Education & Distance Learning Enthusiasts- Broadcasting Knowledge : Satellite company BCN.tv moves into online learning spectrum to provide blended solution

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Broadcasting Knowledge : Satellite company BCN.tv moves into online learning spectrum to provide blended solution

Computing Canada - March 1, 2002

Finding effective ways to deliver training to employees with the least amount of disruption and cost can be a challenge, even with a bevy of high-tech alternatives.

When training is delivered to an employee's desktop, critics argue distractions can impede the learning process -- the phone rings, a co-worker drops by with a question about the latest report or e-mail beckons.

But with travel budgets slashed and employee time in short supply, the quest to solve training requirements closer to home has become a priority for many organizations.

Bringing everyone together for traditional classroom learning can be expensive and time-consuming, but many believe it is still the most effective method.

"We usually do a lot of classroom training and we're starting to get into a bit of online stuff, but our people aren't great with online learning stuff," says Linda White, director of training for Scotia McLeod in Toronto. "Often they don't have the right temperament to sit down and do stuff online. We also like to bring people together so we can share ideas -- it's part of our culture."

Last fall, White discovered BankWorks Communication Network (BCN.tv), a satellite distance learning system for the financial services sector.

Using the Star Choice Communications Inc. network, BCN.tv offers broadcast services to multiple sites through one satellite signal. Hotel room sites in 17 cities across Canada are used as virtual classrooms, while the "instructor" is located in a Star Choice TV studio in Toronto.

Using an interactive device similar to a telephone, the system enables real-time exchange of audio and video in a classroom setting across multiple locations. The presenter can ask a question to the "audience" or participants can call in and speak to someone at another site.

It also enables data collection, which means a user can do polling and answer multiple choice questions, which can be aggregated and displayed on screen.

For White, it means employees can stay in their home city but still benefit from a classroom environment. Scotia McLeod, which arranged for a broadcast to eight locations last fall, chose to have the vendor lead the training session. "They really liked that they didn't have to come to Toronto for a training session, and this makes them focus," she says.

Scotia McLeod used BCN.tv for a product roll-out that some employees had already been trained on, but required updating. White says she saw it as a cost-effective way to re-visit the material and believes it accurately showed to employees software demos and marketing materials.

"It seemed like a good time to try it, and we were very interested because we have a lot of things we have to roll out across the country. Sometimes we have to do it very quickly so sending people from branch to branch to branch isn't practical."

With picture and voice quality considered to be better than video conferencing, the experience is more interactive than other methods of distance learning, says Rupert Hamilton, CEO of BCN.tv.

"To me, one of the short-comings of Web casting is that it is delivered to people at their desktop. They can be watching it, but their phone is still there and their colleagues are still there to walk in to their office and interrupt them or their Lotus notes application is still on their desktop and people may tend to flip to that," says Hamilton.

The base cost is $3,000 per hour of broadcast time plus the hotel conference room cost (average $300 per room), plus any required meals.

While the first experience was good, White says she would modify how the session is conducted next time. "We did five hours, but I think it was too long. I think you could do four hours, but what I'd like to see is a facilitator -- even if it was one of our branch managers in the room with the people so you could do more discussion at each location," she says.

Hamilton says there is a balance to be struck between the various forms of training that can be delivered through electronic means.

"We don't see any medium as being the only way to deliver training," says Hamilton. "We think if you look at a curriculum, the best delivered curriculum is one that is delivered through a series of different mediums. That may involve the Internet, it may involve classroom training. We believe it involves interactive TV technology as well."

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