Manufacturing Corp®
Executive Summary
This report outlines Manufacturing Corp’s® options for the development and intergation of E-learning into their Learning and Development strategy. It discusses issues regarding learner readiness for the uptake of E-learning, computer literacy, advatages of a LMS and LCMS including the need for SCORM or AICC compliance and suggest cheaper alternatives which hope to invest largely in the productive development of E-learning that is more suitable and inherently more valuable for our workforce.
Introduction
This report will outline the context of Manufacturing Corp® and whether there is a need for an LMS or LCMS when integrating E-learning in its learning and development strategy. Of key consideration is the demographic of the workforce, their ability to adopt learning via an electronic format (learner readiness) and what more cost effective alternatives there are available to a LMS or LCMS.
Background
Manufacturing Corp® employs 1000 staff across two locations in Sydney, NSW. Administration, Marketing & Sales and Finance personnel are located in the Head Office situated in North Sydney. Production Line and Delivery personnel are located at the factory and distribution centre in Auburn.
All personnel working in Administration, Marketing & Sales and Finance positions at Head Office have desktop PC’s and use Manufacturing Corp’s® Human Resources Information System (HRIS) regularly to access and submit leave records and requests, to view and print pay records and to record hours worked – in addition team leaders and managers check and submit electronic timesheets for their staff.
Literacy levels of staff at Head Office are high with the majority of staff completing year 12 or equivalent with approx 60% of these staff obtaining a tertiary qualification from a university, TAFE or recognised overseas institution. English is a first language for 85% of Head Office staff while the other 15% have strong written and conversational English skills even as their second language.
All Production Line and Delivery personnel have access to Manufacturing Corp’s® HRIS to view and submit their pay and leave records. In addition Supervisors submit their team’s time sheet electronically to Head Office each week using Manufacturing Corp’s® HRIS. In order for staff to have access to the HRIS Manufacturing Corp® has utilised the area which was once the pay office at the Auburn factory and converted it into a meeting area for monthly team meetings and a computer station with 2 computer terminals for staff to access the HRIS and Supervisor’s to submit time sheets.
50% of staff working at the Auburn Factory speak English as a second language with the overall literacy levels substantially below that of staff working in Head Office, this is largely due to the cultural diversity amongst the Auburn workforce and the unskilled – semi skilled nature of the work completed at the Auburn Factory.
Manufacturing Corp® uses a staff intranet for announcements & storage of documents used for Head Office Staff. Auburn Factory staff have access to the intranet if they use the computer terminals onsite but very rarely do as the majority of organizational correspondence comes directly from their supervisor.
Discussion
Considering learner readiness
Concern has been expressed over learner readiness for the uptake of e-learning, this concern is quite validated considering the high percentage of staff with literacy difficulties. Consideration of learner’s access and experience with computers should play a key factor in determining their leaner readiness.
Head Office staff are much more computer literate and have access to a computer on a daily basis which would make completing e-learning more flexible. Training can be completed at their own desk. The high overall literacy levels of staff in Head Office suggest learning via a means which was previously unfamiliar would not pose a difficult transition.
However, the overall literacy levels and access to computers for the staff at the Auburn factory should be the major consideration in assessing their leaner readiness for the uptake of e-learning.
What E-learning does Manufacturing Corp® need and/or want to do?
Currently we outsource the face to face training that is compulsory to provide to our staff, including: OH & S & Induction. It is estimated that the annual licence fee for similar training delivered via an e-learning mode would be comparable to the cost structure of the consultants who design, tailor and deliver face to face training. Providing this price is divided by the amount of staff who attends.
However, once we have learner’s comfortable with the delivery of e-learning and are able to access the training, this opens doors for many other forms of training to be delivered in this format e.g. sales training, product training and leadership development training.
While the learner readiness for the auburn staff is of concern, compulsory training must be completed in OH & S. Currently our OH & S training sessions are delivered face to face in English. E-learning has the flexibility that it can be designed in numerous languages and can be as interactive and engaging to retain leaner attention. As an employer we have a responsibility to ensure our staff are trained in OH & S. We need to be assured that the training, whether face to face or electronic we are providing is able to be understood. E-learning will give us the flexibility to design training to the specific language and literacy levels of our staff.
Is it essential to track and manage E-learning using an LMS?
A Learner Management System ( LMS) is essentially a database and can be useful to track a learners progress throughout the duration on an e-learning course. It has the facility to track a learner’s progress throughout a course and report on completed courses. The advantages a LMS has when implementing E-learning only mirror the capability that already exists within our HRIS system. Essentially the tracking of learner’s progress, monitoring of results and reports of completed training are all accessible through our HRIS. While we would have the option to lease per user access to a LMS it is substantially more expensive than using an existing system we have already paid for and already has staff details loaded into it. If purchased, a LMS would be empty requiring significant amounts of data entry to set up each learners account.
Is there an advantage for Manufacturing Corp® investing in a LCMS instead?
A Learner Content Management System (LCMS) allows for learning objects to be stored within the database, allowing not only for learner’s progress, results and learning profile to be tracked but also providing a strorage facility for the learning content.
A learning object is a portion of learning that is sustainable alone or can be grouped together with other learning objects to form a larger training programme. A LCMS often has the added facility of basic authoring tools to develop content to store within the LCMS. We also have the choice to puchase content to store in the LCMS however in order for the content to perform well its ability to operate within the LCMS may be restricted if it is neither affiliated with the compliance standrads of AICC or SCORM. Simply, AICC & SCORM are two different strandards governing the interoperability of software and technology that is used for training and E-learning.
A LCMS is unecessary for Manufacturing Corp® as we already have acess to a storgae facility for learning content i.e the staff Intranet. Authoring content would allow us to progress in the development of E-learning but it is more cost effective to store content on the Intranet without the unenecessary hassle of SCORM or AICC compliance. Furthermore, the money saved in purchasing or leasing a LCMS can be focused on developed of content which is mroe appropriate to learner needs.
Recommendations
Short Term (within 12months)
- OH&S, Sales and Product training to be now completed via e-learning for Head office staff.
- Track Learning via HRIS.
- Evaluate the cost efficiency of e-learning for HO staff and if favorable a wider variety of e-learning can be introduced.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of e-learning for auburn workforce –consider learner readiness.
Long Term
- Small Computer training centre to be developed onsite at Auburn factory with 8-10 computers. Compulsory OH & S training to be completed via E-learning
- If learner readiness is suitable hire an instructional designer (with an education background) to design content – learning objects
- Staff Intranet could be used to store content
Conclusion
A LMS is not needed when considering the substantial cost of a LMS against the marginal benefit of this type of management product. The cost restraints for the implementation of E-learning favour using management & tracking databases that already exist within the organisation. This allows the focus of the project to be centered on meeting learner needs by providing valuable training. Designing content in-house can be beneficial but will need specialist expertise brought in. Designing content is not recommended until at least 12months into the implementation of e-learning. This allows time to properly assess learner readiness using trial e-learning purchased from an external provider under licence. Storing the content will become necessary at this stage of the integration but can be fully supported using the staff Intranet. By not purchasing either a LMS or LCMS Manufacturing Corp® will save on initial set up cost which can be utilised to either purchase/ produce more effective training which will be more suitable to our workforce which will in turn test learner readiness to dictate the further implementation of training in this format.
