GeoMaestro LMS provides 1.8 million federal employees with
one-stop access to
e-learning courses and services.
Can federal employees
point and click their
way to successful careers?
Will e-learning replace
the classroom? The
Bush administration
thinks so. Federal
employees now have
e-learning services
at their fingertips
through USALearning.gov,
an e-training portal
designed to give federal
employees one online
location to sign up
for and take courses,
perform skills assessments
and receive reports
about their progress.
USALearning is an effort
by the U.S. Office of Personnel
Management (OPM) and the U.S.
Office of Management & Budget
(OMB) to simplify and unify e-training
services across federal government
and is one of 24 e-government
initiatives that support President
George W. Bush’s Management
Agenda.
OPM spearheaded the project and
awarded a multi-million dollar
contract to GeoLearning to
host the infrastructure, maintain
the site and provide technical
support to end-users. The agency
considered operating the site
in-house but decided instead
on GeoLearning’s application
service provider model. “There
was a lot of discussion about
alternatives,” says Norm
Enger, the agency’s
e-government program director. “This
was the most cost-effective and
compatible solution to competitive
sourcing.”
USALearning operates
on GeoLearning’s GeoMaestro LMS
and is available
to more than
1.8
million federal employees.
The site provides one-stop
access to e-training services for more than 1.8 million people
employed by the federal government, making it the e-learning industry’s
largest implementation. The site is also ADA Section 508-compliant
to meet the needs of the visually challenged.
| In the first 20 weeks since it was launched, the USALearning site had logged more than 35 million hits, signed up more than 36,000 registered users, counted more than 600,000 unique visitors, recorded over 10,000 course completions, and achieved cost avoidance of approximately $20 million. |
OPM’s director for the e-training initiative stated, “The
purpose of the site is to reduce the number of similar courses agencies offer
and the associated redundant procurement and licensing costs. A lot of agencies
struggle to meet legislative and agency-mandated training requirements. This
site will become the storefront for those courses, enabling us to take advantage
of economies of scale and reduce redundant training efforts across the federal
government.”
GeoLearning’s GeoMaestro learning
management system serves as the
technology platform for USALearning.
The online system handles employee
registration and tracking, and
reports training information such
as the courses taken and completed
by employees, and compiles user
feedback. This data is then used
to assist agencies in their efforts
to effectively track, plan and
manage training and professional
development.
At the launch ceremony in July
2002 for the first phase of the
site, OPM director Kay Coles
James called the new Internet
site “a significant milepost...on
the road to e-government. It is
critical for agencies to use
available learning technology
tools, such as the USALearning,
to develop a world-class workforce
to provide world-class service
to the public. Technology allows
us to deliver the right kind
of training, at the right time,
to the right people.”
She was joined at the launch by Mark Forman, OMB’s associate director for
information technology and e-government. Forman predicted the site would have “a
tremendous impact on the professionalism of the government.”
The first module of the USALearning effort
provides access to 30 free online
training courses in legislative/agency
mandated topics such as ethics,
computer security awareness, sexual
harassment prevention as well as,
high interest topics such as supervisory
development, project management
and desktop computer skills.
In the first 20
weeks since it was
launched, USALearning site
had logged more than
35 million hits,
signed up more than
36,000 registered
users, counted more
than 600,000 unique
visitors, recorded
over 10,000 course
completions, and
achieved cost avoidance
of approximately
$20 million.
“USALearning is the
e-learning industry’s
flagship project, calling for the
very best in technology, implementation
processes and service levels,” said
GeoLearning's Frank Russell. “Being
selected to power the largest e-learning
implementation our industry has
ever seen confirms GeoLearning’s
position as the leading provider
of ASP-delivered e-learning solutions
and the premiere e-learning supplier
to the U.S. federal government.”
In addition to using the USALearning site, agencies can
take advantage of GeoLearning’s ability to develop customized
learning sites specific to their needs. By using the established
USALearning infrastructure and adding a customized front-end,
individual agencies are able to take advantage of the cost savings
inherent in a shared service while adding agency-specific resources.
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