March/April 2002
Distance-learning programs—such as ISRI’s Web-based SmartNet—enable scrap employees to expand their skills and knowledge without the hassle and expense of leaving the workplace.
By Robert L. Reid
Robert L. Reid is managing editor of Scrap.
For scrap companies, giving employees the training they need to do their jobs better has always been a balancing act between desire and dollars—the desire to give as many employees as possible the chance to learn useful information and develop new skills versus the dollars available for such training.
Sure, the basic day-to-day skills needed to work safely, operate or repair machinery efficiently, and perform other tasks can be taught by supervisors, experienced line workers, or company trainers out in the yard, on the sorting line, or in a training room for little out-of-pocket expense or time away from work.
But more advanced learning—from identifying radioactive material to scrap-buying and managerial issues—is often reserved for workshops and seminars, which usually involve travel as well as overnights in hotels, meals, and other expenses. Moreover, employees who attend such programs are usually gone for one or more days—time that could have been spent buying, processing, or selling scrap.
Such costs often limit the number of employees that companies—especially small and midsized ones—can afford to send for off-site training. Consequently, the useful knowledge or skills are either available only to a small part of the work force, or they must be passed along by the employee who attended the program. That person is unlikely to have professional training or teaching skills, plus he or she might end up imparting incomplete or even incorrect information—hardly an ideal learning situation.
Going the Distance
Though it might sound implausible, there is a way to increase the number of employees who get exposed to new knowledge and skills while decreasing the costs per trainee. That way is distance learning, also called distance education. While these terms encompass different training methods and technologies, they’re united in one feature—the trainees and the instructor are not in the same room. They may not even be in the same city, state, or country.
Instead, distance learning relies on delivery methods ranging from passive, one-way approaches such as printed material and prerecorded audio- or videotapes to the interactive capabilities of the Internet (for more details, see “Distance Distinctions” on page 114). With all of these methods, trainees remain at their workplace—perhaps in their own offices or a dedicated training room—while the instructor remains at his or her original location.
If the training is passive, the instructor may have written or recorded the material long beforehand and mailed it to the trainees. If it’s interactive—especially with Internet-based programs—the instructor provides live training, examining images, charts, or other material on a computer screen that can be controlled by any or all of the trainees while simultaneously lecturing, asking questions, or sharing information via speaker phone or through a live video stream.
The result is a training session that offers attendees as much as 90 percent of the experience of classroom training, says one Internet course participant, while also enabling companies to train more workers without the hassles and expenses of travel.
Not surprisingly, Internet-based training has attracted attention lately. A congressional commission headed by Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) explored the issue and published a report in December 2000 titled The Power of the Internet for Learning. This report from the Web-based Education Commission noted that while the Internet is “reshaping business, media, entertainment, and society in astonishing ways ... it is just now being tapped to transform education.”
Among the report’s recommendations is a call for “universal broadband access” in the workplace to facilitate educational opportunities (broadband refers to the high-speed transmissions needed for the most interactive Internet-based courses). The report also predicts that the market for Web-based corporate learning will grow from $550 million in 1998 to $11.4 billion by 2003.
The American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) (Alexandria, Va.), an association for professional trainers, is equally optimistic on the future of Web-based learning for businesses. In 2000, in fact, the group converted its print-based publication about technical training into an online magazine focused on the e-learning industry. As ASTD launched the Web-based Learning Circuits, it noted that the traditional trappings of training were being forced “to make room for a new sibling. Its face is a computer screen, through which new approaches to adult education are being applied with breathtaking boldness.”
The SmartNet Solution
For recyclers, 2001 marked the debut of the first Internet-based distance learning designed for the scrap industry. Initially called Webex—after the proprietary server that hosts the courses—the program is now known as ReMA SmartNet and its training programs cover topics ranging from baler safety and identifying radioactive material to OSHA record-keeping, employment law, scrap buying, and preventing fraud and embezzlement (for information on upcoming sessions, see “Connecting With SmartNet” on page 115).
All it takes to use SmartNet is a computer that can access the Internet (preferably with at least a 56K modem connection), a telephone (with speaker-phone capability for multiple trainees), and $89, explains Mike Mattia, ISRI’s director of risk management. (As a caveat, a high-speed Internet connection—such as a DSL or T-1—will work best with the graphics-oriented information on SmartNet.)
For that low $89 price, scrap companies can offer the training to as many employees as can reasonably see the computer screen and hear the pre-sentation. The fee is based on each computer connection, Mattia explains, so if you want to connect two or more terminals to SmartNet you will be charged accordingly, with group discounts available based on the number of connections. There’s no additional charge, though, for using a projector with your SmartNet-connected computer to display the screen to a roomful of trainees.
