Simple geography has always been a training challenge for Phoenix-based PHI Air Medical Group, which flies out of nearly 50 bases in 11 states.

The company, a full-service air ambulance provider that serves more than 30,000 patients each year, needs to ensure that its employees - nurses, paramedics, respiratory technicians and pilots - are not only current on their mandatory certification training, but also have the opportunity to increase their skills with programs that incorporate industry-wide best practices. Up until a couple years ago, that meant training coordinators assigned to each state had to travel extensively to run face-to-face sessions; in addition, employees sometimes had to travel up to three or four hours - on the company's dime - to attend a class. The situation was costing PHI Air Medical time and money.

Mike Harmon, PHI Air Medical's Manager of Clinical Education Standards, began looking at learning management systems as a possible way to provide web-based training for the company's geographically diverse staff.

Among the elearning software he looked at was Ziiva's Prosperity Corporate LMS, which had the features he needed - SCORM compliant, able to run detailed reports, strong customer support - at a very competitive price. "I was looking for something I could sell to administration," Harmon said. "Not knowing how much we would be able to save from an LMS, cost was a factor."

Since implementing Prosperity - first for medical staff, and then for pilots - PHI Air Medical has saved between $300,000 and $400,000 in training-related costs while increasing employee development opportunities available to its staff. The company also has been able to cut three days from what was once was a two-week, on-site new employee training program in Phoenix, which provides additional ongoing savings.

Harmon now has more than 125 courses available online through Prosperity - 13 recurring courses that employees take annually to maintain certification, 24 more courses specifically for new hires and many more for continuing education.

Harmon is also pleased with Ziiva's reporting capabilities and ability to randomize tests, which makes it easier for the company to maintain its certification from the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Services (CAMTS).

Because of the nature of its business, PHI Air Medical still conducts some site-based training, but the company has been able to maximize the face-to-face sessions by having staff do much of the prep work online. "Adult education in the medical world is scenario-based problem solving," Harmon explained. "We use Ziiva to build base-level knowledge before (the site-based training) so trainers get to spend more time on problem-solving and critical-thinking programs."

The ease and availability of online learning has also allowed the company to provide remedial education for employees who may have previously been fired because it was cost-prohibitive to send them away for individual employee training.

Although Prosperity has its own course-creation program, Harmon was more familiar creating modules using Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe Articulate, which Ziiva's learning management system can easily accommodate. He's uploaded a number of new and existing courses that way, as well as some training videos.

Now he's looking at using Prosperity's own tools for expanding the company's online offerings, including higher-level learning, more interactive courses and more. Harmon admits that, as satisfied as he is with Prosperity, he's still only scratching the surface of what it can do.

Overall, employee feedback has been positive.

"Pretty much every course they do has a course evaluation," Harmon said. "We've probably had between 80 and 90 percent approval - fours and fives (on a five-point scale) and even the watercooler talk about it is generally pretty positive."

Things have gone so well, in fact, that PHI Air Medical's parent company replaced the LMS it was using for a larger subsidiary that provides helicopter transport for the offshore oil and gas industry with Ziiva's system. In all, PHI, Inc., has about 2,600 employees.

Down the road, Harmon is looking at making some computer-based training available at a nominal fee to local fire departments and ambulance companies in areas served by PHI Air Medical. The courses can be used by these organizations for employee certification.

When asked what he liked best about Prosperity, Harmon said the price and the ability the software gave him to "advance education opportunities and knowledge level of my staff."

Admittedly, Dr. Patrick Patterson isn't one to lavish praise. But the administrator of education for IntegrityFX Ltd. gives this one-word description of his experiences with Ziiva's Prosperity LMS: "Excellent."

IntegrityFX provides broker services to foreign currency traders around the world. In the off-exchange retail foreign currency (Forex) market, banks, corporations, governments and others entities - including individual retail traders - seek to profit by taking advantage of fluctuations in exchange rates. With average daily volume in the trillions, Forex is one of the world's largest and most liquid financial markets. Individual traders are a small but growing segment of this market.

To give its Forex retail traders the knowledge and confidence to succeed, IntegrityFX created an Education & Training Center powered by Ziiva's Prosperity Learning Management System.

