Classroom Training In Real-Time

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March 9, 1998

Classroom Training In Real Time

By Justin Hibbard

ompanies that want to supplement computer-based training with classroom training but don't want the expense of flying employees to a training center are turning to real-time collaboration software. It provides contact with a live instructor via interactive systems.

One user is Chrysler Financial Corp. in Southfield, Mich. The $17 billion leasing and financing unit of automaker Chrysler Corp. is installing LearnLinc online learning software in 33 of its North American locations. LearnLinc, software from Interactive Learning Int ernational Corp. in Troy, N.Y., offers familiar real-time collaboration features such as videoconferencing, whiteboarding, and application sharing. It also lets students notify the instructor when they want to speak-a virtual version of hand raising. The instructor, in turn, can control which student has the floor, letting one user at a time speak or manipulate an application.

Chrysler Financial expects LearnLinc to teach employees to use the company's custom finance software. The company will divide the training into units that let students progress through CD-ROM-based training at their own pace, then interact with a live online instructor once a week. "There's an 80-20 model that says you need a live person for 20% of what you're learning," says Karen Cowan, program development administrator at Chrysler Financial.

The company's previous computer-based training system didn't offer access to a live instructor, so students couldn't get the help they needed when they encountered part of a co urse they didn't understand. The company hopes LearnLinc will strike the right balance of individual study and live-if remote-tutoring.

Demand for real-time learning software is likely to pick up as more innovative products come to market, says Elliott Masie, president of the Masie Center, a technology and learning think tank in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The most exciting innovations will come when software products offer more than virtual metaphors for real-world classroom instruction, he says, adding, "The real opportunity is helping the instructor transfer their subject matter expertise in a way you can't do in a classroom."

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