The Wall Street Journal of May 31st, 2012 had an editorial from John E Chubb and Terry M Moe which discussed internet based University education. It is well worth reading and puts forward one of the directions that education will be following in its pursuit of developing a new model for the students of the world.

We are at the beginning of a radical transformation which will allow many more people on the planet to obtain education from the best teachers that any specific subject matter has in the world. The time is now.

Internet Learning and You.

The last time we talked about education we discussed the evolving nature of learning; first classrooms, then webinars, then audio video webinars with a difference. Now I want to explore the internet learning options.

The first step is to take the slide shows of a webinar and add voice to it. This allows the student to order a product, a learning session, download it and watch it at their convenience. The order will expire within a time limit – days or the number of uses. This is some cases is supplemented with an exam that is taken and the results emailed by to the participant. Not a bad approach. Quick and inexpensive and there is a skills testing exam.

The next step is the internet classroom. It is a virtual course with audio and video, sometimes streaming video, with exams interspersed that must have a specific level of accomplishment before you can move on to the next chapter or section. This is the approach we are taking. We will have a series of self-study programs each of which will have four chapters and within each chapter will be four sections. At the end of each section will be a short test with a more complete test at the end of each chapter. I have high hopes for this new approach. We will be bringing out our prototypes of this training approach later this year.

When we have finalized the approach we will offer four self-study programs for Parts Managers and four for Service Managers. This will be in conjunction with the three classroom sessions for each of parts and service, the eight webinars for each of parts and service. The time is now.