Readers Respond: How the IT Organization Is Ensuring That Staff Are Adequately Trained to Work With New and Emerging Technologies a nd Changing Roles, and In-House Training Mechanisms Developed ====================================================================== Copyright 1993 CAUSE. Permission to copy or disseminate all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for commercial advantage, the CAUSE copyright and its date appear,and notice is given that copying is by permission of CAUSE, the association for managing and using information technology in higher education. To disseminate otherwise, or to republish, requires written permission. For further information, contact CAUSE, 4840 Pearl East Circle, Suite 302E, Boulder, CO 80301, 303-449-4430, e-mail info@CAUSE.colorado.edu ====================================================================== Readers Respond How is your IT organization ensuring that staff are adequately trained to work with new and emerging technologies and changing roles? Have you developed any training mechanisms in-house (manuals, videos, seminars) for teaching new skills? We have been doing a great deal of training this year, since we embarked on a new direction in computing platforms: an Ingres RDMS and Microfocus COBOL on Unix machines connected to PCs and Macs by TCP/IP. We found that group training by live professional tutors and joint pilot project participation is the formula that seems to work best for everyone. (I suppose it is no accident that this is also one of the more expensive ways.) There is no news in this finding, just a confirmation of previous experience. We did do something else that was new and quite effective. This was a capsule training program for our existing systems, designed to be taken by tech staff newly appointed to work with them. The reasoning here was that it was possible to obtain training for just about everything, except one's own "legacy" systems. Why not capture the essential elements of systems configuration and operation from the people who know it best in an easily assimilatable form, and use this as the basis of a training program? The difficulty here was that the people who knew our old systems best weren't professional instructors or documentors or course outliners. So we found a very experienced free-lance consultant who helped us set up a standard "inductive" format for recording essential information. As the first system, we chose our most obscure and troublesome, and used that to create the template for the program and show our staff how to use it for other systems at the same time. We call this our QuickStart program. It resides in template and in populated form on a commonly accessible directory on our LAN. We plan to do all our new systems in this format. I have hopes of "some day" extending it to be the basis for a live instruction module, or media-supported program. The format itself may undergo some modification as we develop systems using our new tools and platforms, but will continue to be the first step of training for staff newly assigned to systems. Ken Maharaj Director of Administrative Computer Services Dalhousie University (Canada) kmaharaj@adm.dal.ca Training provided to the staff of University Systems at Ohio State University falls into two categories: human relations development or work skills development. In the human relations development program, during the fall of 1992, 85 percent of University Systems' staff attended a workshop on improving our human relations. The first segment explored the ways in which we can value and appreciate the cultural diversity of the University community. The second segment of this workshop focused entirely on the issues, concerns, and University policies regarding sexual harassment. The content covered the definition of sexual harassment, relevant regulations and laws, and responsibilities of every staff person. Any staff member who failed for whatever reason to participate in the live presentation received printed materials covering the same information. A similar series of workshops on the Americans with Disabilities Act was presented last November. A general session was offered that informed the participants about the ADA in brief, and explored the issues of those with disabilities as well as attitudes about disabled persons. For anyone who interviews potential employees, or participates in the hiring process, we required a second session that detailed the legal and ethical aspects of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Team building and team development activities have been implemented for a number of University Systems work groups. This emphasis on creating superior work teams is the cornerstone of any effort to improve quality and customer service. These sessions are to be ongoing, and are available upon request. A comprehensive new employee orientation program is continuously reviewed and modified as time and change require. Some recent additions in the past two years are segments that focus on the culture and values that we want to instill in our staff, and the assigning of a mentor to each new person so they will have a guide and advisor during their orientation and beyond. Additional activities during 1992-93 in human relations included training in building consensus in groups and working with difficult people. In the work skills development program, Applications Development has conducted a number of training programs both in cooperation with Training and Development and independently. Sessions developed and presented jointly to date include concepts of quality, ISP planning, workstation use, group decision-making, CICS command-level training, and PC software training. Information Services has established computer-based training programs in basic concepts of computing, telecommunications, MVS JCL, programming concepts, and computer console operations. Live classes have been offered in training program development, problem-solving techniques, and automated operations implementation. Other service areas have participated in the general skills development programs offered as brown-bag lunch sessions on topics such as future directions in data processing, effective communications, and thriving on chaos (Tom Peters on management). Additional activities during 1992-93 in work skills included Microsoft project training, using spreadsheets (Excel), advanced Microsoft Word, and advanced master console operations. Joe Rutter Computing Education Coordinator, University Systems The Ohio State University rutter.1@osu.edu In spring 1993, a pilot Internet training program was carried out at Columbia University Libraries. The purpose of the program was to enable the participants to become proficient on the Internet; to develop a program for providing Internet training on an ongoing basis; and to enable reference librarians and bibliographers to utilize Internet resources in their subject areas and to assist their clients to do the same. The training was carried out over a twenty-week period from January to May 1993. Four trainers were from the libraries and one was from the campus computer center. Of fourteen trainees, eleven were reference librarians and three were technical services librarians. The