Create Demand Before You Purchase the LMS: The CUNA Experience. Jon D. Aleckson CEO, Web Courseworks

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1 For more resources click here -> Create Demand Before You Purchase the LMS: The CUNA Experience Jon D. Aleckson CEO, Web Courseworks Plumer Lovelace III AVP Learning Technologies Credit Union National Association The ultimate lure of saving training dollars with anytime, anywhere training has continued to propel e-learning onto the boardroom agenda and has made it a regular topic in financial analyst briefings. E-Learning as a form of distance learning has survived the crush of the dot-com crash, as we can see from many corporate success stories. The Credit Union National Association boasts a success story of growing from 127 on-line users to more than 10,000 users in a period of four years, an outstanding business achievement for a non-profit trade association. This story begins in 1999, when everything Internet was gold, but vendor s mythical promises exceeded their ability to deliver. Many major companies at this time saw substantial investments produce little return. Stories of Fortune 500 companies spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to train fewer than 100 employees were not uncommon. Equally common were instances of companies that purchased multiple Learning Management Systems to track learners who failed to appear. The National Association of Credit Unions escaped such embarrassment by holding firm to the old axiom: Let the user demand drive program innovation and investment. While it is possible that CUNA s lack of resources for a LMS, a lack of trained personnel and the lingering disappointment surrounding the unsuccessful market launch of CD-ROM learning technology may all have contributed to their ability to avoid the pit-falls that other companies suffered, the CUNA experience is worth exploring. Their strategy, methodology, and ultimate financial success provide a valuable learning experience for others considering or already managing distance-learning programs. Background The Credit Union National Association, known as CUNA & Affiliates, is the trade association of America s 10,700 credit unions. Credit unions provide an important service to individuals by offering a member-owned financial alternative to banks and check cashing centers. Besides being active in promoting the cooperative and member-owned philosophy of the credit union movement, and lobbying on behalf of all credit unions, the Association s primary mission is to provide credit union-specific training and educational services. This is managed through CUNA s Center for Professional Development (CPD). The CPD provides the industry with frontline staff, manager, and volunteer training at a cost to member credit unions. Significant CPD revenue was generated through traditional self-paced print courses, and instructor-led programs with supplemental income being generated from the sale of instructional videos, computer-based CD-ROM programs and Satellite programming. Declining acceptance of printbased, self-paced certification programs and member requests (from conferences and surveys) for web-based training, along with the general Internet euphoria of the late 90s encouraged CPD to develop a plan to move their educational offerings to web-based delivery. The Early Challenges 1 While counterparts were at the starting gate with a staff of web developers and dollars to invest in authoring systems and Learning Management Systems, the Credit Union Association was

2 For more resources click here -> confronted with the possibility of cannibalizing their nationally recognized print-based certification programs, with a lack of electronic product development staff, and little budgeted monies from which to launch a new full-scale web-based training initiative. Primary leadership was provided by then Vice President of CPD, Michael Miller. His background as a training and development consultant and his propensity to conduct inclusive brainstorming sessions encouraged a bootstrapping entrepreneurial approach to the development of a business plan and strategy. Most importantly, Miller rejected the popular concept that an IT system, like a Learning Management System, alone would generate immediate credit union acceptance and use. This was based on the cumulative experience of failed attempts to get credit unions to widely accept the use of computer-based training via CD-ROM, and a renewed commitment to basic quality training programs as opposed to delivery methods. (After considerable outside investment in CD- ROM products, it was discovered that hardware in local credit union branches was not up to specification nor was it user acceptance high.) Caution ruled and disciplined CPD s enthusiasm to join the Internet gold rush too quickly. More importantly, funding was limited since CPD had little existing development or hardware budget. Also, most employees within CDP were trained and experienced in supporting print-based products. Brainstorming sessions to develop a plan with CPD employees, credit union members, and vendors was the preferred starting point. The Plan Understanding the general computer literacy level of credit union employees and hardware infrastructure helped set up an early goal: keep the hardware, software, and bandwidth requirements within the reach of participating credit unions. First and foremost, however, was the documented vision of purchasing a LMS for personnel diagnostics and prescriptive training recommendations, not just for tracking learning content. Second, it was agreed that the Learning Technology Group would have to demonstrate increasing user numbers before any additional reinvestment would be authorized. Surveys and focus groups would provide guidance and piloting would be used extensively. Converting the most successful of four 30-course certification programs to web-based training would target the largest market of users. Deciding to do all 30 final exams in the front line training program with one pilot course would ease users into webbased training. A simple database program would be used to track the initial users. Sneakerware would be used to send invoices to the participating credit unions. Out-sourcing the web development work and hosting would allow CPD to keep the initiative below the radar screen during its first year, avoiding a repeat of the computer-based training experience and allowing time to build support from IT for the broader vision. It would also provide CPD with the option of whether to create its own development group based on demand for the training product. The web portal page was marketed using the name of an existing brand called the National Credit Union Institute. It launched in September of 1999 with one user and finished the year with 126 paying customers. Collect student information Evaluate student information Recommend possible training Provide course information Asynchronous training Diagnostic Prescriptive Instruction LMS 2

