Synopses & Reviews
For the distance training provider, today's amazing array of advanced communications technologies poses many exciting possibilities. But it also makes for a daunting challenge. How can you employ these technologies-each with its inherent strengths and limitations-to implement the most effective distance and distributed learning? And how can you use them to best meet your organization's strategic goals?
Through the use of sixteen lively case studies, Distance Training shows readers the innovative ways in which organizations have used various communications technologies to maximize employee learning and meet business objectives.
Each study illustrates distance-training applications ranging from the dissemination of information to building skills in critical thinking and problem solving, to changing attitudes, and to shaping organizational culture. Taken from corporations, nonprofits, and government agencies, these studies also show how providers managed to overcome the many organizational and technical obstacles that stood between them and the successful realization of their learning events, programs, and designs.
Readers will benefit from the best practices embedded in each case study, which are summarized at the end of the book. They will also gain from the set of guiding principles that provides a framework for discussing distance learning in organizations-principles that represent systems engineering strategies for the design, development, and implementation of distance training processes.
Including a history of distance training and in-depth advice on instructional design, policy issues, organizational restructuring, and technical and electronic systems development, Distance Training gives practitioners and aspirants to the field a concrete, real-world look at how state-of-the-art distance learning can actually be achieved.
Review
"This manual is the one we have been waiting for! It takes dead aim at all the important issues facing distance learning providers and hits the bull's eye on every one of them. It is down to earth, real world, and up to date. Its examples and insights for practitioners help create the sense of urgency and excitement all of us in distance learning feel today." (Michael P. Lambert, executive director, Distance Education and Training Council)
"This book presents an insightful view of distance training and the use of technology in organizations. It will be of great value to all educators and trainers interested in this important topic." (Greg Kearsley, program professor, Instructional Technology and Distance Education Program, Nova Southeastern University)
"An excellent, comprehensive study of the potential strategic benefits of distance learning to organizations. Certainly, if the federal government is to utilize information to improve services, it first must harness these same technologies to improve the training of its workforce." (Alan C. Lorish Jr., champion for IT training, Government Information Technology Services Board)
Synopsis
Winner of the University Continuing Education Association's Charles A. Wedemeyer Award, which recognizes highly meritorious book-length publications that advance research in independent study and distance education.
"This manual is the one we have been waiting for! It takes dead aim at all the important issues facing distance learning providers and hits the bull's eye on every one of them. It is down to earth, real world, and up to date. Its examples and insights for practitioners help create the sense of urgency and excitement all of us in distance learning feel today."--Michael P. Lambert, executive director, Distance Education and Training Council
Today's advances in communications technology have created exciting new possibilities for training professionals. But not all technologies are created equal. Distance Training examines these new tools to show how compressed video, satellite broadcasting, the Internet, and other innovations can each be used to their best advantage. In-depth case studies of sixteen progressive organizations--NYNEX, Bell Atlantic, and Unisys among them--provide real-world models readers can use to design learning programs that transcend the traditional boundaries of time and space by turning the home, office, and meeting room into immediate, effective learning environments.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 419-[432]) and index.
About the Author
DEBORAH A. SCHREIBER is founder and president of D.A. Schreiber, Inc., a distance learning consulting group that specializes in the corporate application of distance training. She also serves on the faculty of the University of Maryland Baltimore County in the Instructional Systems Development and Technology Graduate Program. ZANE L. BERGE is director of training systems in the Instructional Systems Development and Technology Graduate Program at UMBC. He has edited seven books, written numerous articles, and conducts workshops and presentations on distance teaching and learning.
Table of Contents
Introduction.
Organizational Technology and Its Impact on Distance Training (D. Schreiber).
Conceptual Frameworks in Distance Training and Education (Z. Berge).
Instructional Design of Distance Training (D. Screiber).
DISTRIBUTING INFORMATION AND INCREASING KNOWLEDGE.
Building Customer Relations: Web-Based Training for the Home Improvement Industry.
Increasing Employee Knowledge and Understanding of Operational Systems: Integrating Multiple Technologies at NYNEX (B. Howard).
Disseminating Time-Sensitive Information: Using Interactive Distance Learning to Deliver Training and Education in the American Red Cross Biomedical Services (L. Klueter & E. Kalweit).
Disseminating Time- and Regualtion-Sensitive Information: Online Training Seminars at Mortgage Bankers Association of America (T. Monahan).
Graduate Programs at a Distance: A Partnership Between the California Department of Rehabilitation and San Diego State University (M. Warn, et al.).
BUILDING SKILLS (TECHNICAL AND CRITICAL THINKING).
Reskilling Employees for Competitve Advantage: Reinventing Learning at Unisys Corporation.
Delivering Technical Training to Advance Mechanical Skills: Interactive Video Teletraining in the Federal Aviation Administration (L. Payneand & H. Payne).
Delivering Clinical- Based Training in a Public Health Setting (J. Place, et al.).
Skills-Based Distance Training for a Global Environment: Malaysia's Virtual University (M. Ress & P. Sonberg).
The Value of Building Skills with Online Technology: Online Training Costs and Evaluation at the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (S. Walker).
Building Intranet Courseware Using Multidisciplinary Teams: The Story of Quantum Solutions, Inc. and Colombia/
HCA Healthcare Corporation (A. Yakimivicz).
CHANGING ATTITUDES AND ENHANCING MOTIVATION.
Eliciting Community Beliefs and Changing Attitudes Through Education: Innovative Distance Learning at the Colombus Center (R. Bento, et al.).
Measuring attitudes to Assess Trainig: The Interactive Distance Learning Group Looks at Learning and Transfer from Satellite Training (J. Dessinger, et al.).
Unanticipated Attitudianl Cahnge: The Progression Toward Self- Directed Distance Training at H.B. Zachry (L. Dooley, et al.).
Utilizing Telelearning as a Strategic Media Choice to Enhance Executive Development and Affect Organizational Perspective: The U.S. Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) (J. Suchan & A. Crawford).
Conclusion.
Best Practices of Distance Training (D. Schreiber).