A Nigerian company, Astel Risk and Safety Consulting Limited, in conjunction with a United States-based organisation, Comprehensive Loss Management Inc. (CLMI) has introduced an online training management system known as ‘ResourceNow’ with focus on simplifying employee training programmes and reducing organisational training cost by about 50 per cent.
ResourceNow is an online learning management system (LMS) designed for organizations to simplify the distribution and deployment of training contents thereby reducing cost of personnel training.
It comes with pre-loaded safety courses and has the flexibility of organizations creating their own courses and other contents.
The Chief Executive Officer of Astel Risk and Safety Consulting, Chukwuka Igbokwe said in a recent briefing that “the decision to launch an online learning management system (LMS) sprouted from simplicity and cost effectiveness in learning”.
He said the aim of this solution is to reduce the loss of productive hours as a result of assembling employees in classroom for hours or days presenting materials that can be deployed online, adding that this is a training management solution, not just an online product.
Prior to deployment, an assessment of an organisation’s training programme will be done to know what can be moved online and what can be deployed face-to-face.
He added that “implementing training programmes or plans can be very difficult due to so many issues ranging from lack of training resources to scheduling employees for training as well as documenting completion”.
According to him, all these issues faced by organisations informed the decision to offer a solution that can simplify personnel training process, reduce course fee per head and at the same time increase the level of employees’ awareness of safety practices and operational procedures in the workplace.
He further emphasized that ResourceNow has been packaged to make learning easy and fast.
ResourceNowis pre-loaded with Safety courses delivered through video and text (handout) creating an effective learning experience for employees.
A key feature of ResourceNow is that it comes with the flexibility of organisations creating their own courses and other contents. It takes less than half the time of classroom instruction and cost far less than half of classroom training. Other features of ResourceNow include: assigning and tracking of training completion is fully automated; a mobile app feature for easy access for employees; has over 3000 documents and 94 computer based programs that can be modified to Company’s’ needs as well as end of course evaluation among others.
Speaking on the challenges of e-learning in Africa Igbokwe said, “e-learning is challenging in Africa not because the technology is not available, it is mostly a thing of perception – that you cannot get everything online just as the classroom.”
He added that the rate at which learning programmes, both academic and professional, are being deployed online shows that indeed, one can have a great learning experience online just as the classroom provided the learning solution or platform meets the requirements for independent human learning.
