Posted By Michael Baron Hi Rich I work for an international chemicals organisation and I have recently taken part in an e-learning trial run by the Corporate Health and Safety department. The subject was zoning (flammable/explosive atmospheres). I found the exercise very enjoyable and extremely useful. The use of interactive tests and also the use of a quiz (style based on who wants to be a millionaire) made it a good learning tool. The tests (and scores achieved) were recorded on-line as part of the course statistics - they were carried out regularly to check the candidate's understanding at each stage. The course took me over 8 hours to complete, though it definitely made a significant difference to my understanding of the subject. The issues which need to be resolved were: Standard of IT support - the home server was based in Switzerland (I was in Wigan) and I struggled at times with the link. My computer crashed once or twice and ultimately I ended up doing most of the course at weekends when no one else was using the site systems. As I was working in the office, I was constantly interupted by people wanting Permits signing or risk assessments carried out etc... The combination of the above two factors meant that the course was fragmented and lack coherence at times. I consequently struggled to retain some information and had to keep covering the same ground when I restarted the course. Lots of information was presented which could be printed off, however I would have found it easier to be able to have access to a powerpoint presentation or similar as a reference guide. There were translation (from German to English) issues which made some information unclear or ambiguous. The only way of contacting the course supervisor was by e-mail which lead to time delays and also possible misunderstanding of the question I was asking. The time taken because of the delays (it should have taken 3-4 hours) meant severe disruptions to my existing workload. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the course and would recommend it as a training tool. In our organisation the issues I mentioned above must be addressed to make it work effectively. I do think that it cannot replace classroom or tutored learning and should only be used to augment the overall course rather than as a complete training tool in itself. If you would like to discuss this further, please feel free to contact me. Mick

Posted By Ethne D'Arcy Working Safely as an e-learning course is available from Learning4Business and anaging Safely is available as a CBT course from a company called ACT. Please e-mail me if you require any further information Ethne