training took place in a campus training facility with IBM PS/2 microcomputers connected to the campus Ethernet. The ten formal training sessions included Internet Overview, Columbia's Internet Host & UNIX, Kermit File Transfers, Communicating Beyond Columbia, Special Interest Groups & News Groups, Discovering Resources, Telnet/TN3270, FTP, Using Navigational Tools, and Tips & Review. A new session was presented every other week. Each session was limited to seven trainees and required two hours of classroom time and two hours of non-classroom practice time. Each participant received a copy of Crossing the Internet Threshold and an Internet training program notebook (locally produced documentation). An Internet reserves collection consisting of several books and a few articles was made available in the main library. A local electronic notes file was set up and participants were encouraged to use it to share information and to post questions. We plan to offer a new Internet training program to sixteen librarians during the fall 1993 semester. The fall syllabus will be somewhat different: there will be eight formal training sessions instead of ten. Two topics that were formerly part of the program will now be prerequisites. More time will be spent on mastering the skills needed to discover Internet resources. Prerequisites will be: basic computer literacy, e-mail and Kermit file transfer competency, and attendance at a two-hour "Internet Overview" session to be offered to all interested staff in August 1993. Some of the pilot program trainees will be serving as trainers in the fall program. We plan to form an informal discussion group which will meet once or twice per semester to discuss activities, developments, and challenges associated with use of the Internet. We plan to encourage trainees and graduates of the program to compile subject-specific Internet pathfinders. Strategies for compiling pathfinders will be emphasized in the fall program. Catherine M. Thomas User Services Librarian, Library Systems Office Columbia University (New York) thomas@columbia.edu Computing Services at the University of Windsor has undertaken some significant training of technical staff in two key areas: Unix and networking. Since we are in the midst of a complete migration from VM- and MVS-based mainframes to open systems, we believe these to be the two key technology areas in which our people must develop proficiency. Approximately one year ago, we obtained a one-time increase in our training budget to undertake comprehensive training of our staff of just over fifty people. The training plan outlined the kind of training each group would require in each of the two areas. For instance, we felt our consultants and help desk staff would require a general working knowledge, while our systems programmers would need in-depth training in, say, system administration. We started the training with some carefully selected computer- based training modules which were loaded onto our LAN. People were "required" to complete these modules before they could participate in on-site classroom training. The on-site training was provided by a third party, and again was tailored so that the right people got the right information. Another key ingredient in our training program was timing. We have been careful to try to conduct all our training at a time when people were about to begin a project where the knowledge would be put to applied use. In the near future, our training will focus on teaching our analysts the use of JAD and RAD techniques. In other words, learning will focus on business processes rather than technical requirements. While this may be a rather narrow example of training, we are very pleased with the results and feel we are now well placed to make productive use of new technologies. Ted Dodds Director, Computing Services University of Windsor (Canada) tdodds@uwindsor.ca At Northeastern State University we are just completing a campus-wide network. It is fiber- based, uses 40+ file servers and seven central computing systems, and serves about 11,000 users through 1,600 connections. Computing and Telecommunications staff have attended Novell schools, networking and computing conferences, and weekly in- house training sessions. University staff development so far has included a 100-plus-page users manual in both printed form and an electronic version on the net with key-words, etc. During the month of July we offered open training sessions to employees. A lab with thirty-six stations was used to present a four-hour session on the Internet and related topics and a three-hour session on Token Ring, Novell, and related services. The sessions were rotated from AM to PM daily during the entire month. More training will be provided during the upcoming year, including sessions at night in student residence halls for students who have network access in their rooms. A telephone hot-line is staffed about ten hours a day, there is an e-mail questions/help mailbox, and a Microcomputing Services Center is used to provide consulting, problem-solving, and other types of user training and support such as multimedia equipment, source materials, and training. A copy of the manual is available and includes acceptable use forms, privacy agreements, modem pool access forms, etc. Larry Hogan Director, Computing and Communications Northeastern State University (Oklahoma) hogan@cherokee.nsuok.edu At the University of Nebraska Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR), the information technology support function lies within Communications and Computing Services. Information resources include television production studios, satellite uplinking capabilities, six student/staff computer teaching labs, a multimedia compressed video teaching classroom, and a thousand-node, Token-Ring, fiber-optic network. Training and support are provided to 2,100 IANR computer users with network IDs. Training philosophies have matured as the skill levels of the audience have increased. We no longer offer introductory classes to DOS, spreadsheets, or word processing; instead we've invested in an interactive touch-screen workstation with video laserdisc lessons on DOS, WordPerfect, and Lotus. We offer hands-on training, seminars, and brown-bag user-group meetings for advanced and new/upgraded software topics, Internet/e-mail, multimedia, and CD-ROM use. A large library of popular self-teaching videos, audio tapes, and books cover basic and advanced skills. Since the staff are located throughout Nebraska, we utilize our TV production team to produce over 30 hours of live instruction each year. These programs are broadcast and downlinked at thirty-eight extension receiving sites and the videos are placed in the tutorial loan library. Daily support and training is accomplished in part by a group of departmental computer support staff. Each of our thirty-five units has a person identified for intensive computer updates and training by the ICCS staff. We exert a great deal of effort in keeping these people well trained, achieving a very effective outreach objective. Jim Emal Professor and Computing Coordinator Communications and Computing Services University of Nebraska, Lincoln ianr002@unlvm.unl.edu