About Training

Schools and training centers use a variety of standard processes,
procedures, and learning material that needs to change from time
to time. They also have information that needs to be disseminated
to students, trainees, and employees in an organized simple to understand,
and readily available format. Training programs are tasked to provide
the tools necessary to present these materials at the touch of a
finger.

Challenge

Successful training programs require a platform that is accessible
to students, trainees, and employees at any time of day. Many training
programs rely on paper handouts, which can easily be lost and are
difficult to keep up-to-date with the most current information.
And when updates do occur, it can be difficult to ensure that the
paper materials at all the different participating schools and organizations consistently
have their documents updated. Additionally, printing and providing
updated materials creates added expenses for the participating organizations.

Many modern training programs have embraced "Blended Learning"
where traditional classroom settings have been combined with self-guided
e-learning. One of the challenges associated with blended learning
is the geographical separation between instructors and students. The
difficulties of geographic separation become further compounded
when instructors and students live in different time zones or have
differing work schedules that make it even more difficult to connect.

Instructors and students also need to be able to maintain
a consistent exchange of information. Trainees must be able to post
questions in a format that allows the instructor and peers to easily
assist and make available the most current and correct information.

Students must also be free to develop their own learning styles
while maintaining accountability for completing the training schedule.
Some students learn best from reading material, others from hands-on 
experience, while some prefer visual learning. Training programs
should be able to accommodate these preferred learning styles or
even a combination of all three at the students' own pace.

Novell Solution

Novell Vibe allows organizations to create a central, unified
platform for learning. It enables instructors and students to create
and leverage an environment that can be accessed anytime, from any
location with easily managed access controls.

Novell Vibe can accommodate multiple learning styles through
the different ways that the product stores and displays information.
It provides wikis for quick written communication. Its discussion
folders and blogs provide a great medium for connecting students
with instructors and peers, facilitating question posting, idea
exchange, and follow-up instruction. File folders in Novell Vibe
provide storage space for supplementary training material and hands-on 
activity instructions. Novell Vibe also facilitates the creation
of Web landing pages that can present supporting training material,
such as training schedules, updates, and embedded YouTube videos.

Novell Vibe folders and workspaces used for training can
be tracked from instructors and students' individual Vibe dashboards
so they can know immediately when changes occur. Vibe can also
provide email notifications to instructors and students when such
changes occur.

Novell Vibe provides customizable forms and workflows to
further streamline an organization's training efforts, which can
be particularly helpful for organizations with multiple training
programs. Custom forms can be used to show completion of a training
program or post questionnaires for students to fill out once they
finish a training course. Workflows can automate a variety of training
related processes, such as sending notifications to instructors
when a student completes a certain training phase. Workflows can
also be used to send automatic reminders when a training phase has
not been completed after a certain period of time.

Results

Novell Vibe can significantly reduce travel and learning material
distribution expenses normally associated with training programs.
By providing a centralized storage location for all training materials,
Novell Vibe lowers costs associated with maintaining those materials.
It's through this same central storage that Novell Vibe facilitates
easy, any time access to all training related materials for both
instructors and students.

Novell Vibe creates a flexible learning environment through
discussion folders, blogs, wikis, and embedded videos. These training
information sources and materials can be easily accessed as needed
whenever and wherever users have Internet access. As a result, students
can enjoy the convenience of learning at the time, place, and speed that
suits their needs, in a richer more flexible learning environment.