In one of the largest E-learning projects ever, the federal government next week will launch an E-training Web portal that lets 1.8 million employees access IT and management courses via the Internet from their home or office computers.

The initiative is part of the Electronic Government Act, which provides $345 million over four years to support interagency E-government projects. The E-training portal is designed to give federal employees one online location to sign up for and take courses, perform skills assessments, and receive reports about their progress.

The Office of Personnel Management spearheaded the project and awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to E-learning vendor GeoLearning Inc. to host the infrastructure and maintain the site. The agency considered operating the site in-house but decided to hire an application service provider. "There was a lot of discussion about alternatives," says Norm Enger, the agency's E-government program director. "This was the most cost-effective and compatible solution to competitive sourcing."

The first phase begins on July 23 when the portal, www.go learn.gov, becomes available. The second phase this fall will let multiple government agencies share reports about employee course registrations, completed courses, and survey statistics. Federal managers also will be able to develop proprietary content based on learning objects, which will let them use content for different purposes without having to rewrite it.

E-learning content provider NetG Inc., a business unit of Thomson Learning Corp., and SkillSoft Corp. will provide courseware for the portal. The first batch will include about 30 courses on IT, desktop management, business and professional development, as well as Occupational Safety & Health Administration regulations.

GeoLearning's 20-person team had just 30 days to build a prototype of the site after winning the deal in late May. It then purchased switches and routers from Cisco Systems and Dell servers to build an infrastructure that could handle 150,000 to 200,000 concurrent users. But the system can quickly accommodate more. "We're ready to scale up because we have the necessary networking to support gigabit technology," says chief technology officer LaTroy Thomas.

No one knows for sure how many federal employees will actually use the site until after it launches, Enger says. "The site is going to be a primary entry point for federal training," he says, "and we expect the number to be substantial."