3 For more resources click here -> The LMS Stand-in to Track Exams What credit unions were paying for was the ability to take a certification exam on-line rather than through the use of Scantron cards. At that time, students filled out the cards and sent them in to the corporate office for grading. CPD was grading approximately 90,000 exams per year. Online exams eliminated the dead time between taking the test and being presented with a certificate that provided improved employment opportunities at the Credit Union. This market opportunity presented the best way to introduce e-learning with the use of a homemade database acting as their LMS to support the log-in and recording of passing exam scores. Inherent in CPD s plan was that basic cataloging, tracking, and record keeping of scores were simple database functions and that an LMS must function as a career development tool. Several years later William and Kit Horton, in E-Learning Tools and Technologies, would write: In considering an LMS, ask how it can help you identify what skills and knowledge are needed, what skills and knowledge potential learners already possess, and what learning will close that gap. The Hortons go on to suggest that if there are fewer than two-dozen courses and less than 500 students, a clerk and a database or spreadsheet will do. And so it did for CUNA s first two years of on-line education. Students taking the exam were offered free use of a pilot course and asked to fill out a survey upon exiting. This piloting of exams as a first step, gave CUNA time to solicit IT technical and financial support and begin an extensive search for an LMS. Number of Online Exams Actual Projected 70,000 60,000 50,000 40,000 30,000 20,000 10, Demand Mandated a LMS Success was defined as the steady growth of users paying $23.00 each to take an exam and receive an on-line certificate. When the number of paying users exceeded 2000 per month, it was determined that it was necessary to purchase a LMS to manage the growing user group. Careful consideration was given to the process by which a LMS would be chosen. Over 10 potential vendors were asked to bid. A comprehensive listing of features were organized in spreadsheet form from which reviewers were required to rate each LMS feature. 3

4 For more resources click here -> e-course Development Meanwhile, CPD began completing the actual 30 plus asynchronous courses for the first certification track in phases, launching them through the portal beginning in CPD s authoring strategy included procuring the ability to create asynchronous courses using a database driven system (Learning Content Management System) that would allow it to easily create multiple versions of a course for licensing. The promise of licensing courses and dynamically delivering them to other Learning Management Systems operating across the globe has the potential to fuel growth much like the early deployment of exams. Indeed, the number of credit union employees taking the certification courses on-line instead of using print has continued to increase each month. In Summary In summary, understanding basic functionality of a Learning Management System, and accomplishing log-in, book-marking and user scoring statistics with a homemade database allowed CUNA s Center for Professional Development the ability to postpone the initial move to an LMS and only invest in infrastructure as user demand increased. Committing to a plan to begin with on-line exams and migrating users to the on-line course material played a major role in making CPD a profit center and an example of a successful trade association e-learning program. Number of Course Hits Actual Projected 25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,

5 For more resources click here -> References Horton, W. (2001). Leading e-learning. Washington, DC: American Society for Training & Development, Rosenberg, M. J. (2001). e-learning strategies for delivering knowledge in the digital age. New York: McGraw-Hill. Cantwell, C. (2002). Bridging the training gap. Madison Credit Union Magazine. Biographical Sketches Jon Aleckson not only owns and manages an e-course development firm of 12 employees, but also personally handles the role of supervising all aspects of e-course and e-learning portal development. Most recently, this included a Leadership Training portal for Johnson Controls and e-courses for The Miller Brewing Company and General Electric Corporate. Aleckson established Madison Productions, Inc. in 1978 for motion picture and video projects, and shortly thereafter integrated media production services into interactive, computer-based training and later web-based e-learning projects. Established in 2000, Web Courseworks, a division of Madison Productions, Inc., produces large-scale e-learning deployments and specializes in the development and repurposing of training materials for the Web. Address: 2987 Yarmouth Greenway Madison, WI [email protected] URL: Phone: Fax: Plumer Lovelace is Assistant Vice President of Learning Technology for CUNA's Center for Professional Development. He is responsible for the research and development of all electronic and distance education for the organization. This includes instructional videotapes, CD-ROM, web-based training and satellite broadcast. In his capacity of directing the learning technology projects for the National Trade Association, Lovelace has lead industry conference sessions throughout the country to credit union trainers on the use of technology to train staff. Before joining CUNA & Affiliates in 1992, Lovelace was employed for several years by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Instructional Media Development Center as an Instructional Media Specialist. Address: 5710 Mineral Point Road Madison, WI [email protected] URL: Phone: