On-line courses for personnel distance education

Distance personnel training based on modern information technologies is one of the effective methods to reduce the training costs, to increase the audience and to improve the effectiveness of the staff training in general.    

However, the introduction of the distance learning in the company is a complex process with many phases, and like any project, it requires time, investment and experienced management. This process usually includes the purchase and installation of a system of distance learning – Learning management system (LMS), its configuration and adding the training content.    

Within the system of corporate distance learning there are various instruments of the personnel development: testing, webinars, video conferencing, chat rooms, forums, knowledge portals and, of course, electronic distance learning courses. They usually serve as the main content of the distance learning systems and are of the greatest interest both for users and for the company itself. Courses can be developed for different learning platforms (including iOS, Android), using various authoring tools (Adobe Flash, Articulate Storyline, Captivate, CourseLab), using standards of SCORM (AIICC, TINCAN, etc.).  

Personnel distance learning based on modern information technologies is one of the most effective methods for reducing training costs, increasing the audience and thus generally improving the effectiveness of staff training.

E-learning plays an increasingly important role in personnel management. The advantages of this approach are as follows:

  • 1. The learning takes place without interrupting the working process; the staff is not distracted by continuous learning activities and enhances the skills directly in the workplace and in the time available.
  • 2. Massive involvement in the learning process without geographical boundaries is achieved by modern information technologies.
  • 3. Control of the learning process through the tools of statistics allows to track real-time progress of the users and to prepare global records of personnel training.
  • 4. A wide range of tools for distance learning (from e-learning courses up to communication with a real teacher on a webinar) makes the learning interesting and varied.

Learning management system

Learning management system is a software product, which helps to manage the distance learning process and to monitor its effectiveness.    

To download a distance e-learning course into an LMS, it is important to "pack" it into special common format, often SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model). By using this standard, the system can save progress of employee training during the course and accumulate statistics.        

Each user has his own login and password in the system, the number of courses available for him, the history of passing, access to other materials. The system administrator controls the learning process, includes new users, assigns the courses and loads the courses into the system.

Development of distance learning courses

The cycle of development of distance learning courses includes the following stages:

1. Analysis of materials, which will be the basis for the course and processing of methodological materials. This stage is one of the most important and includes methodological text processing, script writing — clear description of the information flow within a single slide: text, animations, images, formatting, sequence playback and so on.  

2. Visual design is the interface design, which is an integral part of any electronic course. The interface should be functional, attractive and intuitive to the user. It includes control elements, navigation, reference, table of contents, various assistance options to work with the e-course, printing the required information etc. The visual content of the course such as illustrations to the material, charts, graphs, characters and so on is also created.  

3. Production includes the assembly of the course in a particular software environment.

4. Implementation of courses in distance learning system.  

The creation of online courses involves the selection of an optimal way of presenting information to the target audience, context and learning objectives. The course must be understandable and comprehensible to the specific audience, should tell them about new knowledge and explain how this knowledge can be applied in their everyday work. 

Distance learning is the key to high qualification of all employees!