"Our Education & Training Center serves a niche market and the education that has historically been made available has been both expensive and poorly developed for one reason or another," said Patterson, who oversees the development, implementation and dissemination of the curriculum via computer-based training, webinar presentations and in-class lecture. "Thus, our greatest challenge is to market our training in a way that makes clear that our curriculum has superior quality in content, quantity and delivery."

To meet this challenge, he turned to Ziiva for an enterprise LMS.

Having used other learning management systems over the years at several colleges and universities, Patterson knew what he wanted: the ability to import e-learning content, robust data collection technology for learner tracking, reasonable ease of use for course management and contact management, customizable reporting features, a feature-rich exam management suite and a reasonable cost.

He found those things with Prosperity.

"Their customer service is excellent and their staff is knowledgeable about the products and services they sell. In addition, the cost of their LMS with its large assortment of stock features was very reasonable," said Patterson, who singled out Prosperity's course-management features as a big plus.

IntegrityFX currently offers a half-dozen Web-based training courses such as "Introduction to Forex," "Technical Analysis" and "Risk Management." The curriculum was recognized with the 2009 Best Forex Education Provider Award at the ME Forex Expo in Dubai.

"All feedback has been generally positive," from students taking and/or evaluating the courses, Patrick said. "However, almost everyone has said that the sheer volume of reading is daunting, and they have recommended more audio/visual elements - we are currently working a new multimedia version."

In addition, Patterson said IntegritryFX plans to incorporate instructor-led webinar scheduling and training into the Prosperity LMS.

While courses currently deal with foreign currency exchange, IntegrityFX has a number of other curriculum programs in development including spot gold, spot oil and "contracts for difference" trading. Down the road, Patterson said he sees value in not only using Prosperity for customer training, but also for employee training.

Patterson, who set up the courses himself, said he appreciated Ziiva's willingness to let IntegrityFX customize the interface, but noted that customer support was readily available as needed.

Overall, Patterson has been very happy with his experience.

"Their staff is approachable, knowledgeable, and prompt," Patterson said. "That has not been my experience with other LMS vendors."

There are lots of reasons that a learning management system may be a sensible option for your organization - cost effectiveness, consistency of employee training, convenience, measurable results, etc. - but here's one benefit you may not have considered: reducing your carbon footprint.

This isn't a brand new idea, but even two years ago it was still somewhat of a novelty.

According to Rick Nigol, blogging on BreakthrougheLearning.com in 2008, it was an "aha moment" for him when, on a consulting gig, he heard a pair of vice-presidents explaining how eLearning software would help them meet their strategic focus of becoming an environmentally sustainable company.

These days ­- despite recessionary pressures (and possibly, in some cases, as a result of them) - the idea of sustainability continues to grow.

What in it for you?

Here are some green benefits of using an LMS for computer-based training:

Stay home: eLearning is available anywhere you have employees, so travel and lodging costs associated with training - and their resulting environmental impact - are no longer an issue.

Save paper (and ink, and energy): Who needs handouts - which often need to be updated multiple times during a product rollout or large-scale training effort - when you can keep everyone on the same (virtual) page with an easy-to-update LMS? Going this route means using less energy to produce and distribute training manuals and other documentation, as well as less waste.

Green culture: Beyond using an LMS for your regular training and employee development needs, consider creating some green training modules to give your employees practical ways to reduce the company's carbon footprint in their daily activities.

Carbon offsets: If you want your business to be as carbon neutral as possible - whether out of environmental concern or simply as a pragmatic marketing decision - there are several calculators and companies out there that can help you understand what you need to do and certify the results. No matter how intense you want this effort to be, eLearning tools are one of the easiest, most obvious ways to cut your carbon footprint.

When you look at the above list, it's obvious that many of the benefits of learning management systems - such as increasing productivity through reducing travel - transcend reducing carbon emissions and can save your business time and money in other ways, as well.

 

The bottom line

We've come across some companies - mainly outside the U.S. - that are promoting the environmental benefits of eLearning as central parts of their marketing efforts.

That's all well and good, but while LMS vendors may no longer be surprised to hear customers talk about sustainability, one point Rick Nigol made two years ago still holds true: Using eLearning simply to reduce travel, while noble, isn't in the best interests of any organization.

