Engineering Jobs

What is e-learning? According to Cari Mathwig, interactive team leader and Instructional Designer at The AVS Group, “Maybe the question should be, ‘What is not e-learning?’”

According to the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), “e-learning is a wide set of applications and processes used for the purpose of learning,” including those that are Web- and computer- based, virtual classrooms, NetMeetings, satellite or fiber-optic-connected classrooms, e-mail, bulletin boards, or chat rooms. The delivery mediums may be the Internet, Intranet or Extranet (LAN/WAN), audio and videotape, satellite broadcast, interactive TV, or CD-ROM.

In a time when computers and classrooms are merging, e-learning has quickly gone from buzzword to a regular part of the vocabulary in the business world. The key now is to know how to use it.

To use e-learning effectively, you need to ask yourself the following questions. The answers to those questions will determine how e-learning can best fit your needs.

Question #1: What is the goal?

“You can’t do anything without a goal or objective,” notes Mathwig. “The goal determines everything, including the topic, the information presented, how the information is presented, and if participants are accountable for learning the information.”

“Many people do this backwards by starting the process with the information that is to be presented,” Mathwig adds, “but a goal still needs to be determined in order to establish the rationale for presenting the information.”

Question #2: Who is the audience?

The medium used should meet the needs of the audience to better accomplish the goal. Some questions that one should ask about the audience include:

Where is the audience located?

Are they spread out or in one location?

What technologies does the audience have available to them?

What is the audience’s level of technical expertise?

Question #3: What resources are available?

Resources include time, talent, and budget. This will also determine which medium is used. For example, if there are two days to prepare, you need to consider what can be done in two days to accomplish the goal.

Available resources can be a big factor in how sophisticated the e-learning can be. The more sophisticated the e-learningapplications that include animated demonstrations, simulations that allow participants to practice what they have learned, or assessment and learning managementthe higher the costs.

“The return on investment from a well-planned and well-developed e-learning program is high and well worth considering,” Mathwig adds. “In any case, the capabilities of the delivery medium versus the goals must be assessed.”

So, which medium is best for e-learning? “Any electronic medium has its own advantages and disadvantages and should be used based upon its effectiveness, costs (in terms of both time and money), and ultimately the return on investment,” says Mathwig.

The AVS Group is a marketing, training, and communications company. AVS is in La Crosse, Wisconsin. AVS helps clients communicate and market effectively. AVS can be found online at http://www.avsgroup.com

Share This

Digital Education is really coming along thanks to the US Military and their expenditures in the IT Framework to make training available. The IT companies doing this training are in fact able to pass on this technology to the private sector immediately and it is helping us with the digital divide.

The United States Navy is trying many of the online Internet learning some of which we have discussed here on this site: Online Training by the US Navy is very good;

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2003/08/25/daily18.html?f=et87

We are very much for schools. I have always supported schools:

http://www.carwashguys.com/history/museum46.shtml

But we are in a new era and I really believe we can do more to educate our people faster and cheaper than ever before if we use the tools of modern technology. I support ideas from Bill Gates on this issue, I believe in The First Lady’s strong commitment to education, I have always admired University of PHX and their online program and I am excited to see the bi-lateral support on the NO Child Left behind program. I am totally 100% behind the efforts to make this program work and to get behind problems of the past in education and move into the new era with these new tools.

http://parthe.net/_cwg0803/00000044.htm

I am glad to see that the US Military is moving forward and being efficient with taxpayer’s money, so that they have more money for new ships and planes and research and development to keep us strong and safe. Good Move, great work on this. Isn’t it great when we can get everyone on the same page and propel the future of mankind to our destiny? Think on this.

Lance Winslow

Share This

Bangna-Bangphli-Bangpakong Expressway, Thailand (BBBE) dubbed as the world’s longest elevated expressway bridge (about 55-kilometre) and also the widest (27.2 meters) carrying 6 lanes traffic 3 in each direction, was built along the median of highway 34 from Bangna to Chonburi. This expressway is part of the networks of expressway planned by the Expressway and Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (ETA) to ease the flow of traffic in and around the metropolitan Bangkok. Specifically, this superhighway is meant to serve the Eastern Seaboard Area and the soon to be completed Bangkok Second International Airport.

Apart from this 55 kilometers main expressway, there is also an additional of 26 ramps or about 40 kilometers in length, two elevated mainline toll plazas with surveillance buildings, 11 platforms for toll surveillance, two police stations, and associated at-grade works. The total bridge deck area is 1,900,000 m2. All these were completed at a record time of only fifty-three months overall construction period by employing a state-ofthe- art design and construction technique known as the “Precast Segmental Technology of Bridge Construction”.

This turnkey project was undertaken by a joint venture company called JV-BBCD composed of Germany’s Bilfinger + Berger and Thailand’s Ch. Karnchang Public Company as the lead partners. These two companies havefor years been a part of Bangkok’s implementation of networks of elevated expressways, now to a record total length of expressways built in and around the city of 132 km or 3,598,000 square meters of deck area or 5,854 spans total including this project.

Alignment and Foundation Design was done by the Asian Engineering Consultants (AEC) and the Superstructure and Column Design was done by the inventor of the Segmental Technology of Bridge Construction, Jean Muller International (JMI). The design of selected parts was reviewed by ACECOMS, AIT.

Buddhi S. Sharma is CEO of CivilPark International (http://www.civilpark.com) and chief structural designer and top site supervisor on behalf of design consultants for more than 20 Buildings, Bridges and other structures projects. Independent advisor on planning, structural design, construction and seismic aspects. Main and co-speaker in over 50 trainings, workshops and seminars organized in several countries total over 300 hours of presentation.
More information and many resources on http://www.civilpark.com

Share This