INTERVIEW
Stéphanie JOUVE
Training Officer at the RSI‘s National
Training and Skill Development Centre
Before using MEDIAplus eLearning, how were your computer skills training courses organised? What made you change? What were the challenges you faced?
We used to call upon the expertise of our tutors to train our employees in a classroom setting. This was much appreciated because the learners could be in their usual working environment, with their applications, settings, specific features etc.
In 2015, our challenge was the transition of over 6000 devices to a Windows 8 and Office 2013 environment. The e-learning solution was an obvious choice, especially since we had just acquired an LMS platform.
What were the different steps of the project? Was any specific organization required to manage it?
A team was put together on a national level for the “new working environment” project. The training centre was involved in migration management and training. The HR and IT departments were involved. We communicated using kits which made it possible to accomplish the migration stage of the project, in the most flexible way, for the teams in thirty regional branches.
What means have been used?
We choose ENI because all the necessary conditions were met: the modules could be used on our platform, the tool automatically analyses and corrects the answers given, and the courses are customisable. Each regional branch was able to make its own choices concerning the content. Some chose to include some training on Word, Excel and Outlook which made up a course of approximately 45mn to an hour. Some chose to include more topics. Certain branches made it possible to train in a classroom (with the presence of a tutor to open and close a training session), others on workstations, depending on the needs of the teams being trained (front or back office) and on the available equipment (whether or not there was a room dedicated to training). After the migration phase, it was possible for the regional branches to contact us concerning their needs in terms of skill improvement, in order for us to make complementary modules available to employees. In this case the training was carried out at their workstations rather than in classrooms.
Which means have you chosen to accompany your learners and why?
In each branch, during the migration, a referent was designated and a team was put in charge. We did not put any blended learning programmes in place, just several tutoring sessions aimed at employees in certain branches who were less comfortable with IT. This only concerned a handful of people.
What are your conclusions after several months of use?
The whole approach has been well received by most of our employees. They have all emphasized the advantages of this type of approach, which makes it possible to train when appropriate and without having to train outside the workplace. Overall, we are satisfied with the quality of the content, the ergonomics of the modules and their layout and clarity.
What advice would you give training managers who would like to try e-learning?
Do not neglect the different aspects of the implementation. Target the right people to help with the changes (HR and managers, IT experts). Take the time to think about the needs of users and do not make too much content available at once!
What do you plan for the future?
We plan on continuing to carry out our computer skills training in e-learning, but would also like to expand this to other domains, such as management. Tutoring or blended learning also appeal to us, in the sense that it would be possible for our employees to continue self-training whilst still being accompanied and still being able to ask questions to deepen their knowledge of certain subjects.