Courses, which usually last 90 minutes to two hours, are offered either to multiple companies at the same time or to a single firm that wants to train a number of its own employees, gathered together or in different company locations. In either case, the participating firm or firms simply dial a Webex phone number and use a code number for the specific meeting to access the audio portion of the course, then use the same meeting number to log onto SmartNet at isri.webex.com (note: the SmartNet Web address does not include the prefix www).
The Web page that appears intentionally matches the graphics and colors of ISRI’s Web site and includes numerous features to make online learning as familiar and nonthreatening as possible, Mattia notes. For instance, when trainees want to ask a question in a classroom setting, they usually raise their hand—so SmartNet includes a “raise hand” icon for trainees to click to get the presenter’s attention.
Other icons are equally user-friendly. An icon to let trainees view material on the full computer screen looks like a screen with an arrow pointing outward to suggest enlarging. Also, a tool for “drawing” on the screen—to underline a point or circle something in question—resembles a crayon. Plus, though trainees sitting at a computer can’t look around to see who else is taking the course—as in a classroom—SmartNet at least lists the names of everyone participating. There’s also a feature for electronically passing notes in class—each trainee can send a private message to the trainer or other participants without involving the rest of the trainees.
Like a radio talk show host, the presenter can also decide which trainees to let speak—by using a muting feature that allows only one person at a time to talk over the speaker phone or by opening up the discussion to the group. Another feature allows the presenter to turn over control of the Internet portion of the presentation to any of the attendees and then retrieve control when the trainee has finished asking a question or making a point on the screen.
Information Exchange
During a SmartNet course, the presenter can call up a PowerPoint presentation, Word or PDF documents, even a new Web site. For example, during a course on OSHA’s new record-keeping requirements, Mattia can take trainees directly to the OSHA Web page on record-keeping to show them the new form. If there’s a question about that form, he can even zoom in and enlarge the image so everyone can clearly read the material being discussed.
In addition, the presenter can download copies of the presentation to all trainees so they have copies of handouts or even an entire PowerPoint presentation right in their own computer. Or the trainees themselves can share a document or file with the entire class—say, they have a digital photo of a questionable load of scrap. They can put the image on the screen during the course, circle the material in question with the crayon icon, and discuss it with the presenter and the other trainees. Or a Word document can be edited right there on the screen, with input from all participants.
Eventually, Mattia notes, SmartNet should be able to offer live video streaming rather than just still images—to show ISRI’s new baler safety video online, for instance, along with a live discussion from baler safety experts on how to improve working conditions. Or a scrap processor could videotape his workers performing a particular task and then ask for advice on how they could do the work better or safer. At the very least, video technology would enhance the classroom feel of electronic learning.
Online Roadblocks
Sending live video across the Internet won’t help if the trainees aren’t equipped to watch it, of course, Mattia notes. At many scrap facilities, he says, even supervisors might not use the Internet on a regular basis. Often there’s only one computer at the company with an Internet connection, and that connection might not be fast enough to handle the capacity of live video. “Right now,” Mattia explains, “we’re restricted not by what we can offer but by what can be received.”
Such technological limitations are a problem for distance learning in general. Testimony before the Web-based Education Commission, for instance, had predicted a rapid shift toward Web-based training for workers, with the corporate reliance on traditional classrooms expected to fall from 78 to 64 percent by 2001. But in a 2001 report from ASTD—whose studies had been cited in predicting the shift to computer-based training—the association noted that classroom training actually increased its dominance last year to nearly 80 percent while technology-delivered training held steady at slightly more than 8 percent. Moreover, technology’s role in training had slipped from its high of more than 9 percent in 1997, ASTD said.
The association concluded: “This leveling off in the growth of technology as a training tool suggests that organizations are finding the obstacles to implementing technology-based training difficult to overcome. We find this to be especially true among small to mid-size organizations.”
Spreading the Net
Despite such limitations, the use of computers at work and in the home will only continue to grow. That’s why Mattia is confident that distance learning’s appeal will eventually cast a wide net—even in the scrap industry. Toward that end, SmartNet offers scrap-focused courses for everyone from line workers to owners.
SmartNet has also been used for presentations to ReMA chapter meetings and as an Internet-based form of videoconferencing for ReMA committee meetings. While attending the Paper Stock Industries Chapter meeting in Florida last November, for example, Mattia showed the baler video to PSI attendees then went to his hotel room and used a laptop to conduct a SmartNet presentation on lead safety for the Gulf Coast Chapter, which was holding its meeting in Tulsa, Okla. Mattia then flew back to the Washington, D.C., area and presented a second SmartNet presentation for the Gulf Coast Chapter from his home on a Saturday.
