Online networks build time savings into employee education - Asynchronous Learning Network

Planning the transition to employee self-service requires a hard look at processes and employee perceptions, as well as a cost/benefit analysis.

Continuous learning has become a requirement for success on the job. But in today's leaner, flatter organizations, employees are under increased pressure to take on more responsibilities; they also have less time for training and education. Thus, many HR directors are seeking new ways to meet employees' need for education as well as the company's demand for cost-effective, time-efficient training.

One solution for both large and small companies is education-on-demand through cyberspace. Without setting foot in a classroom, employees can learn new skills or sharpen existing ones, while employers reduce travel costs and employee downtime. Just as geographically dispersed teams use computer networks and groupware to develop project goals, share data, discuss analyses and prepare reports without ever meeting face to face, employees are now using networks to take courses, earn certificates and even complete master's degrees.

The technology making that happen is the Asynchronous Learning Network (ALN). The distinctive feature of "asynchronous" learning is that it allows a high degree of interaction among students and instructors, independent of time or place. Participants in a class can be geographically distant and need not be connected to the network at the same time. Course material and assignments for ALNs can be distributed using varied computer and communications technologies, such as the Internet, corporate intranets or LANs, groupware, videotape and CD-ROM. Among the options for discussion and questions are e-mail, listservs, groupware, online bulletin boards and conferencing systems.

Thus, employees taking a course via an ALN can review lecture notes, do homework and participate in team projects at times and in places convenient to them. Some ALNs are being established through collaboration-and computer hookups - with universities.

EMPLOYERS INVEST IN EDUCATION

"The quality of the U.S. workforce matters now more than ever," and "training goes hand-in-hand with productivity, quality, flexibility and automation in the best performing firms," according to a 1991 study by the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment.

The number of employees receiving employer-sponsored education has more than tripled in 12 years. In 1995, 16 percent of the civilian workforce - some 20 million workers - received formal, employer-provided training, compared to only 5 percent in 1983, according to the American Society for Training and Development. A recent survey by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) found that 65 percent of employers say the percentage of employees receiving formal training increased during the past three years.

As employee education levels rise, so do costs. In the BLS survey, 70 percent of employers say spending on formal training also has increased in the past three years, from $47 billion (in 1995 dollars) in 1983 to $55.3 billion in 1995. Of that amount, $26.4 billion was spent on direct costs and $28.9 billion on indirect costs, including wages, salaries and benefits.

TUNING IN TO ALNS

Two examples show how employer-sponsored ALN programs allow employees to earn college degrees while saving employers money.

CIGNA Corp., an insurance company headquartered in Philadelphia, has formed a partnership with Drexel University, also in Philadelphia, to create the first online master's degree program in information systems. The three-year program is offered to CIGNA employees, about half of whom are located in the company's Bloomfield, Conn., facility. Eighteen CIGNA employees began participating in a pilot program in September 1996. The only time the group met was for a two-day orientation program on Drexel's campus.

The success of the Drexel-CIGNA partnership encouraged Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. (MetLife), based in New York City, to ally with Drexel for another ALN-based master's degree program in information systems. The MetLife program began this fall, with 25 employees enrolled from seven company locations.

MetLife recruited candidates for the master's program, which is open to the entire information technology (IT) staff of about 3,000, through its Lotus Notes e-mail and group collaboration system. Francisco Orbe, the company's vice president for IT resource management, a MetLife HR executive, and a representative from Drexel made presentations to more than 110 people in six locations. Forty people applied for the program, and those who did not start in September may start the next session beginning in February.

Applicants ranged from programmers with just six months tenure the minimum time required to be eligible for the company's tuition refund program - to officers and directors.

"One of the things that interested us most about the Drexel program was freeing up the time of busy professionals," Orbe says. "In discussing career development with people in the past, I think all of us had the sense that a lot of people would have liked to go on for advanced degrees, but the pressures of 'hot' projects they are managing didn't give them that flexibility."

