E-Learning Heats Up

o brush up on how to keep his crew safe from terrorists, a commanding officer in the Navy can log on to the service's e-learning Web site. There, he can take a full course on anti-terrorism measures or just review certain procedures. A maintenance manager can log on to the site to take a refresher course in shipboard maintenance before heading out to sea. A Navy civilian employee can take a course on preventing sexual harassment.

Since the Navy launched its e-learning site in May 2001, sailors and civilians have taken about 35,000 online courses. Thousands of personnel also have logged on to check reference materials for quick answers to questions about software, hardware or Navy procedures.

But while the site, at www.navylearning.navy.mil, looks like a Navy site and presents an array of Navy courses, it's actually just one face of a National Security Agency-run program called FasTrac. The NSA and its unlikely e-learning partner, the Treasury Department's Franchise Business Activity in San Antonio, Texas, can put a different face on the FasTrac program for any agency that wants to use it. The Senate and 55 agencies, including the Navy and the Health and Human Services Department, already use FasTrac to provide e-learning courses to their employees.

Mary Ellen Trevino, the Franchise Business Activity's chief operating officer, says FasTrac gets good deals from e-learning companies because it buys software and course licenses in bulk. All told, about 1.6 million federal civilians, military personnel and other users can access courses through FasTrac.

Now, NSA and the Franchise Business Activity's 5-year-old program faces competition from a new e-learning duo: the Office of Personnel Management and the Transportation Department. Backed by the Office of Management and Budget, the two agencies unveiled a new Web site in July that offers the same services as the FasTrac program. The two are promoting the Gov Online Learning Center, at www.golearn.gov, as a one-stop, e-learning portal for federal employees. They kicked off the site by offering 30 free courses to federal agencies for use by their employees. The new site actually is an extension of Transportation's Virtual University, an e-learning site that already was used by other agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service and the Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development departments.

The new Gov Online Learning Center site has brought extra heat to the federal e-learning market, which already had become a key target for e-learning companies. They started tapping the federal market when sales to private sector firms fell off over the last two years because of the economic downturn.

NUTS AND BOLTS

The backbone of most e-learning programs is a learning management system-a software package that handles student registration, course management and tracking. Brandon Hall, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based e-learning analyst, estimates that 100 learning management systems are on the market. FasTrac uses a system created by Thinq, a Billerica, Mass.-based firm. The Gov Online Learning Center operates on a system by West Des Moines, Iowa-based GeoLearning. Other learning management system companies with government clients include Plateau Systems of Arlington, Va.; SmartForce of Redwood City, Calif.; Saba of Redwood Shores, Calif.; mGen of Foxborough, Mass.; and DKSystems of Chicago.

Both the Gov Online Learning Center and FasTrac let employees tap into thousands of prepackaged courses on subjects ranging from supervisory skills to Microsoft applications to time management. In fact, the sites use courses provided by the same three companies. They are Nashua, N.H.-based SkillSoft (which recently merged with SmartForce); Naperville, Ill.-based NetG; and San Antonio-based Karta Technologies. These courseware providers have worked with the major learning management system companies to make sure that their courses work with almost any system.

The administrators of both FasTrac and the Gov Online Learning Center also are trying to gather government-created courses that agencies can share with each other. For example, an ethics course created by the Justice Department could be used by any other agency. By sharing courses, agencies could cut down on development costs. "One of the most important lessons we've learned is that we, as the Navy, don't have to create solutions," says Saundra Drummer, head of the learning strategies division at the office of the Chief of Naval Education and Training. "If we look, we can find solutions that are already out there."

MANY OPTIONS

In addition to the Gov Online Learning Center and FasTrac, federal training officers can set up e-learning programs on their own or through the General Services Administration's FedLearn program.

FedLearn follows a different formula than do the two e-learning sites. Marc Santini, head of FedLearn, says customers at other agencies describe their training needs, and then FedLearn finds the best way to supply them. The answer isn't always an online learning system with prepackaged courses. "We have not put a [standard] contract in place," Santini says. "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, when a client's work may need a different solution." Santini expects FedLearn to do more than $30 million in business this year with more than 70 federal customers, including the Social Security Administration and the Defense Department.

Some agencies have also purchased e-learning courses and systems on their own. As a result, e-learning systems vary widely across the government.

For example, Army civilians, soldiers, guardsmen and reservists can take about 1,500 free Web courses through SmartForce. SmartForce also is providing online technology training to State Department employees around the world. The Air Force's Air Education and Training Command uses Plateau's learning management system to provide online technical training courses. The Bureau of Prisons is using Saba for its learning management system.

Some say the variety of e-learning systems reflects reality-no one system could work for all agencies. "Different agencies are going to have different requirements," says Matt Adams, public sector vice president at Saba. Others note that agencies may get better prices by shopping around.

But OMB and OPM officials want agencies to eliminate their redundant and duplicative e-learning efforts by using the Gov Online Learning Center. The center is one of 24 OMB-sponsored e-government initiatives aimed at wringing savings and more efficient operations out of the $70 billion-a-year federal technology budget. Mike Fitzgerald, the new site's project manager, says agencies could save a lot of money by working together. "This is going to allow us to pursue some governmentwide licenses for learning management systems and courseware," Fitzgerald says. "That will allow us to look for economies of scale."

Officials from FasTrac, the Gov Online Learning Center and FedLearn downplay competition, saying they are looking for opportunities to work together. OMB is not requiring agencies to use the Gov Online Learning Center, so it still will be up to training officers to figure out the best way to put e-learning at their employees' fingertips. With the private sector still languishing in the economic doldrums, e-learning companies no doubt will eagerly provide agencies with services no matter how officials want to buy them.