ALEX e-Learning System
HRC (NIH, NAVSEA, Mobil et. al.)
Background
HRC (Hubbard, Revo-Cohen, Inc.) offers human relations consulting for large companies and government agencies. As the demand for training in prevention of sexual harassment spiked in the mid-1990s, the company sensed an opportunity to spread its training beyond management into the rank and file of its client companies. However, classroom-based training was too expensive and inefficient to be practical for their customers.
The Challenge
HRC required a sophisticated system for delivering educational content over the web. Their requirements included:
- a customized system for creating online courses (authoring system);
- varying levels of administrative access;
- sophisticated reporting that allowed corporate clients to assess the performance of their workforce while protecting employee confidentiality;
- Web-based delivery of database-driven content, including bookmarking, site map, help files, popups, etc.;
- streaming video "scenarios" in all major formats; and
- assessment, with results available in real time.
The Solution
Fulcrum IT built a dynamic Web-based training platform called "ALEX" using Microsoft technologies. While based on industry standards, the system was highly customized to the customer's needs.
HRC faced a number of challenges to selling web-based sexual harassment training, many of which were met using Fulcrum IT technology. For one thing, clients needed to verify that employees actually completed the training while not violating their confidence. The system that Fulcrum IT provided allows company administrators to view reports that display the length of time each employee spent on each page of the course, ensuring that they cannot just "click through" the course without reading it. Employees must also complete an assessment at the end of the course. Administrators can view the results of these assessments by demographic parameter, but cannot view individual assessments.
A second challenge was satisfying IT departments that streaming video components would not overburden the computer network. Fulcrum IT designed a hybrid system for the delivery of scenario content. The videos can be delivered over the Web, but most clients have opted to have the video deployed on compact discs. The course content with its database driven accountability features is still delivered over the Web in real time, yet the bandwidth-intensive media is delivered locally. As a third option, scenarios are also available in a static "film strip" format when no media plug-ins are installed.
The Results
HRC has sold courses delivered on this Fulcrum IT platform to such organizations as the National Institutes of Health, Mobil, Merrill Lynch, and many others. Thousands of people have taken these courses.