Top Issues in Tech Training via Web: Immediate Course Access, Expert Personal Tutors, No Hidden Costs -- and Proven Curriculum.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 21, 1997--Delivering employee training via the World Wide Web is gaining widespread attention as a practical use of Internet technology. But front-line managers who've rolled out Web-based training at their firms say four issues should rise to the top when sizing up vendors and their offerings.

The issues are:

-- the ability to get workers quickly up-and-running on their courses;

-- having access to a human tutor force that gives workers continuous personalized support;

-- paying only for the courses employees use; and

-- getting coursework that features extensive hands-on practice with applications so new skills can be immediately applied on-the-job.

The comments were drawn from interviews this month with training officials at several U.S. companies. Among them: in-house trainers at Eastman Kodak, Johnson & Johnson's Vistakon division and Cirent Semiconductor. These companies are the newest clients of DigitalThink (www.digitalthink.com), a San Francisco firm that produces IT training courses taken via the Web.

Corporate trainers comment

Amy Knowles is a technical training specialist at Eastman Kodak's Rochester, N.Y. headquarters.

"Web-based training is useful to Eastman Kodak for a couple of reasons: we have a variety of platforms being used within the company and our employees are scattered physically not only throughout Rochester but across the U.S. and overseas," she explained. "It offers the advantage of classroom instruction and delivery in a time and format that's often more convenient to the individual."

Knowles said that having human tutors on call to support learners as they go through the coursework is particularly valuable. "One pitfall with self-study in general is interacting with something that can't respond to your personal needs. Having someone on call who knows the subject matter and can quickly respond to questions is very appealing."

Start-up is easy when the financial risks are low, she said. "With DigitalThink, there were no upfront costs for getting involved and no need to sign a minimum purchase agreement."

Brad Clayton is a training executive with Cirent Semiconductor, an Orlando, Florida-based chip manufacturer employing 1,600. The company is a joint venture between Lucent Technologies and Cirrus Logic.

"This way of delivering training is a great way of getting our employees hands-on education in new technologies," Clayton explains. "Implementation was quick: our workers could sign up on Monday and be going through the coursework on Tuesday. And no one flinched at the price."

"We are interested in new methods of education," he says. "Being able to take computer skills courses on the Web any time day or night -- rather than taking a class or going to some out-of-town seminar -- simply works for a lot of people here."

Tina Shortridge is a training administrator and quality analyst at Jacksonville, Florida-based Vistakon. The wholly-owned Johnson & Johnson unit manufactures Accuvue and Surevue contact lenses and employs 3,000.

"Web-based training helps our employees be on the cutting edge," Shortridge says. "It's proven surprisingly easy to get our employees up and running with the computer training they need. The courses are truly interactive with the student, very convenient -- and extremely easy to use. We also felt it's very important for our employees to have access to trained tutors as they progress through the coursework."

DigitalThink chief: `Web-based training -- No assembly required'

"Technology training has finally moved out of the `click and watch' era to one that emphasizes `learning by doing,'" says DigitalThink CEO and co-founder Pete Goettner. "We've always told our clients not to be misled by flash-card type training created for yesterday's technologies simply because it's delivered via the Web."

"There is, however, still a perception that bringing best practice Web-based training to a company requires skills outside the firm's immediate grasp," he says. "We tell our customers they don't need to become Webmasters or software experts to get their employees properly trained in technology topics. We offer Web-based training with no assembly required. If they want it today, they can get it today."

Goettner, a former Andersen Consulting executive, has closely watched the evolution of computer-based training over the last decade and has applied what he's learned to his company.

"To do it right, we knew we had to build our courses from the ground up. We knew that we had to get students actively `doing' as they learned from expert instructors. So in our programming courses, for example, students actually program. In our multimedia design courses, students design. In our Internet courses, students use the Internet."

"We also knew we needed to have a highly-trained tutorial force continuously available to provide timely answers to student questions," Goettner explained. "And we knew the importance of creating a risk-free `pay-as-you-go' pricing structure that rejects widespread industry pricing practices. For customers, it eliminates the possibility of wasting even a single training dollar."

About DigitalThink

DigitalThink offers more than 25 courses in computer science, multimedia design and the Internet. Subjects include the Internet, Java, C and C++ Programming, Perl, Adobe PageMaker, Photoshop and Illustrator.

DigitalThink has more than 12,000 registered users at companies and homes in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Founded in March 1996, DigitalThink's investors include Texas Instruments, Adobe Systems, Hambrecht & Quist and The Walden Group.

Sidebar

International Data Group, Framingham, Mass., cites the following advantages of Web-based training:

-- Cost benefits. Content is less expensive per end user when it's delivered through technology-based solutions rather than lecture-based solutions.

-- `24 x 7' access. Users can access the content of lessons anytime they have access to the Internet, which in most cases is all the time.

-- Quality presentation. IT trainers rate animated demos and learn-by-doing examples as essential value-adds beyond the bland offerings of computer-based and text-book-based learning.

-- Fresher content. Web-based products offer the opportunity for courseware providers to update lessons and materials across the entire network instantly.

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CONTACT: DigitalThink

Steve Zahm, 415/437-2800, x 201

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