Still the best.

* e-Series, online, 2000, Ninth House (800-304-4951, fax [phone], www.ninthhouse.com), $499 per person per year for access to entire library. Other material: none.

* High Impact Hiring, online, 2000, Ninth House (800-304-4951, fax [phone], www.ninthhouse.com), $499 per person per year for access to entire library. Other material: none

Stroll down the aisles at your company and look at all those computer screens--what do you see? Is somebody shopping at a dot com, watching streaming video of a TV netcast, listening to a radio station's website? You might not be concerned, but a recent Fortune Small Business cover story, "No Web for You," calls the Internet the biggest time waster since the coffee break.

Faced with this threat to order, some companies have actually pulled the plug on employee net access. Sure, they've stopped all that illicit travel planning, stock buying, and game playing, but in doing so aren't they also short-circuiting their future?

I know one thing: if some corporate commissar had caught me previewing Ninth House Network's eSeries, he would have concluded I was just goofing off. He couldn't have been more wrong. I confess, a TV sitcom was involved, but I was actually learning something, and I needed the Internet to do it!.

Technology is blurring the distinction between media--it's getting harder to tell the difference between television and the Internet. We're finally seeing online training that's both effective and entertaining, so let's hope most organizations exercise some restraint. Knowledge workers definitely need free access to information. A little trust (and some monitoring software) will go a long way.

The Ninth House Network's mission is to combine the best in instructional design and media production--corporate training meets Hollywood. They've already developed some impressive programs (search the TMR database under the title "Ninth House Learning Network"). Now Ninth House has introduced a web-based delivery platform with a range of modules available on an annual subscription basis. In keeping with the TV theme, content is organized much like a television network: channels, programs, everything but the beer commercials. Without question, though, the most novel ingredient in this e-learning brew is their eSeries, All Work, All Play.

The eSeries

If you've ever caught yourself talking to a television character, you're primed for this interactive sitcom. Ninth House has done everything possible to create the look and feel of broadcast television--a polished opening sequence, solid writing, skilled actors (even a recognizable face or two). In the version I previewed, media files were stored on a NetCD, so video quality was excellent and immediately available.

Each episode is keyed to concepts from a single learning module (for example, "Selling to Sponsors"), but the characters and setting stay the same, promoting continuity for the entire network. Best of all, the characters do what you tell them to! (Ever wish you could whisper in Ally MoBeal's ear?)

To get a feel for the interactivity, I "watched" the Partnering for Results episode. It presents a realistic look at the challenges a young project manager faces when he must get funding, commitment, and support from another organization. I had plenty of opportunities to analyze the situation and tell the character what to do, and success or failure flowed seamlessly from my choices. Make the wrong call and you get feedback and another opportunity to get it right.

The eSeries is positioned as the performance test and final practice, and episodes are so approachable it's easy to imagine someone viewing each more than once. (That's right, reruns!) Like a light beer, the eSeries tastes great--and it's less filling, tool Learners are sure to be thirsty for more.

High Impact Hiring

No matter what you're drinking, though, you don't start dinner with dessert. Similarly, to understand the Ninth House Network, you've got to begin at the beginning, with the learning modules themselves. I looked at High Impact Hiring from the management channel. (Other channels include essentials, projects, teams, leadership, and communication, each with one or more programs.)

No question, recruiting today can be frustrating. Unqualified candidates, disillusioned new hires, delays in filling open posts.

Everyone is interested in greater insight and skill in this critical business process, but faced with a recently vacated desk, hiring managers are especially impatient. It's "The Teachable Moment," that time when motivation and opportunity to learn intersect. And as powerful as classroom training can be, it rarely delivers the immediacy and flexibility an online learning resource provides.

Many people worry about sourcing, interviewing, and compensating the new hire, but High Impact Hiring, narrated by CEO Mary Micucci, emphasizes the critical front end of recruitment, with learning modules that help:

Clarify the context.

Define the role.

Select the methods.

Confirm the choice.

