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Welcome to the Virtual Learning Center

© Audrey Choden

Imagine yourself facilitating a class on interviewing skills. You're writing on a whiteboard, posing questions to the group and responding to a hand raised by one of the participants. Now try to picture yourself doing this alone in an office with only a computer and phone headset. Impossible? Welcome to the wonderful world of virtual learning!

At Technical Special Interest Group meeting of the Kansas City chapter of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), Chuck Kater and Dave Lignell gave a demonstration of the Virtual Learning Center at Hill's Pet Nutrition in Topeka, Kansas. Virtual learning consists of real time, computer-based conferencing for learning events and business meetings. But they weren't at Hill's corporate office in Topeka or, for that matter, at any Hill's location. In fact, Dave was at home in Lawrence, Kansas while everyone else was in a meeting room at Olsten Health Services in Overland Park. Their computers were connected to Hill's client server using a modem and Internet Explorer.

The Virtual Learning Center is designed for interactive learning events or courses with 5-10 people. The facilitator uses specially designed software (Learning Space Live in this case) and a PowerPoint presentation to conduct the interactive course. Participants can ask questions and send messages for all to see on the screen. Chat rooms provide areas for small group discussions. A separate phone line with speakerphone or headset allows the facilitator and participants to converse while viewing information on the screen.

Learning events can be scheduled off-site and off-hours to accommodate any time zone or group preference. Participants register for the event and connect to Hill's secure server at the scheduled time. Events are held for two hours or less with chunked content to allow learning over time.

One of the major benefits of using The Virtual Learning Center is that travel time and expense can be reduced or eliminated. Despite this benefit, some people may be slow to adopt the technology.

To overcome this objection, Chuck showed a videotape presentation they use to promote the Virtual Learning Center inside the company. Produced in-house, this short videotape shows a stressed-out employee as she endures the inconveniences of travel in order to attend an off-site meeting. This scenario is contrasted with the relative ease of The Virtual Learning Center. Chuck and his staff also conduct live demonstration modules for potential users so they can experience the Virtual Learning Center first hand.