Richard H. Lytle, dean of Drexel's College of Information and Technology, says the most exciting aspect of the CIGNA and MetLife partnerships is that both companies are also using the degree program to develop their staffs ability to use the technology for day-to-day work. He says both companies have employees involved in software application development in several locations, and both want to spread that staff expertise across physical boundaries. "ALN education will help do that. The time is coming when a lot of technical work will be done 'any time, any place,'" Lytle adds.

MetLife's master's program will concentrate on software development and engineering, while CIGNA's program emphasizes database development and applications. At MetLife's headquarters in New York City, a server is set up to replicate data from Drexel's server, with a five-minute delay. The company is underwriting the cost of the initial two-day orientation on campus and is arranging to loan laptop computers to employees who need them to participate in the classes.

For MetLife, "the total costs, including tuition reimbursements, will be over half a million dollars," Orbe estimates. "This program eliminates some of the 'time costs' of having to travel to a classroom and allows employees to 'go to class' during nontraditional hours."

Orbe adds that he is talking with vendors about delivering other types of technical training over ALNs as well. "In a continuous learning environment that is also an intense workplace, you need to find ways to allow both the work and education to take place. That's what I think ALNs are all about," he says.

ASYNCHRONOUS LEARNING OUTCOMES

How well do people learn in ALN environments? Are the results of ALN-based learning equal to or better than traditional learning methods? And will ALN-style learning appeal to a variety of learners across a broad range of disciplines?

Several institutions offering ALNs have been researching those questions. The University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana program known as SCALE (Sloan Center for Asynchronous Learning Environments) found in 1995 that 51 percent of students reported an increase in communication with the instructor, and 43 percent reported more interaction with other students than in a conventional classroom-based course.

What's more, 40 percent of students reported that the quality of their interaction with the instructor had improved. SCALE students said they enjoyed "asking questions that couldn't be asked in class," appreciated "the ease of getting in touch with the professor" and liked "talking more to peers."

Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC), one of the largest two-year colleges in the nation, offers 14 ALN courses, permitting off-campus learners to earn an associate's degree in science. More than 750 students have enrolled in the courses, and while exact figures aren't available, it is safe to assume that at least some of them are sponsored by the students' employers.

NVCC students who have started the ALN courses are earning grades as good as those of their counterparts taking the same courses in traditional formats, according to John Sener, ALN project director at the college's Extended Learning Institute.

New York University's School of Continuing Education, which has had an online education program for five years, announced a partnership last year with IBM Corp. to offer information systems courses over a global computer network to both IBM and non-IBM professionals. The 30 courses, which will be offered and marketed starting in September, are expected to attract 1,000 students worldwide by the end of 1998.

"Our experience has shown that adult learners do very well with ALNs," says Richard Vigilante, director of the Information Technologies Institute, part of NYU's School of Continuing Education. "We've been enrolling 60 students per year in our 16-credit, four course program, most of whom have had their tuition reimbursed by their employers, including students from Citicorp, NYNEX Corp. and Sandoz. Our students are highly motivated, working professionals who can really benefit from the flexibility offered by ALN technology."

The asynchronous nature of networked communications is perfectly suited to the demands of business. ALNs enable employees to acquire new skills without sacrificing their work schedules or responsibilities. And employers can provide education and training to employees who could not otherwise attend school or college.

The result is a better-educated workforce, trained cost-effectively. Although ALNs are in their infancy, they hold great promise for learners of all ages in a variety of settings. HR directors who seize the opportunities offered by this new way of educating the workforce will reap dividends in the years ahead.

A. Frank Mayadas, Ph.D., is program officer for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in New York City, a nonprofit philanthropic organization that has funded more than 40 ALN programs nationwide. Before joining the Sloan Foundation in 1993, Mayadas spent 27 years at IBM Corp., where he was vice president, research division, technical plans and control.

COPYRIGHT 1997 Society for Human Resource Management
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