Finding a robust eLearning system that can meet all your training needs is the real holy grail of corporate learning, and anything else is gravy.

Green gravy.

In case you missed it, here are some recent e-learning-related blog posts and articles that are worth a look:

The big picture

Writing in the Upside Learning Solutions Blog, Amit Guatam poses an interesting question: Do customers look at a Learning Management System (LMS) as simply a tool to get specific things done more efficiently, or as part of a larger overall learning strategy?

All of the above

It takes a good degree of skill to write effective multiple choice questions that fully meet your employee training goals. Check out this list of 10 Rules for Writing Multiple Choice Questions from The eLearning Coach and see how many you are (or aren't) already following.

By design

Along the lines of the previous link (i.e. making sure your e-learning tools are the best they can be), listen to Cammy Bean's interview with Will Thalheimer on common mistakes e-learning designers make.

Just thinking about eLearning?

Tom Kuhlman offers more than a dozen reasons Why e-Learning is So Effective.

Metrics matter

Listen to this podcast from American Society for Training and Development on how technology has advanced the analysis and evaluation of computer-based training and development programs.

World of eLearning

Depending on where you fall on the e-learning spectrum, this may be really interesting or really, really yawn-inducing. A group of researchers at Anadolu University in Turkey has put together a two-volume survey of e-learning in 39 countries. The first volume of the book called E-learning Practices, is available for download at Scribd in multiple formats. Thanks to Gary Woodill's writing on the Workplace Learning Today blog for pointing this one out to us.

There's a LOT of eLearning chatter out there, so we'll keep an eye out for the most relevant information to share with you. And, of course, please post a comment if there's anything you want to share.

Learning Management Systems (LMS) have increased in popularity and become within reach of more organizations over the past few years.

Corporate demand for knowledge management software is growing because it represents a good deal for the company, as well as for the employees being trained.

It’s easy to see why employees like training management software. Employees can train whenever they want (even in PJs), they don’t have to sit through boring classes, and they are engaged by the interactive nature of online training.

Typical corporate reasons for implementing e-learning systems are the initial cost savings easily seen in the hard costs of instructor fees, room fees, and travel expense.

However, organizations won’t enjoy the full advantages and savings of computer based training without a Learning Management System.

1. Training Consistency - Because a LMS is centralized delivery of training, it's consistent. While the quality of instructor-led training can vary based on how well the instructor engages students (as well as instructor knowledge base), employee training (elearning as well as instructor led) through a Learning Management System delivers a consistent level of training quality to all employees by providing a single source for content, related materials and instructions.


2. Reporting and Tracking - A Learning Management System allows an organization to easily produce training reports on an overall or an employee level basis. A well-designed LMS will allow the organization to easily track utilization, goal progress, knowledge gains, and ROI. An LMS allows the organization to clearly demonstrate cost savings for individual training initiatives and strategies.


3. Measurement of Knowledge Gains - Pre and post testing gives an organization the ability to measure knowledge gained through the LMS.


4. Ability to quickly change and update training materials - A Learning Management System allows the organization to change employee training to quickly respond to client feedback. Organizations can easily release training for new products and features.


5. Compliance - A Learning Management System provides training reporting and evidence to satisfy legal and regulatory requirements.


6. Personalized Learning - A well designed LMS allows training to be tailored for each employee.


7. Training Time Management - Learning Management Systems can monitor training time, giving insight for training improvement opportunities.


8. Administration Automation - A LMS can reduce learning administration costs by automating enrollments, registration, payments, student recordkeeping, syllabus, course assignments, course content reviews and updating, assessments, certification, surveys, course evaluations, student communication, reporting, education analysis, development and analysis of training costs.


9. Build training feedback systems - Learning Management Systems can track employee course satisfaction, and knowledge differentials. These measurements can uncover opportunities to change course content for increased effectiveness.


10. Demonstrates organization's training priority - Organizations that commit resources and internal projects to LMS implementation signal the importance of training to employees.

Organizations that invest in employee training can leverage savings by adding a well designed Learning Management System to corporate elearning strategies.

Whether training is driven by increased performance strategies or regulatory compliance, a well planned LMS can affect additional organizational savings.

Source: www.ziiva.com