Q:
Is your content OSHA certified?
A: OSHA does not “certify”
training content or programs. The Workplace
Safety Library is comprised of training
courses based on, and mapped to, OSHA
standards. We continuously review the OSHA
standards and develop our training courses
accordingly. |
| Q:
If I use e-learning for my safety training,
will it meet OSHA requirements?
A: OSHA does recognize
e-learning as a legitimate part of a comprehensive
safety training program. |
| Q:
Does your training meet state requirements?
A: If you would like to
include specific state rules and regulations
that affect your company, we can customize
our content to meet your needs. |
Q: How
often do you upgrade your content to keep
up with OSHA regulations?
A:
We continually review industry newsletters
and subscribe to vendor services to stay
informed of any new standards OSHA is considering.
When OSHA implements a new standard that
our training content should cover, we make
the change long before it goes into effect
to help our customers comply. |
Q: How
would I train employees in the field?
A: As you know, one
of the core benefits of online learning is
that it allows an individual to access training
anytime, anywhere. However, there still might
be limitations in that remote employees might
not have access to the Internet. In order
to meet the needs of users that work in the
field (e.g. Utility crews) we provide our
training materials on CD-ROM as
well. In fact most of our Utility customers
do just that. They use our Electrical Worker
Training Program for their line crews by
installing the training programs on laptop
computers. Once training is complete the
records are then transferred to the central
repository when the hardware (laptop) is
returned to the facility. We believe that
web-based training (WBT) is definitely the
solution for these kinds of issues in the
upcoming years. When developing our courses
we wanted to make it possible for users to
access our training materials via 56 Kbps
in less than a few seconds/page. |
Q: If
I use your training, is additional training
required?
A: Many
OSHA standards require 2 forms of training:
knowledge and practical. The purpose of
our training programs varies by customer.
For many customers, our courses satisfy the
entire knowledge portion of their training
program. For others, their
industry requires additional knowledge for
their employees. We can help you make our
training an integral part of your training
program. |
Q: If
an employee/student has a question, who do
they contact?
A:
When conducting any OSHA mandated training,
including e-learning, the employer is required
to have a knowledgeable person readily accessible
in case an employee needs assistance with
his/her training. If our customer needs
assistance, we offer that service. |
Q: I
am able to achieve an adequate level of
training using videos from our safety library.
How is e-learning more effective than delivering
safety training through videos?
A: Many academic studies
have been conducted on this very subject.
Empirical data shows that knowledge retention
rates increase when using e-learning as
compared to traditional classroom training.
Our e-learning allows trainees to work at
their own pace. Our e-learning can sequence
training to match the trainee’s needs.
The computer can always match the trainee’s
schedule. e-learning can reach trainees
outside the traditional classroom, providing
instruction on the job or at home. Our e-learning
provides immediate feedback to trainees on
their progress. e-learning does not have
to be delivered to all employees at the same
time, thus allowing the company to maintain
coverage of critical positions. Videos are
a passive learning method requiring very
little student involvement. Our e-learning
provides informative training by delivering
its message through, audio visuals (animation,
video, illustrations) and interactivity.
Our e-learning encourages the trainee to
become an active learner. Videos require
the trainee to remain a passive learner,
which could hinder comprehension and retention. |
Q: Is
my job as a safety trainer at risk?
A: No, if anything e-learning
gives trainers increased control over training
activities.
E-learning provides management
systems for tracking trainees’ progress
and location, online testing to match
a trainee with needed training, consistency
of training in terms of quality and information
presented and standardization of training
when training occurs in several work locations
simultaneously. Trainers can serve more
than one company with an e-learning program,
reducing the investment each company would
have to make. |
Q: We have site specific
and industry specific content needs. Is customization
of content possible?
A:
Yes, customization of content has been one
of the mainstays of our business. Our development
resources include design and development
of new content as well as customization
of existing content provided by customers.
Several of our customers also contract with
us to modify and convert their safety libraries
from Video and CD-ROM to WBT. |
Q: Who does the customization?
Can we (the company) do it ourselves?
