Hydro+Case+Study+2010

=Name of Project = = = =e-Learning for Hydro Generation Technician Trainees = = = =Executive Summary =

=Background=


 * The RTO (Registered Training Organisation) **

The Skills Institute has its headquarters in Hobart Tasmania and offers skills training and industrial education to enterprises needing to up-skill their workforce. While the majority of our clients are situated in Tasmania we offer training services both interstate and the South Pacific. The Electrotechnology group delivers training to enterprises through apprentice training, electrical safety and licensing.


 * The Business Partner **

Hydro Tasmania is a major hydro power generator within Tasmania delivering power to the national grid through “Basslink”. Hydro Tasmania has power stations located in remote areas of the state requiring employees to travel over difficult roads in inclement weather. One of Hydro's challenges is attracting and retaining key skills in regional and remote locations in Tasmania and the competing remuneration packages offered from well-resourced companies. A key to being attractive to and retaining employees is the training and development program that Hydro Tasmania offers in collaboration with the Tasmanian Skills Institute. This program meant the power plant operators needed to travel from remote locations causing disruption to productivity in their workplaces while they are away. The costs involved in this were becoming unsustainable.


 * The Project Team **

The project team comprised of three employees from Hydro Tasmania, two teachers from The Skills Institute, and an independent media consultant and facilitator from Sprout Labs. The team met regularly in Hobart and conferred by telephone conference to plan the presentations and assessments, gather information, photographs and video clips, and to review draft copies. Difficulties were encountered and overcome with each member of the team showing respect for the difficulties encountered by their fellows.

=The Project=

This project put two of the core competencies from the Certificate IV in ESI Generation (Operations) online. These two core competencies are also part of the core for three other qualifications.

The learning solution was based around scenarios that focused on common problems. The e-learning activities focused on simple low bandwidth solutions.

The eventual saving per year for Hydro Tasmania in this single qualification will be in excess of $41,412.00. This project has progressed Hydro Tasmania's long term plan to have most of their training conducted by e-learning.

=What was done=

The project began with a series of workshop meetings to determine learning needs based upon the outcomes specified in the competency documents.

A number of activities were identified as conforming to the elements of the competency and a list of acceptable evidence was compiled. Another series of workshops were used to plan the learning support experiences and identify scenarios that would engage the learners and their mentors.

Hydro Tasmania members acquired the materials and images needed while Skills Institute staff developed presentations and assessments. Difficulties were encountered in trialling the new materials as Hydro Tasmania cancelled its proposed recruitment program for 2010. As an alternative strategy the presentations were offered to existing employees for their comments. Recommended modifications were made to the terminology and images arising from these reviews.

Access was gained to the Hydro Tasmania internal data management system and placing of assessments on the system commenced. After many last minute adjustments both competency units were ready to bundle for use on Hydro Tasmania’s "Learning Seat" e-learning platform.

=Benefits experienced by=


 * Hydro Tasmania – **

The Hydro members of the project team have benefited by the opportunity to participate in a major resource development project and gain skills in the production and presentation of learning and assessment materials while becoming educated consumers of e-learning products.

Hydro Tasmania project team members are more aware of the processes required to design commission and implement e-learn projects. The enterprise will benefit from reduced costs related to travel and accommodation and reduced exposure to road traffic incidents.

**Skills Institute ** –

The Skills Institute staff have gained valuable experience in the production of e-learning materials and the use of learning design techniques. A greater awareness of the potential for e-learning has evolved encouraging a wider use of electronic learning techniques.

The RTO has the benefit of access to learning materials at the certificate four level that can be customised to take advantage of future growth opportunities as well as developing a closer relationship with a major industrial client.

=Lessons learned=

If it was a shorter project it would have been an easier project to complete. The long time span of the project allowed changes to take place within the participating organisations. These changes altered the way the project was implemented and even changed the makeup and the dynamics of the project team.

The application phase should include a day long face to face workshop conducted with everyone present who will be involved in the project. Bringing additional people into the project who were not at the planning stage meant that side issues developed as each new person had to work through their “storming“ stage and get up to speed on the project.

Access to the industry partner's information systems should be established as a condition of the project proceeding. Considerable time was lost as the loading of presentation resources onto the Learning Seat platform was not practical or cost effective from the point of view of a development team needing to make regular alterations and additions to the resource. Commercial vendors such as Learning Seat essentially looked after their own business outcomes at the expense of their customers.

The RTO needs to have unit leaders briefed if they are to use replacement staff. Considerable delays are caused when programs and projects came into conflict over the availability of human resources.

The project brought the two organisations closer together. A shared understanding developed about the aims and goals of each organisation.

Considerable difficulty was encountered providing deliverables using an industry partnership. Large amounts of source material are confidential and not for public distribution. A better solution would be to have the development as the project activity with the outcome for the framework to be a case study showing a road map to achieving the goal.

Hyperlinks were used to get around the confidentiality problem and allow other companies and organisations to link their own source data.

Telephone conferences every week enhanced the flow of the project. Mobile phones are not recommended for this activity as they are very expensive for the meeting initiator, they also have distracting background noise that cannot be easily controlled.

=The results=

This project has delivered a fully customised and tailored training resource for a major enterprise that will be taking on responsibility for the updating and further development of a resource that ensures uniform training across diverse workplaces.

The project has been successful in delivering the completed resource with the additional benefit that members of Hydro Tasmania staff are now discerning users of e-leaning.

While threats existed to derail the project, the team overcame the difficulties and delivered a completed project.

=Project outputs=

The course materials developed were: - A series of common OH&S and quality problems - Jobs aids that help guide the employees towards the policies and procedures

Virtual coaches that are simple story based explanations of background knowledge. An example of one of these is legislation requirements around OH&S.

=Framework connection=

The national training system’s e-learning strategy, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework funds and supports E-learning Innovations projects which aim to embed e-learning into the national training system by supporting and enabling innovation in training design and delivery, at the state and territory level.

Now this project is completed it’s expected the learning model and potentially the templates developed during the project will be applied to the rest of the Certificate IV qualification and in the longer term other qualifications.

In engaging this e-learning Innovations project, the following Framework products and resources ARED activity development tools were used extensively.


 * Acknowledgement **

This is a Tasmanian E-learning Innovationsproject output, developed by The Skills Institute and Hydro Tasmania, with seed funding from the Framework.

 =For more information=

For more information on the Australian Flexible Learning Framework: Phone: 07 3307 4700 Email: enquiries@flexiblelearning.net.au Website: flexiblelearning.net.au