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TLCC’s Notes/Domino and WebSphere Courses Help IBM Achieve their Goals
The IBM Corporation has always relied on a strong employee training program to attract and retain talent. In the last few years distance learning has become a key part of the IBM’s training strategy to allow students more flexibility and to reduce travel. According to Training Magazine, IBM saved $750 million dollars in the last two years by the use of distance learning.
The Learning Continuum Company (TLCC) has partnered with IBM Learning Services since 1999 to deliver distance learning courses to IBM employees worldwide. IBM first started offering TLCC’s Notes and Domino developer courses for version 4 of Notes/Domino. Back then the bulk of IBM’s learning was classroom based. TLCC’s courses were among the first distance learning courses that allowed a student to go at their own pace but still get instructor support as needed. Since then, TLCC’s course offerings have been constantly updated as new versions of Lotus Notes and Domino were released. In 2003, TLCC introduced a new curriculum for WebSphere developers. TLCC has trained over 2,700 IBM employees in over 50 countries on Notes/Domino and WebSphere development.
The TLCC courses are available to IBM employees though the IBM Global Campus. This intranet web site holds the complete catalog of all the classroom, distance learning and self-study courses available to IBM employees. Once an employee signs up for a TLCC course the IBM Global Campus sends the course request to TLCC via Notes replication. TLCC sends an e-mail to the student with complete instructions. The student downloads the course from TLCC’s web site and installs it onto their local computer. The student does not need to be connected to the Internet while taking the course. Within hours of signing up the student is ready to start learning. This “just-in-time” training allows IBM employees to learn technical topics when they need the skills and not when a course is available. The course is always accessible on the student’s computer as a reference guide long after they have completed it.
The Notes/Domino and WebSphere developer courses range from beginner to advanced. TLCC has a complete line of LotusScript and Java courses designed just for Notes and Domino programmers. Paul Cathro, a Senior I.T. Specialist in Mechanicsburg, PA, used TLCC’s courses to learn Java programming in Notes/Domino. He says that “All of my Domino agents are written in Java now. I have also used my Java skills to learn WebSphere development and to integrate DB2 data with Domino. The ability to go at your own pace and go back and redo lessons is a big benefit. I am very happy with the TLCC courses.” Paul finds that one challenge of distance learning is the lack of dedicated learning time. To help get some quiet learning time he uses the “Do Not Disturb” feature in Sametime to help reduce the interruptions when he is learning.
If the employee has questions while taking the course they post a question into the integrated course discussion database. TLCC’s instructors monitor the course discussions and respond to the student’s questions electronically. IBM”s Instant Messaging product is also used when necessary to share the instructor’s and/or the student’s computer screens and assist the student. Bill Ferguson, an IT Specialist with IBM in Boca Raton, FL, said “Having someone available, via the course teamrooms has proven to be a big benefit.” He also appreciates the just-in-time ability of the IBM Global Campus to sign up and start taking courses right away. “As assignments have raised the need for additional training (most recently, JavaScript, Java, and WebSphere integration) I have been able to schedule the course and complete it in time to use on the assignment.”
Upon completion of the course the student completes a survey on the course and is sent a Certificate of Completion. The course survey results are replicated via Lotus Notes with IBM Learning Services to allow IBM management to monitor student satisfaction. TLCC’s courses have consistently earned Excellent and Good ratings for course content, a format that gets to the heart of the subject matter, and having quality exercises and demonstrations. Jack Marchione, a Computer Operator Specialist in San Jose, CA, says “these Lotus Notes courses were the best courses I’ve taken throughout my 24 years here at IBM. I am very impressed with the course material, the exercises, and the examples. The two Domino application development courses were very helpful to me to help improve our department’s databases by creating new views, forms, pages and navigators to help us find information faster and to create agents to send out reminders on documents needing attention.”
The partnership between TLCC and the IBM Global Campus has benefited the IBM Corporation through reduced travel costs and lower direct training costs compared to classroom training. The big payback has been improved employee skills. Employees are able to get the quality advanced developer training they need, at their own pace, and at their own place.
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