ULearn more

Abstract

American University's Office of Information Technology (OIT) training unit provides classroom-based and online training to over 1,800 staff, students, and faculty attendees annually. This group develops, schedules, markets, and delivers the training. The training unit also evaluates the effectiveness of the training and provides detailed reporting for the university's staff performance management program. In 2011, the OIT training unit was invited to partner with the University's Human Resources department and other campus trainers to select a vendor and implement an online Learning Management System for full-time university staff, and faculty with supervisory responsibilities. The training partners went through a lengthy assessment process, chose a vendor, assigned system roles, attended extensive administrator training, and then the hard work began! Although some of the training partners shared similar technological tools and processes, generally each group had a distinct, and well-established, method for managing the administration, marketing, and assessment of their training program. Combining these methods, while maintaining each group's autonomy proved challenging. This presentation will discuss how the team leveraged the learning management technology to meet our shared goals, culminating in a successful system launch in February, 2012. We will explore how we selected the technical components we would utilize, and how we developed a common language and unified processes. We will also discuss the process of branding our new system as ULearn, how we created a portal, and how we marketed the system. Lastly, we will explore how we are fostering a ULearn More environment by empowering our customers to navigate their own learning path.