The following proposal has been developed for a mock situation and non-existent company called Mocke Health Corporation.

Executive Summary

Mocke Health Corporation is seeking an online training solution to support over 3000 employees in 26 locations worldwide. To meet Mocke’s needs for a stable and secure online learning management system (LMS) that can be globally accessed, the proposed LMS for use is WebCT Vista. From an operational standpoint, WebCT Vista provides adequate technical support and secure server hosting that a large corporation like Mocke requires. Consequently, from an educational perspective, WebCT Vista offers a system that includes features such as asynchronous and synchronous communication (i.e., discussion forums, live chat, email to other users or trainers), assessments, feedback, content placement, and file uploads/downloads.

Background

For over 30 years, Mocke Health Corporation specializes in providing products and services to healthcare professionals worldwide. As Mocke Health continues to expand its offerings, the company is in need of an online learning system that can accommodate over 3000 employees who work in departments relating to corporate development, health services, research and development, and sales.  The learning management system must also be available to a wide variety of clients including healthcare professionals and their colleagues.

LMS Selection: Why WebCT Vista?

According to Bates and Poole (2000), the SECTIONS framework helps facilitate the organizational decision for choosing suitable learning technology. The following uses the SECTIONS framework to consider the implementation of WebCT Vista:

•    Students and Organizational Issues: The individuals using Vista are mainly employees located in various parts of the world including the Americas, Asia, Europe and Australia. Therefore, it is important that the users have an LMS that is conveniently accessible from various locations, even if they are employees on a business trip who would like to login to their online course at any time of day during the week or have materials readily available. Vista offers secure access that is available any day of the week at any time. Additionally, students are not expected to have advanced technical skills to use the LMS and can work on the courses at their own pace.
•    Ease of use and Speed: As mentioned in the previous section, even novice students can use Vista for their courses. They are not expected to be experts in using the technology. The same holds true for trainers and course developers. Vista supports trainers, instructors and students with orientation sessions to help them get acquainted with the system. As well, the interface design is relatively easy to navigate and content, if organized in a meaningful manner, can prove useful for the users. Vista’s most important feature in terms of Mocke’s needs is its reliability. As a commercially available LMS used by other institutions and organizations, Vista servers are reliable with few technical-related issues (Bates & Poole, ). While version upgrades may affect costs and time, Mocke has a strong IT department that can provide adequate technical and professional support to its employees.
•    Costs: The approximate cost to Mocke for the use of Vista would include licensing, training plus hosting in the first year. Costs for this would initially run at around $20,000. While some training is available for free, the costs of additional significant training have been included in the start-up costs. These costs are expected to be slightly lower in subsequent years since training will not likely be necessary and can be performed by existing Mocke staff in the future. Future costs would be more focused on licensing and hosting. The advantage to hosting with Blackboard, the company that runs WebCT Vista, is cost-effectiveness. Having Blackboard as a server host, at least in the first year, would remove responsibility that the IT department has towards network outages and data security (Blackboard, 2009). The estimated cost for placing and delivering materials online would be around $50,000 in a two-year time period. Because most materials are already electronically distributed, this would save time and costs. The return on investment can be measured by 1) the effectiveness of the courses in the first year and 2) whether the courses have had an impact on employee performance (Accenture, 2008).
•    Teaching and Learning: Vista accommodates a variety of learning styles and can support different types of media. Learners can be assessed in discussion forums and through quizzes and assignments. Each trainer or course developer can customize the course as appropriate for the subject matter. In conjunction with the National Educational Technology Standards set by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE, 2008), teachers should “engage in professional growth and leadership” by helping improve student learning as well as developing leadership and technology skills (p. 1). Using Vista as an LMS can help teachers and instructors do this.
•    Interaction and Interactivity: The Vista LMS maximizes the opportunities for interaction and interactivity since it allows learners to globally access the courses and have discussions with one another. Synchronous communication platforms such as live chat can prove advantageous.
•    Novelty: Vista has been compared with other LMS platforms and proves to be the best solution for Mocke. Upon consultation with other employees and directors of Mocke, Vista is a solution that will provide significant return on investment in the long-run.

References

Accenture. (2006). Return on learning, part 3: Measuring the return on investment in training. Retrieved June 7, 2009 from http://www.accenture.com/Global/Research_and_Insights/Outlook/By_Subject/Human_Resource_Mgmt/ReturnLearningPart3.htm

Bates, A. W. & Poole, G. (2003). A framework for selecting and using technology. In Effective teaching with technology in higher education: Foundations for success. New York: Wiley, John & Sons. Retrieved June 6, 2009 from UBC WebCT Vista: ETEC 565A.

Blackboard. (2009). Blackboard managed hosting. Retrieved June 7, 2009 from http://www.blackboard.com

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National educational technology standards and performance indicators for teachers. Retrieved June 7, 2009 from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf

Step 1
As a non-educator, I have not really had any formal teaching experience so this post will end up being more of a summary of how I apply five standards in NETS. Being a graphic designer, I believe my job requires the ability and the knowledge of informal teaching and learning. I have to know how to communicate information to different audiences whether it is abstract or straightforward. As well, I have to understand the impact of using different types of media to deliver a message such as how communicating on the web or using PowerPoint differs from communicating on print.

In actual workplace situations where colleagues need assistance, I take notice of how people learn and adjust to their learning needs. Instead of giving instructions, I work with the person so that they can figure (creatively, in some instances) out for themselves what to do, so they can ask their own questions and potentially reach their own solutions with the least amount of effort. Other instances of being able to understand and address different learning styles occurs when I am creating materials such as brochures or product labels where I must focus on the end-user. In a field where users and learners are mainly consumers, assessment usually comes in the form of feedback.

In relation to using technology to engage in professional growth and leadership and promote digital citizenship and responsibility, I believe that it is important to understand the functions, advantages and disadvantages of technology before applying it to a learning situation.

Step 2

While all the points in NETS are important, I would say that for this course, it is important for me to learn more about how to design, develop and evaluate authentic learning experience and assessments (#2) as well as engaging in professional growth and leadership (#5). Although it will be nice to experiment with the learning technologies, I think the assignments in this course will help me understand more about the teaching and learning processes involved with using technology. This would help me become more of a Digital Age Teaching Professional rather than just a Digital Age Professional.

*Originally posted in the ETEC 565A 66B Discussion Boards: May 12, 2009, 3:11PM.