Contents

Executive Summary

Scope and Conclusions

1. Goals and Objectives
2. Climate & Capabilities
3. TrainingWeb Model
4. Links to Learning
5. Resources

Appendices
A. References
B. Chart: Glossary of Terms
C. Acknowledgements

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Executive Summary

New Technologies for Learning

Public sector organizations are under constant pressure to increase worker productivity while reducing operating costs. Performance of many program tasks can be improved through timely and effective staff training and performance support systems. Traditional, instructor-led training is being augmented or supplanted by user-centric systems that employ a number of integrated, flexible learning approaches. Self-paced, technology-enabled learning is task driven, and is characterized by productivity tools that lead to measurable changes in staff competency and performance.

 

Management guru Peter Drucker characterizes public-sector organizations as:

" on the cutting edge of management techniques, particularly in developing and implementing strategy, responding to constituents, motivating and training workers, and exerting leadership".

 

The Massachusetts WIC Program has historically been innovative in the development of training and performance support solutions for staff at state and local levels. Formal training programs have been in place for over fifteen years, and in 1992, WIC embarked on a new venture, The Learning Center (TLC). The Learning Center responds to the ever-increasing need for staff to be proficient in technical and computer as well as traditional operations and nutrition skills.

The Learning Center, located in Framingham, Massachusetts, is WIC’s staff training and development facility, providing space for traditional classroom training, computer laboratory, library and media center. The Learning Center serves both new and experienced staff, and is designed according to principles of adult learning, emphasizing interactive and hands-on learning experiences.

 

In FY1994, Massachusetts WIC began development of a technology-based training instrument for newly-hired staff. "Welcome to WIC", in CD/ROM format, includes modules on Orientation to WIC, How to Use WIC Checks, The WIC Computer System, Nutrition Education and Counseling, The WIC Food Package, and Making Referrals. These interactive training tools are available to new staff at field sites from their first day on the job, and contribute to orientation and the early mastery of mission-critical skills.

 

The concept of learner-driven training has been extended in recent years by the advent of the Internet and World Wide Web. Public as well as private organizations have seen the value of presenting training and performance support material using this convenient, efficient new technology. The ability to create flexible, easily-modified material and distribute it cheaply and immediately has great appeal in the training realm.

 

This report outlines a preliminary study of the logistical, technical, and pedagogical feasibility of using the Internet to create an online training and performance support environment for Massachusetts WIC. As an adjunct training delivery mode, a TrainingWeb site on the World Wide Web will add value to the overall training and support function of the Program. The TrainingWeb will reinforce strategic goals and objectives of the WIC community, through enhanced access to WIC information, as well as greater opportunities for communication and collaboration.

The TrainingWeb project seeks to establish a virtual space where staff, administrators, advocates, vendors and providers may meet, exchange information, and build knowledge of the many complex facets of WIC.

In future phases of the project, using existing hardware, WIC can set up economical training courses for asynchronous distribution to staff throughout the state, and later to other states, sharing development costs and expertise with a wide community of learners.

 

TrainingWeb project deliverables:

- Feasibility Study report (this document)

- Web site design document, including graphical interface design

- Content design

- Online Prototype with basic links to subject areas

 

Scope:

The preliminary study includes:

Research into the feasibility of establishing an online presence for the WIC Learning Center

Conclusions reached based upon research, history and culture of the organization

A discussion of the existing climate and capabilities of the WIC Program that would impact a successful project

A recommended model, in narrative form, of a prototype website to be developed in state FY 1998

An outline of the resources (tools, personnel, funding) that would be required to execute a successful implementation

 

Issues not included in the study scope, but requiring consideration in later phases are: high-bandwidth elements such as sound, video, and animation; integration with future WIC Participant system, security, hardware and software standards, content selection protocols, general WIC operational uses of the Internet, and potential participant uses.

 

 

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Conclusions:

1. There is inherent value in presenting WIC training information,courses and support material via the World Wide Web.

An online learning architecture would serve several purposes:

Information

Education

Training

Communication

Productivity

 

2. A prototype website should be limited in scope and functionality.

The model described in Chapter 3 of this report describes a product limited in scope and functionality, as a demonstration of a larger application that would expand in a controlled manner.

 

3. A mid-scale site (under 1000 pages) is recommended for the first year of implementation.

State and local staff can collaborate and set priorities on training content to be developed for the initial site.

 

4. Commitment of resources, both labor and materials, to a web-based communication and training process will yield efficiencies and savings:

Timely Communication The Learning Center can use its website as a central calendar,registration and information tool that will allow staff both to view schedules of upcoming events, and to complete registration forms and surveys online.

Document Management For example, extensive use of templates will allow TLC instructors to create electronic learning modules with little or no programming experience.

Collaborative Capabilities Content creation and delivery can be expedited through use of the Internet as the design medium for collaborative projects.

5. Formal agreements of collaboration with Massachusetts public and academic institutions, as well as with other states, will leverage training knowledge and content development for Massachusetts WIC.
   

   Collaboration with institutions such as Massachusetts state colleges and universities, EFNEP, non-profit maternal and child health organizations, and others, will offer significant leverage to WIC in formulating content for a training website.

 

Goal:

The overall goal of this study is to determine the educational, technical, logistical and financial feasibility of establishing an online presence in which to design and deliver training to staff of the Massachusetts WIC Program.

Objectives:

1	Assess the technical climate and capabilities that now exist in local agencies, the WIC state office, and The Learning Center, that would enable successful integration of an online learning environment.
2.	Determine the educational, technical and logistical needs around training that are not being met by the existing WIC staff training program. Using results of the 1997 WIC Strategic Plan, consider ways that an online system could expedite existing processes for designing, modifying, and delivering mission-critical WIC Program information.
3.	Describe a model of an online environment that would have a high probability of success in meeting ongoing staff training needs. Employ literature searches, interviews with content experts, technical experts, and prospective users, and online study of comparable projects using multimedia technologies to facilitate learning.
4.	Delineate the development steps required to produce the remaining deliverables, including a timeline; propose development steps for a follow-on demonstration project.
5.	Outline the resources required for development of a Learning Center website: skills, personnel, hardware and software, other supplies, with a proposed budget for the follow-on demonstration project.

The TrainingWeb model addresses these needs:

Leverage and increase the value of TLC’s training programs

Develop "communities of interest" around topics of concern to learners.

Create a network to quickly inform and train a multicultural, geographically dispersed staff in implementation of new Program initiatives.

Provide a means for WIC staff to master the principles of online communication, research, and access to the broad knowledge base available on the Internet.

 

Assumptions underlying the TrainingWeb Model:

1. Ongoing learning is essential for organizational integrity.

Staff at all levels of the enterprise have a need to receive, quickly assimilate, and act on a volatile body of knowledge on a daily basis.

 

2. Traditional training models have strengths and limitations

Traditional, instructor-led staff training is valuable when it creates an environment conducive to adult learning.

Some limitations of this traditional model include:

Access issues

Lack of specificity

Information overload/Low retention

Lack of Follow-up

Inconsistent Learning

High dependence and support costs

Untimely Learning

 

3. Electronic training delivery has proven benefits.

Professionals engaged in corporate and government training programs, and in the development of performance support systems, have long recognized the value of electronic training delivery modes.

Return on Investment

Compared with traditional, instructor-led training, Interactive Multimedia Training can reduce training cost by fifty per cent

In trials, IMT has achieved an equal or higher-quality level of learning, delivered in forty to sixty per cent less time than instructor-led training