Volume 14, Issue 3 - November 2010

Designing Corporate Training in Developing Economies Using Open Educational Resources

Chris Geith, Michigan State University
Karen Vignare, Michigan State University
Leslie D. Bourquin, Michigan State University
Deepa Thiagarajan, Michigan State University

The Food Safety Knowledge Network (FSKN) is a collaboration between Michigan State University, the Global Food Safety Initiative of the Consumer Goods Forum, and other food industry and public sector partners. FSKN’s goal is to help strengthen the food industry’s response to the complex food safety knowledge and training challenges that affect emerging markets by providing free access to high-quality, standardized learning resources. The resources were designed to be available on demand and as a structured learning experience which can support face-to-face training and fully online training. The pilots thus far have shown that participants in FSKN training demonstrate a significant increase in knowledge. The paper will share the processes used to set up an efficient open educational resources initiative including understanding licensing, using open software, establishing competencies and working with corporate and other international partners.

Promoting Hybrid Learning Through a Sharable eLearning Approach

Xin Bai, York College of The City University of New York
Michael B. Smith, York College of The City University of New York

Educational technology is developing rapidly, making education more accessible, affordable, adaptable, and equitable. Students now have the option to choose a campus that can provide an excellent blended learning curriculum with minimal geographical restraints. We explored ways to maximize the power of educational technologies to improve teaching efficiency and cut costs...

A Synthesis of Sloan-C Effective Practices, November 2010

Janet C. Moore, The Sloan Consortium

Encouraging continuous improvement in the quality, scale and breadth of online education, the Sloan Consortium invites practitioners to share effective practices. This report synthesizes effective practices submitted by Sloan-C members to the online collection at http://www.sloanconsortium.org/effective as of November 2010. The synthesis includes links to the provider institutions and to detailed...

Introduction  to  the  Section  on  Workforce  Development

David  Sachs, Pace University

 Asynchronous  and  blended  education  provide  solutions  for  meeting   large  scale  demand, thus  this  issue  features  four  cases  about  innovative  workforce  development  programs.     Each  one  of  them  advances  the  possibilities  and  provides  replicable  practices  for expanding  access.  ...

Learner Support Requirements for Online Workplace Training in the South African Furniture Industry

Iain  S.  Macdonald, University of British Columbia
Mark  Bullen, University of British Columbia
Robert  A.  Kozak, University of British Columbia

A qualitative research project was conducted to evaluate the suitability of e-learning as a means of deliv- ering training to workplace learners in the South African furniture manufacturing sector. Twenty learners participated in a three-month pilot e-learning course and were monitored throughout. While the study was designed primarily to investigate...

Skepticism to Success: Meeting Critical Workforce Needs Through Innovation and Collaboration

Margaret  Anderson, Whatcom Community College
Linda  Maier, Whatcom Community College
Michael  Shepard, Whatcom Community College

To meet workforce demand and the needs of working or place-bound students, Whatcom Community College developed an online version of its existing face-to-face Physical Therapist Assistant program which became a model for other lab-based health science degrees. This article describes research studies that support the program’s practices and includes the...

Incorporating the e-HIM® Virtual Lab into the Health Information Administration Professional Practice Experience

Amanda C. Barefield, Medical College of Georgia
Jim Condon, Medical College of Georgia
Charlotte McCuen, Macon State College
Nanette B. Sayles, Macon State College

This  article  highlights the  experiences  of  two  baccalaureate  Health  Information  Administration  (HIA)   programs  in  the  adoption  of  the  American  Health  Information  Management  Association’s  (AHIMA)  e-­HIM   Virtual  Laboratory  (Virtual  Lab)  into  the  Professional  Practice  Experience  (PPE).  Information  is  provided   describing  the  implementation  of  the  Virtual  Lab,  issues  that  were  encountered,...

The CUNY Young Adult Program  -­  Utilizing Social Networking to Foster Interdisciplinary and Cross-­Cohort Student Communication during Workforce Training

Alissa  Levine, CUNY Kingsborough Community College
Christoph  Winkler, The City University of New York
Saul  Petersen, Connecticut Campus Compact

The  Center  for  Economic  and  Workforce  Development  (CEWD)  at  Kingsborough  Community  College  is   currently  working  on  a  workforce  development  project  that  contains  innovative  teaching  tools  that  proved  successful  in  overcoming  issues  of  academic  isolation...