching delivery is web-based, it is a shift from face to face to online, thus it requires re-training on the part of the trainor and orientation also on the part of trainees or future students.

Now the techno or techie part refers to a member of the team called Web Developer (WD) who will not teach, but will make your website up and runnig (the virtual training center). He will maintain, update and troubleshoot any web technology needs and concerns.

The one responsible in the subject that is being taught – where the content will come from is the Subject Matter ( content) Expert or SME .

The Course Developer (CD) person uses a variety of authoring tools to translate the contents, making them accessible online. This is usually the work of our MMA graduates, who are always working in coordination with SME.

Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia Arts (ABMMA) in our college is a "Multimedia Arts program combines evolving areas such as digital media and the Internet with core skills such as communications, programming, and graphic design. It harnesses the power of the latest digital media technology. It is the first program of its kind in the country." http://www.dls-csb.edu.ph/default.asp?section=210&what=1000107

My task is usually an eLearning Instructional Designer (eID) who determines objectives, activities, sequencing, and evaluation methods needed to meet the goal of the einstruction or elearning.

In Summary: to roll out a web-based training center... it involves a TEAM

• Web Developer (WD)
• Subject Matter Expert (SME)
• Course Developer (CD)
• eLearning Instructional Designer (eID)

To those interested to have an online training hub, I suggest that you already prepare and document all the instructional materials you are using. You may also start recording, both video and/or audio of your face to face training because they are valuable media formats in an eleaning training.

Try to imagine, students will just access the educational video files (like YouTube), then they will watch and listen to them. It has already saved your time and effort instead of repeating the same lessons all over again as you are doing in a face to face learning. Students will also have the freedom to play the videos over and over again to master the content. Now if they have questions, students can engage in real time conversations (chat) (like in Yahoo messenger). These are what we call online features, the various communication tools
and formats for teaching and learning.

So in terms of costs of establishing this? It is something that is discussed in a face to face setting...[not here in blog...] But to give you an idea, the fees generally go to the eID, to the training of the team of WD, SME, CD and eID which you will create for your organization, and also for the technology tools (website; server, authoring tools, etc.).

I'm always in school from monday to friday. But in an assistance you need like this, I'm free on saturday and sunday, during these days I'm usually at home, which is also near our school (i.e., @ EGI Taft Tower).

Antonio Levy S. Ingles, Jr., M.Ed, MaLT, PhD (cand)
school # (632) 5267441 to 47 loc 113
cel # (632) 09178661006
home # (632) 5675012

"For those who believe, no explanation is necessary;
for those who do not believe, no explanation is possible."