Web Conferencing

From the September 2005  issue of Communications News

Virtual class delivers worldwide

Tech giant switches its training program to an ASP model, Web-conferencing system.

Sun Microsystems calls the next wave of computing “the Participation Age,” when sharing innovation and building communities comes to the forefront. What better way to expand upon this commitment than with its own live virtual class (LVC) initiative?

Sun was experiencing a significant drop in instructor-led training revenues, according to James Wagner, LVC program manager. “Most companies are seeing a dramatic decline in the demand for this type of training,” he explains. “It’s a productivity story. Companies can’t afford to have people away from their jobs, and they don’t want to pay for expensive travel.

“For Sun, the idea is to provide a high-quality, instructor-led training experience in real time over the Web. In short, we bring the classroom to the student. Our LVC initiative has two objectives. First, we need to recoup lost training revenue and, at the same time, we also want to generate new growth in this area.”

Sun, however, has some unique requirements for a live e-learning solution, according to Wagner, what he calls show stopper features. “We need good cross-platform support connectivity,” he explains. “The client application has to run on Solaris (Sun’s flagship operating environment), Java Desktop System (JDS, which runs on Solaris 10 and Linux) and Windows. And we need to share applications and desktop on the Solaris and JDS platforms, as well.

“The solution must also have a free and very robust voice-over-the-Internet (VoIP) capability, a critical component in delivering cost-effective training at a global level. Today, country-to-country phone charges prohibit the use of conference calls for training.”

Outsourced model chosen
As part of its selection process, Sun looked at all major vendors. “Initially, it came down to three vendors,” Wagner says. “However, for application sharing and robust VoIP, only Elluminate Live! Enterprise Edition met the requirements. In addition, the tool worked well, even over bandwidth connectivity as low as 28.8 kbps, and it provided great support for the primary file formats we use in our training, StarOffice and PDF. It offered an easy way to convert the PDF files to high-quality presentations for the whiteboard.”

As for implementation, Wagner chose an ASP model, “So all we had to do was sign the contract, and Elluminate flipped the switch. The real challenge for us was to take a training organization completely geared toward instructor-led classroom training and add LVC training. In addition, we also had to determine how to handle access to our two remote lab data centers in Colorado and Germany. For most LVC classes, students do lab exercises using a remote lab with the instructor on hand to assist.”

For the lab requirement, Sun decided to have students access the lab data centers from their desktops while an instructor stood by in a separate Elluminate Live! session. A student can share the lab window with the instructor, who then monitors the student’s progress and can even take control to provide hands-on instruction, if needed, with both situations analogous to activities in a traditional classroom setting.

In addition, the instructor can send a small group of students into an Elluminate Live! breakout room to work together on a lab exercise while the instructor observes. “There is one drawback,” says Wagner. “I wish there were an actual button in the tool that enabled access to the remote labs. We are looking to integrate the two technologies at some point in the future.

“We’ve also been going through an extensive training process for internal and external instructors worldwide,” he continues. “We train our instructors on content, and Elluminate provides very focused live and recorded training to learn the tool. In addition, we are developing an instructor certification course on the effective use of best practices in the Sun training environment, such as how to manage an online classroom, interact with the students and run the labs. We are very selective about who teaches our courses and the methods used.”

transition challenges
Another hurdle to overcome for Sun was the conversion of the company’s existing off-the-shelf courses to the LVC environment. According to Wagner, the information products group, Sun’s course development staff, now has the process down to a science: converting PDF files, modifying lab exercises and updating instructor and student guides.

“We have a big assembly line, with many people involved. This enables us to convert an existing class in a relatively short period of time,” he explains.

“Sun has a vast library of training content,” Wagner adds. “Initially, in the early stages of our general availability phase, we’re concentrating on high-demand, high-volume courses, including those for Solaris, high-end Sun servers and Java. Currently, we are teaching nine LVC courses and adding others through the summer. We are working toward a global rollout of LVC, especially in Asia-Pacific and Latin America. In fact, we have centers of learning excellence worldwide, so we can provide training 24/7 on a global level.”

One unexpected side benefit of using the live e-learning and Web conference technology was its use for internal collaboration and meetings. “I use Elluminate Live! for my core product team meetings, which have attendees from throughout the U.S., as well as from Australia and Germany. We use the tool to share files, collaborate on a spread sheet or show a presentation.

“In addition, some of our executives wanted to defray the cost of travel and began experimenting with the solution for meetings. It has been so successful that now the internal demand for meetings is exceeding our limited supply. We have to put our revenue-generating courses first, so we are looking at several expansion scenarios for the future.”

Wagner says there is a pent-up demand today for training on new technology. At the same time, companies cannot afford to pull people away from their jobs, and travel is cost-prohibitive. “Corporations are chomping at the bit for the capability of bringing cost-effective training directly to the desktop, incorporating it directly into their employees’ daily work cycle,” he comments. “In addition, our experience shows us that students value the instructor interaction. This makes the case for distance education a very compelling one.”

“We believe the ROI is tremendous for our LVC initiative,” he concludes. “For example, we have Elluminate Live! licenses for 50 seats. First, you have to keep in mind that these seats can be used worldwide 24 hours a day, so when compared with the cost of travel, it’s a bargain. In addition, we can also retire our expensive training facilities. We consider LVC a very cost-effective way to get our training out there, and we can provide an experience very similar to the traditional classroom environment, but even more flexible. It’s exactly what our customers want because training enrollments are really taking off.”

For more information from Elluminate:
www.rsleads.com/509cn-257