A: We believe that our ability
to create custom content is a value added
resource for our customers. The economies
of scale that exist within our business model
make custom development an attractive proposition
for several reasons. Vivid provides regular
content upgrades that reflect OSHA regulatory
changes that affect the entire regulatory
compliance library. Our staff of subject
matter experts (SME)
and instructional designers are also making
improvements in the design and delivery
of content. Any modifications made to the
content are the responsibility of Vivid,
which also means that we stand behind the
quality and integrity of our content. Based
on the above reasons our preferred model
is to undertake all customization on behalf
of our customers. |
Q: Can
I put my own training, such as a PowerPoint
presentation or safety policy into the
system?
A: Yes, as discussed
earlier, one of the unique capabilities of
our Learning Management System (LMS) is
that it allows the administrator to post
custom content in the form of Proprietary
Learning Objects (PLO).
This functionality allows the administrator/safety
trainer to utilize company specific presentations
and material to supplement the content
covered in the workplace safety library. |
Q: What if all of my employees
don't speak English? Is the safety content
available in any other languages?
A: We currently have 10
courses in Spanish and 9 in French. In addition,
we continue to develop and deliver our courses
in other languages, such as Japanese, to
customers that request translation services. |
Q: The
majority of our employees do not have access
to computers at work. How could you help
me there?
A: We understand that
the computer age may not have made its way
to each and every individual in today’s
business environment. We can all agree that
more people have access to computers today
than they did last year. We also feel that
it is up to us to help you view training of
your employees as an investment and therefore
the tools needed for this training should
be part of this investment in your human capital.
Furthermore, companies can train several employees
per terminal when delivering e-learning in
a computer lab setup. Some of our customers
have even utilized one computer to train upwards
of 300 employees. |
Q: Some of our employees
are not familiar with using computers. Do
you have a solution?
A:
We believe in working with our customers
to deliver a long term training solution
for their respective environments. Several
of our customers use our training products
to deliver compliance training to both blue
collar audiences as well as employees that
do not use computers to fulfill their daily
job duties. Our content is designed to meet
the learning requirements of a broad audience.
With the use of mouse tutorials, live seminars,
24/7 online support as well as product launch
sessions, we hope to reach and address a
majority of the issues that deal with a
user’s lack
of familiarity with computers. In fact an
overwhelming percentage of first time users
that respond to our online questionnaire
choose this form of training as their first
choice. |
Q: What
type of hardware, content integration, and
connectivity will your program require?
A: You will need
the following to access the online courses:
a computer; an Internet browser (Internet
Explorer or Netscape v4+), and a Shockwave
Plug-in. Your computer should be a multimedia
computer with sound card and speakers or
headphones. Your Internet connection speed
should be at least 28.8 kb/s. Most Internet
browsers already come with a Shockwave Plug-in.
If that is not the case, the process to download
this plug-in is extremely easy for most users.
Our entire portfolio of courses is designed
to SCORM 1.2 standards with successful implementations
in various LMS platforms such as KnowledgeHub,
Pathlore, Plateau, Aspen, etc. Additionally,
we have successfully tested our content
in Human Resources Management (HRM) platforms
such as SAP, Sun Microsystems Enterprise
Learning Platform, etc. |
Q: What are some of the
administrative features of your program? Reports?
Completion records?
A: The "ad hoc" Reporting system
allows you to easily create custom reports
detailing student registration and activity,
including completion dates, scores, student
information, progress and more. There are
also several pre-built reports in our system.
We can
create a “custom”
report and add it to our system if the need
arises. Additional reporting capabilities
may be available through your LMS of choice. |
Q: How
long will it take an average employee to complete
a lesson?
A: Based
on pilot studies conducted by customers and
our own research, we've found that experienced,
knowledgeable employees typically take 15
- 25 minutes to complete an average course.
First time users typically take 25 - 30 minutes.
|
Q: Is
it possible to track employee time in training?
A: Yes, our LMS
tracks elapsed time for each student. |
Q: How
does the program track employee competency?
A: All of our training
programs are designed and produced using
a traditional Instructional Systems Design
model. Our production staff includes instructional
designers as well as educators and industrial
trainers. We first develop training objectives
based on OSHA standards and industry good
practices. Then our content is designed to
help a student meet those objectives. Our
evaluations (examinations) are designed to
determine if the student has met the training
objectives. Evaluation feedback is also provided
to help ensure objectives are met. |
Q: What options are
available to a Training Administrator to
configure lesson testing in the eCLARUS
system?
