Corporate Training
Forbes
New York
Sep 11, 2000
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Pagination: P310-311
ISSN: 00156914
Subject Terms: Web site reviews
Manycompanies
Employee development
Training
Classification Codes: 9190: United States
5250: Telecommunications systems & Internet communications
6200: Training & development
Geographic Names: United States
US
Abstract:
The following corporate training web sites are reviewed: 1. 1. DigitalThink (www.digitalthink.com), 2. Corpedia (www.corpedia.com), 3. ElementK (www.elementk.com), 4. MeansBusiness (www.meansbusiness.com), 5. Ninth House Network (www.ninthhouse.com), 6. SkillSoft (www.skillsoft.com), 7. UNext (ww.unext.com), and 8. XtremeLearning (www.xtremelearning.com).
(Copyright Forbes Inc. 2000)
Full Text:
Online education is in many ways tailor-made for corporations and they know it. Last year corporations spent $1.1 billion on online training. Merrill Lynch expects it to grow to more than $11 billion by 2003. Why train employees online? Convenience, lower cost (including travel expense
savings) and the ability to customize courses. Some programs offer perks: You can instant message a tutor 24 hours a day. Problem is, much of the material and presentation is still mediocre. Textbooks are simply dumped online with some graphics added. We took courses at a number of sites and had to force ourselves to endure boring slide shows. There are also some egregious oversights in methods: A number of Java courses assigned no programming exercises. That's like taking French, but not having to speak. Big improvements are around the corner. Corpedia, UNext, Quisic and Ninth House are just getting under way with ambitious attempts to meld multimedia with teaching. They promise a refreshing emphasis on role-playing and case studies. We can't wait. -- DollySetton
DigitalThink
www.digitalthink.com
Quantity as well as quality earn DigitalThink high marks. If none of the 230 courses quite matches your needs, DigitalThink will customize a course for you, whether on e-commerce, sales or IT. Curriculums are well thought out and rich in detail, while the lively tone makes up for the more dreary elements of online learning. Courses are presented in an easy-to-navigate slide-like format that allows you to skip parts you find boring or irrelevant. The Java class we tried was the best we've seen. Unlike others, it included essential practice exercises, as well as backgrounds of the instructors. Some assignments are evaluated and graded by tutors. Other helpful interactive
elements: simulations, discussion sessions and quizzes.
Best: Course content was more in-depth than others, and mentors help you stay on track.
Worst: Tutors sometimes take hours to answer
e-mail questions.
Corpedia
www.corpedia.com
Lectures with sound, light and action. Founded by consulting guru Peter Drucker, Corpedia only started focusing on Web content a year ago. Its offerings, therefore, are slim: 60 courses, almost half of them on legal compliance. But they're exciting. Sound and Flash animated pictures liven up lectures, and the content, particularly the Drucker material, is a cut above the rest. Courses run $50- $100, except the Drucker movies, which cost $175 for 45 minutes.
Best: The original thinking in the Drucker lectures which is rooted in a theoretical, historical approach.
Worst: Not many offerings yet. Also, it's hard to skip past irrelevant parts of courses as you can with a book.
ElementK
www.elementk.com
Hundreds of solid, substantial courses on IT and business management. The site offers both classes and tutorials. Skip the basic tutorials--the introduction to Java was superficial and hard to understand. You can either take the courses yourself, or you can choose to have an instructor guide you. Easy-to-use directional controls make navigation through the material simple. Interactive elements include assignments and quizzes; you can also e-mail questions and participate in monitored class discussions.
Best: Instructor-to-student mentoring, and a reporting option that lets you see how your employees are doing.
Worst: Can't take the course using a Mac. And more attention should be paid to supplementary material like glossaries. The one for Java was inscrutable.
MeansBusiness
www.meansbusiness.com
Want to read up on the best ways to inspire your staff or negotiate a raise, but don't have the time? Instead of taking courses (which aren't offered here) or buying books, this site offers abstracts and clear synopses of business ideas and theories culled from hundreds of books and articles. It's really Cliff's Notes for business people. Summaries cost $2 each.
Best: Lucid summaries of a variety of works on the same topic allow you to compare approaches and perspectives.
Worst: Overlooks some classic tomes. And the site's filled with gobbledygook
jargon such as "proprietary concept
ontology."
Ninth House Network
www.ninthhouse.com
State-of-the-art multimedia courses. Six hours each, these courses are really interactive movies, which examine soft skills like leadership and management. Fun to take, they make interactivity an integral part of learning. A situational leadership class is particularly well suited to this approach.
Example: An interactive movie is playing and you are prompted for your reactions. You can role-play a mine owner during the California gold rush who has to fire the foreman; depending on your decision, the outcome varies. Make a wrong move and an electronic mentor gives you advice. The cost for this Hollywood-meets-education coursework--about $500 per person.
Best: When you role-play there are a number of alternative endings plus advice on how to get along with co-workers.
Worst: Launched a year ago, Ninth House only offers eight courses so far.
SkillSoft
www.skillsoft.com
SkillSoft courses are designed specifically for the Web, unlike some at other sites that are adapted from textbooks or CD-ROMs. Files are small and quick to download, and content objective-oriented. There are 330 management, communication and technical skill offerings, developed by published authors and professors. Each costs about $100, and lasts two to four hours. Helpful cheat sheets--such as Questions to Ask Job Applicants--offer help for the overwhelmed employee.
Best: Courses are Mac compatible; practical goal-oriented approach useful for busy executives.
Worst: You may have to wait hours for a mentor to respond to your question via e-mail.
UNext
www.unext.com
Backed by investors like Michael Milken, "Cardean University" has signed up big names like University of Chicago and Stanford to help create business-school courses for major corporations. Plans eventually to grant online M.B.A. degrees at 80% of the cost of top B- school degrees. The teaching model is media-rich and revolves around problem-solving in specific scenarios and heavy instructor involvement, partly through monitoring student actions.
Best: High-quality courses which cost as much as $1 million each to develop. Instructors have at least a master's degree.
Worst: Only a handful of courses available.
XtremeLearning
www.xtremelearning.com
Solid multimedia content. Slide presentations are accompanied by a voice reading out the text. Navigation is clear; a menu gives you an overview of the topics covered, and buttons like those on a CD player include fast forward and rewind, making moving about a breeze. Graded assignments help measure your progress. Message boards and FAQs keep you on the ball.
Best: Live online chats with mentors and classmates.
Worst: No coding exercises in programming class, though there are conceptual quizzes.
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