Once SmartNet has live video capability, it can be used in many creative ways. In just one example, a senator or congressional representative could talk with his or her constituents in the scrap industry just by taking a taxi from Capitol Hill to ISRI’s headquarters near the White House—rather than having to fly to a home state or home district, Mattia notes.
ISRI is also exploring ways to use SmartNet to offer scrap-related certifications, such as a Scrap Recycling Safety Professional, Mattia says. The concept would likely combine SmartNet courses with other continuing-education assignments or projects, along with some method of testing the trainee’s knowledge. ReMA is currently working with an accrediting organization to develop such certifications, Mattia notes.
Satisfied Customers
One of SmartNet’s greatest advantages is the speed with which its courses can be created, Mattia says, noting that it’s possible to “make a new course in as little time as it takes to put together a PowerPoint presentation.”
The system also allows companies to quickly plan and deliver a training session, says Suzanne Matthews, safety manager for Commercial Metals Co.’s secondary metals processing division (Dallas). Matthews took the lead safety course via SmartNet last year and was impressed enough to look into holding a scrap-specific OSHA record-keeping course for her safety staff—some 30 participants at Commercial Metals facilities across the country.
With the idea approved early last December, Matthews had just one month to organize the event before the new record-keeping rules went into effect Jan. 1, 2002. In the end, she pulled it off with a bit of creativity and flexibility (some trainees had to take the course with handouts and a speaker phone because there weren’t Internet-connected computers available at every location).
Matthews says she definitely could not have done any similar training within the required time frame without SmartNet’s capabilities. Flying people to Dallas from Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, and other Commercial Metals locations would have been expensive, and dealing with the scheduling logistics would have likely pushed the training beyond the Jan. 1 deadline.
Ron Cochrane, personnel and safety manager for Thalheimer Brothers Inc. (Philadelphia), likewise praises his experience with the SmartNet OSHA record-keeping course. Though taking the course in his office meant there were a few interruptions by coworkers, he noted that it’s a lot easier to tell someone you can get back to them in an hour or two rather than telling them you’ll be out for a whole day of training with travel.
Moreover, the question-and-answer exchanges between trainees and the presenter were just as good as during a live lecture, he says, remarking, “You get a lot of information that way, from people posing problems with real-life examples.”
For self-described “techno-geek” Sam Hummelstein, president of Hummelstein Iron & Metal Inc. (Jonesboro, Ark.) and ReMA chair, the most valuable benefit of SmartNet training is “not having to travel.” By delivering programs directly to recyclers’ facilities, SmartNet also enables companies to train many more employees than would ever be possible with off-site seminars.
“You’d lose those people for at least a full day as opposed to an hour or two with SmartNet,” Hummelstein says. “For small companies, it’s especially tough to send as many people as they’d like to good training.” Distance learning enables business owners like Hummelstein to “go much deeper into the organization” and offer courses such as identifying radioactive material “all the way down to the guys who pick the stuff off the table at the shear.”
While he acknowledges that scrap processors might hesitate to invest in training when markets are bad, Hummelstein stresses that the benefits extend far beyond the skills learned. Training also helps improve employee attitudes because “people appreciate it when you invest in them,” he says.
In the end, Hummelstein notes, distance-learning programs such as SmartNet mean that scrap processors “can still do training even in tough times, and they can do it at lower costs.”
Distance Distinctions
For more information on distance learning, consider the following resources:
- The University of Idaho’s engineering outreach program has a Web site—at www.uidaho.edu/evo/distglan.html—that describes “Distance Education at a Glance.” Its series of 13 guides includes information on various methods of delivering distance learning (including computer/data, video, voice, and print), along with a glossary of distance-learning terms, strategies for using distance learning, and a discussion on how to evaluate distance-learning presenters.
- The Power of the Internet for Learning—the final report of the congressional Web-based Education Commission—is available online in various formats at www.webcommission.org. Though the report primarily focuses on increasing access to the Internet for students, it also discusses some business-related distance-education issues.
- Learning Circuits, the American Society for Training & Development’s online magazine about e-learning, can be found at www.learningcircuits.org. While some documents are available only to ASTD members, there’s information on various Web-based training methods, ways to make distance learning more successful in the workplace, plus a glossary of terms. The association’s Web site—www.astd.org—contains additional distance-learning information.
Connecting With SmartNet
Several ReMA SmartNet courses are offered each month, generally from 10-11:30 a.m. and 3-4:30 p.m. to accommodate trainees in the East and West Coast time zones.
A list of courses in 2002 can be found at www.isri.org/seminars/smartnet.htm. For a more detailed explanation of each course and easy online registration, click on the “Meeting Calendar” function on SmartNet’s home page at isri.webex.com.•
Distance-learning programs—such as ISRI’s Web-based SmartNet—enable scrap employees to expand their skills and knowledge without the hassle and expense of leaving the workplace.