A: Each lesson can be configured by an Administrator
to allow a student to take a lesson test
at any time, or to prevent a student from
taking a test until the lesson content has
been completed. |
Q: Can
reports be exported and merged with other
tracking systems?
A: Reports can be exported and posted
into an LMS or HRM software application. |
Q: If
I use this training program will it help reduce
my insurance premiums?
A:
We’re not sure how your particular
insurance company would adjust your premiums
based on our training but Insurance Risk
Pools and Insurance companies like Liberty
Mutual are also some of the companies that
use our products for their employee training.
Since insurance premiums are directly related
to insurance claims, the use of an effective
safety training tool helps increase the
safety awareness among employees, thus reducing
safety related accidents in the respective
environment. |
Q: What
sort of return on investment (ROI) should
I expect?
A:
ROI needs of companies are as unique as their
respective business objectives. Recently,
IBM experienced more than a 2,000%
ROI on their e-learning investment. It is
easy to look at some of the cost savings
such as reduced training time and travel
costs. There are also instructor costs,
prep time and administrative costs to be
considered. Evaluating and assigning a monetary
value to intangible results can be more difficult.
Things such as increased productivity, reduced
turnover, reduction in lost-time injuries
and reduction in workers’ compensation
claims should also be assigned a monetary
value when calculating ROI. What factors
will you consider when calculating ROI
for your organization?
You may also be interested in measuring other
areas such as, “What are the participants'
reactions to the training?” We can
help you do this with feedback forms at
the end of each lesson. “What skills,
knowledge, or attitudes have been changed
or acquired and to what extent?” You
will gain these answers through our testing
and reporting features. “Did
participants apply what they learned in
training to their jobs?”
You will gain this through observation and
the efficiencies you will see as a result
of the training. “Did the on-the-job
application of this training produce measurable
results?” You should notice these
results in terms of increased productivity,
decrease in absenteeism and occupational
injuries, decreases in customer complaints
and so on.
|
Q: How
is the training priced?
A: Our model
is to license our library to organizations
based on the number of employees and the number
of lessons that you would like included in
your library. This offers a number of benefits
to you including cost efficiencies, consistency
of training quality across time and distance,
updates based on regulatory changes, improved
training outcomes and years of expertise. |
Q: How
do I get my organization to support this type
of training?
A:
It all starts with the business case and
management support. Do you have a business
case and do you have management support?
If not we can help with that. We will also
assist you with the launch of your e-learning
initiative, help you with the internal marketing
and also assist you with maintenance marketing
(develop ways to increase usage over time).
We can provide successful
case studies that will establish
credibility; integrate e-learning into developmental
plans and performance improvement initiatives,
hold open houses or brown bag seminars,
and incorporate e-learning into new employee
orientation. The list of companies adopting
e-learning for its benefits also continues
to grow. Support documents and white papers
can also be made available to all parties
involved in the decision making process. |
Q: How
do I effectively use your training?
A: A number of our customers
use our training for new employee orientation
and annual refresher training. Many of these
same customers use our training as the base
to set up their hands-on or site-specific
training. For example, all employees that
operate a forklift are required to take
a formal forklift safety lesson before
they get actual instruction about how to
operate specific forklifts at the facility.
A large percentage of our customers assign
the lessons that OSHA recommends for all
employees. This general training is complemented
with site-specific or job-specific training. |
Q:
I am inundated with information from companies
that all claim to have the ideal training
product for us. What separates you from
your competitors?
A: It is our
intention to understand your safety training
needs and most importantly help you identify
the best fit for your safety culture.
In our effort to do so we would like to
share with you our knowledge of the e-learning
environment, and more specifically the
customer research that we have been able
to gather over the past several years.
We hope that sharing the experiences,
challenges, and successes of other business
environments that have adopted this form
of training
will help you identify the best fit for
your organization. Our goal is to effectively
communicate our value proposition and understand
how we fit in. |
