Elearning! Fall 2007 - (Page 40) casestudyonlineprograms “We then tried another solution, but the vendor unexpectedly changed our agreement one day, making it unaffordable,” says Carol Morgan, Corporate Training’s director of operations. The company required a reliable vendor with a robust solution offering, enabling the company to develop its unique “live-onthe-Web” e-learning programs. THE SOLUTION To ensure the company uses the most cutting-edge technology at all times, one of Corporate Training’s managers continually researches existing solutions on the market. “Our manager recommended WebEx,” says Morgan. “We knew WebEx would help us stay ahead of the technology curve.” Corporate Training chose WebEx because of its strong VoIP capabilities and outstanding support team. “We wanted to use VoIP exclusively, and the WebEx voice quality is excellent,” she says. In addition, the WebEx account team is very efficient and responsive. “The personalized treatment we receive from customer service makes a big difference.” Corporate Training needed the system to develop completely interactive e-learning programs for its partner universities. Corporate Training professors develop the course materials and deliver them in real time using WebEx. To simulate in-person live classrooms, professors utilize a host of tools including the whiteboard, pointer, raise-hand and application-sharing features. “All professors use PowerPoint presentations, but the accounting, finance and economics teachers also open Excel spreadsheets in WebEx to illustrate their calculations,” 40 Fall 2007 Elearning! The Challenge: Corporate Training required a robust online solution to deliver on its vision to redefine e-learning programs for universities. The Solution: Provide universities with complete online programs that are more personal than traditional in-person classes and much more interactive than existing e-learning methods with WebEx Training Center. The Result: Corporate Training now offers a unique service that expands the reach of academic programs and raises the overall quality of education available worldwide. Online capabilities such as one-on-one chats and session recordings make professors much more accessible and accountable than traditional methods. offering them the same academic opportunities that are available on campus,” says Cachanosky. Corporate Training originally offered a blended teaching approach, combining online programs with bimonthly in-person classroom time. It now has a seamless elearning experience. “Our students quickly realized that the online and in-person classes were exactly the same,” says Chachanosky. Few universities throughout the U.S., Spain and England offer e-learning programs, and those were based on static materials provided to students online. “We now provide universities with an entire interactive e-learning program, including trained professors and students as well as robust online tools and content. We virtually have no competition in Latin America or the U.S.,” says Cachanosky. “When we demonstrated a class to one university in Argentina, the administrators were amazed and signed the agreement with Corporate Training within days.” “We intend to open new offices in Colombia and Africa and grow our university customers in those countries,” says Morgan. says Cachanosky. “Many students prefer to ask questions using the chat panel because it offers anonymity, but the professor also passes the virtual microphone to students who prefer to ask questions orally.” With students and professors located worldwide, Corporate Training relies on WebEx to facilitate the management of its programs. “We use it as our main learning content management system. We post the course curriculum, including detailed information on each professor, online,” says Morgan. Students can review the information and sign up for classes directly on the Corporate Training web site, which links to a WebEx portal. “[This] makes it easy to administer and teach students located in every corner of the world, including Latin American countries Pakistan, India, Nigeria, Italy and many others. The solution works so well that our only problem is coordinating times between time zones,” Morgan says. WebEx integrated easily across the Corporate Training organization, and today the company uses the solution to host up to six classes per day with 20 to 30 students attending each one. “We have 13 full-time and 18 rotating professors using WebEx,” says Cachanosky. Corporate Training not only trains all of the professors on WebEx, but also offers handson sessions for students before they take their first classes, ensuring everyone is comfortable in the online environment. In addition, Corporate Training uses the suite for daily for internal meetings between offices in Argentina, Guatemala and Switzerland. THE BENEFITS Corporate Training now offers a unique service that expands the reach of academic programs and raises the overall quality of education available worldwide. “The educational system is in crisis,” says Morgan. “Students feel that traditional programs are very impersonal and that they aren’t learning as much as they’d like. WebEx makes e-learning much more personalized, improving the quality of learning.” Online capabilities such as one-on-one chats and session recordings make professors much more accessible and accountable than traditional methods. “And universities can now reach students everywhere,
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