Washington Trainers' Forum

 

HomeContact Us

Join Us!
Next Meeting Info
Past Meeting Notes
WTF Downloads
 2007 Salary Survey Results
Trainer-to-Employee Survey

Updated
7-21-2010

 

 


PAST MEETINGS

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2001


Topic:


Using E-Learning Tools in the Legal Environment

Host:

Candy Truss
Proskauer Rose LLP
1233 20th Street, NW
Suite 800
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 416-6872
ctruss@proskauer.com

Presenter:

Rochelle Bungie

A link to Rochelle’s PowerPoint presentation can be found at the bottom of this page as well as on the WTF Downloads page.

Rochelle had asked all WTF members to email her back with answers to following types of questions:

  • What E-Learning tool are you using, either at your firm or personally? 
  • Why why did you choose it over its competitors?
  • How is it benefiting you or your users?
  • What does it cost?
  • How are you getting "buy-in" from the firm and users?
  • How is it being delivered to users?

Several people responded to Rochelle and she put their answers into her PowerPoint presentation. The following is a summary, per product:

  1. ElementK  (www.elementk.com)

Rochelle Bungie, Jennifer Doughtery (Sughrue, Mion) and Kathy Rosenbaum (Morgan, Lewis) use this vendor.  They have a very large library of web-delivered courses offered at all levels.  In addition to standard computer applications, they have courses geared for network engineers, human resource departments and middle managers.  They have pre-assessment tests and partnered with BrainBench for certification.  The cost for one year's access to their standard, end-user courses is $200.  They have enterprise-wide licenses which obviously become much less expensive with volume buying.

Rochelle says the courses are very user friendly and the manuals are reasonably priced and well written.  Jennifer noted that they are very quick to come out with new courses such as for the Office XP suite and she was impressed by their training administration page which makes it easy for her to watch her student's progress. She can track overall usage and print reports.

  1. TutorPro   (www.tutorpro.com)

Rhonda Gray (Akin, Gump) has done a substantial amount of research into e-learning tools and has found TutorPro to be the best fit for her firm's needs.  Courses are delivered in five-minute modules which could be delivered over their intranet or downloaded en-mass to all of her users' machines.  Additionally, when a user logs onto the network, any new or modified modules are automatically downloaded.  This allows laptop users to access topics from anywhere, essentially provided them with help desk-like resources even from an airplane seat.  TutorPro has given Rhonda tools to customize modules and she has been very pleased with their easy of use and the speed at which she can create or modify modules.

TutorPro offers both pre- and post-assessment tests and keeps a record of all user results.  Her firm plans on using the data from this LMS in their annual evaluations for some staff categories.

Rhonda has 3,700 users in 19 offices world-wide.  TutorPro is cost effective for a firm of her size but may be out of the ballpark for smaller firms.  Rhonda is also using another vendor, NETg, to provide technical and soft skill content using TutorPro's delivery system.  NETg is still in negotiations with Rhonda's firm so a price wasn't mentioned.

  1. NetMeeting  or  WebMeeting 
    (www.microsoft.com/windows/netmeeting/)
    (www.webmeeting.att.com/webmeeting/start.php)

Both are web-based methods for sharing applications and files.  Neither has courseware of their own.  They have video and audio conferencing capabilities, a whiteboard and chat features.

NetMeeting is part of the Windows operating system however you can freely download the latest version (3.01) from the Microsoft website.  WebMeeting, developed by AT&T, uses your own browser with free plug-ins that it offers you as you need them.

Jamie Mitchell (Kirkpatrick & Lockhart) and Cheryl L Fowler (Foley & Lardner) have both used NetMeeting to host classes with multiple participants in several different offices.  The instructor can either keep control of the "host" machine or can allow participants to take over.

  1. SameTime Connect (online Flash demo)
    http://www.lotus.com/home.nsf/welcome/sametime) 

Kathy Rosenbaum (Morgan, Lewis) has found this to be more effective than ElementK, Ninth House, or Smart-Trainer.  Geared toward Lotus Notes servers, SameTime Connect is similar to NetMeeing and uses AOL Instant Messenger technology for chat.  It can also be used with PDAs. 

Price was not discussed but according to the Lotus website, it does not appear to be a free add-on to the Notes server.

  1. Other vendors that Rhonda Gray evaluated included:

  • Software Training Solutions

  • Global Knowledge

  • GEO Learning

  • ThinQ

  • Question Mark

  • VCampus

  • Cool School Interactus Online

  • How To Master by InfoSource

  • Soft Skills InterActive

  • GTE Learning Technologies

  • Individual Software

  • Cambridge Knowledge Systems

  • BAI

  • Click2Learn

  • SmartForce

  • SoftSkills

  • Virtual Training Company

  • McGraw-Hill Lifetime Learning

  • ViewCentral

  • InterKinetic

  • Content Alive

  • Next Step Education Software

  • ArticuLearn

  • InteranetU

  • Maaya

  • e-Learning

  • Merrill Lynch

  • Peer3

  • ATI

  • Individual Software

 

E-Learning Tools In The Legal Environment (a part of 2001.zip)

 

 

 
 

© 1999-2010 Washington Trainers' Forum