This program stresses the link between the organizations' mission and the job's explicit requirements. Learners must be clear on the objectives and set their expectations accordingly; this resource isn't designed to develop interview skills per se. "I-know-what-I-want" managers may squirm, but when they invest time in this process, the impact can be dramatic.

Well organized and visually appealing, the program is built around a video "story" about staffing woes at an outdoor education company. It's a great choice on two fronts--lots of interesting mountain-climbing visuals and an environment where the wrong person could make a life threatening mistake. With each segment, we follow the progress of a manager coming to grips with a past hiring mistake and struggling to get it right at a critical moment for the business.

Each chapter includes a time estimate, a video segment and opportunities to interact with it, a workbook element that lets you translate what you're learning to a current situation, a quiz that lets you assess what you've learned, and a wrap-up/summary. Most learners will take two or three hours per module, though supplemental resources are likely to extend contact with the material well beyond that.

One exercise gives learners a chance to practice analyzing resumes and linking them with specific job requirements. There's also a pretest and a separate resources section that provides further information on hiring, including legal issues. A "conversations" area provides links to threaded discussions on the subjects, moderated by a knowledgeable person at Ninth House.

Navigation and help tools give added instructional support. An instant advice section affords learners a chance to get help, while a "tip of the day" section provides a searchable database of advice, including multimedia and printable text versions, plus information on the source of the advice and links to related items.

High Impact Hiring also features a multi-rater assessment, and learners will find merely completing the self-assessment can have a huge impact. The results are formatted nicely to highlight strengths and development needs, including a bar graph that gives a quick self/others comparison. There's also a useful summary of development needs with suggestions. In the detail, a results chart shows the dimension-by-dimension averages (self and all others), but you can click on each dimension to look at specific questions.

Ninth House Network demonstrates the best of what online training can achieve--program quality is outstanding. It also brings into focus a limitation of self-directed, computer-based training. It's harder to fine-tune the message to meet your organization's needs. For example, the program cites two hiring errors, mass hiring and ritual hiring. It's certainly true that some organizations either care only about finding warm bodies or unconsciously repeat past hiring patterns. In my (past) experience as a recruiting manager, however, these probably aren't the most serious problems in many organizations, and I'd want to enrich the learning with additional insights or approaches.

More importantly, how do you link the content to what might be a shared belief in your organization and avoid mixed messages? Rather than emphasize goals of fairness and equity, High Impact Hiring puts EEO information in a legal tips area of the resources section. Everything they include is accurate, complete, and appropriate. But your company has--or should have--a hiring philosophy. Are these things we have to do (to avoid lawsuits and complaints), or are they things we want to do (to enjoy the benefits of fair hiring)? When you've stressed compliance rather than commitment, you've probably missed an opportunity to support and embed a cultural value.

This underscores the dilemma busy training professionals face. Even with a superior resource like the Ninth House Network, we can't simply enroll our people and assume the job is done. Fortunately, we already knew that, and most of our people do, too. While they've clamored for years to make training programs shorter, they also appreciate the need to understand concepts fully and to practice skills until they become proficient.

Recommendation

The best online learning is more than an appetizer; it gives people a healthy serving of the content, helps them develop skill and understanding, and invites further study. When they finish a program, learners should want to transfer new skills and apply them to real challenges. Ninth House Network content succeeds on all these fronts.

Through multi-rater feedback, diverse online resources, workbook and application exercises, and outstanding program quality, this online resource gets the job done, and with the range of topics it covers, it represents a broad-based and reasonably priced foundation for development. Pay close attention to the content, however. Some of it may not match the goals and philosophies of your organization.

Tom Abraham is president of Charrtwell Partners, a consulting practice in the Midwest specializing in leadership and the implementation of change.

e-Series

High Impact Hiring

Pro: Top-notch

interactive video

Diverse practice exercises

Multi-rater feedback resource

Crisp graphics

Solid content breadth

Con: Content depth

                    e-Series
Rating Category     High Impact Hiring
Holds user interest ***1/2
Production quality  ****
Ease of navigation  ****
Interactivity       ***1/2
Value of content    ***1/2
Instructional Value ***
Value for the money ***1/2
Overall rating      ***1/2