enabling enterprise-wide mobile deployment at the usda by john p. rehberger on june 19, 2013 with...

Enabling Enterprise-wide Mobile Deployment at the USDA

By John P. Rehberger on June 19, 2013with Joe Gorup, CourseAvenue

2John Rehberger and Joe Gorup: Enabling Enterprise Mobile Deployment @ the USDA: mLearn Con 2013

+ Overview of USDA and AgLearn

+ AgLearn Offerings and Services

+ The Mobile Challenge & Content Integration Challenges

+ Lean Six Sigma Project

+ Changes and Outcome

+ Enabling Mobile Across the Enterprise

– Questions to Ask/Answers from the USDA+ Open Questions

Contents


About 125,000 users (e.g., USDA employees, contract staff, partners, etc.) across 29 agencies and offices

About 1 million learning events each year (courses taken, books read, classes attended, etc.). Over 99% free to USDA learners.

Full-service operation with significant economies of scale (<$5M annual budget = $27M in cost avoidance). Overall budget shrank about 10% from FY11 to FY12.

The official training record repository for USDA.

About AgLearn


AgLearn “Wedding Cake”

Director: Jerome Davin Deputy: John Rehberger

AgLearn Administrators (about 1400 people)

AgLearn Agency/Office Leads (about 50 people)

PMO and Hosting Support Staff (about 13 FTEs)

AgLearn Users (over 125,000 people)


Core AgLearn Services

+ Support Mandated Training

+ Classroom Management

+ External Training Management

+ Library of Common Work Resources

+ Creation of Mission-specific Online Courses

+ Talent/Competency Management

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Business Skills

• 900+ titles

IT Professional• 1,700+ titles

Desktop• 400+ titles

On-demand Business & Technical books• 15,000+ titles

Financial, Retirement and TSP Training for the

Federal Workforce

AgLearn Vended Learning Resources

SkillSoft Government Leadership Advantage

And SkillSoft Live Events


+ Traditionally AgLearn supported ILT with some digital media support.

– Since 2010 the growth in online distribution has grown significantly

+ Webinars– Given travel restrictions an improvement in infrastructure have helped

+ eLearning– Off-the-Shelf & Custom replacing ILT or portions of ILT. – USDA is the SME on many topics fueling need for custom development

+ Mobile– 2011: Intrigue and Discussion– 2012: Increased awareness, planning & infrastructure updates– 2013: Rollout!

The move to online & mobile…


AgLearn is Hosting More Webinars …

Cumulative Number of Webinars by Fiscal Year

Oct DecFe

bApr

Jun

Aug0

200400600800

1000120014001600

FY2010FY2011FY2012

Oct DecFe

bApr

Jun

Aug0

5000100001500020000250003000035000

FY2010FY2011FY2012

Cumulative Webinar Attendees by Fiscal Year

…and more people are attending


Custom Courses Were 84% of AgLearn Online Courses in 2012

Non-USDA-specific Courses

About 1 million completed learning activities on AgLearn in 2012.


+ Continue desktop support

+ Enable access to eLearning from mobile devices

– Cross device bookmarking a must• Start on desktop, finish on mobile

– Single course was required• Duplicating courses for different

devices not practical

+ Phase 1: Tablet Support only

Mobile Needs


+ The process for getting new material into AgLearn was:

– Mandatory (and thus somewhat resented); – Slow and unpredictable;– Expensive in terms of support costs and the submitters’ time;– Not transparent (and thus made people suspicious);– And often ended in finger-pointing and nasty or sarcastic or

passive/aggressive e-mail messages.

+ New tools were being introduced concurrently, but these tools were not going to be able to fix the underlying process problems.

+ The thought of introducing mobile learning into this process was a non-starter.

The Content Integration Problem


Old Integration Took an Average of Two Months per Course

Agency Days LapsedRD Average 26

OCFO Average 28

NRCS Average 29

FSIS Average 56

APHIS Average 57

OCIO Average 60

CR Average 65

AMS Average 92

FS Average 93

ARS Average 107

DA Average 211

Grand Average 68

Source: ATS data for 2009-2010


About Half of Submitted Courses Didn’t Get Onto AgLearn

Source: ATS data in Jan. 2011


Old Content Integration Process

Content Files Uploaded to FTP site; ATS ticket is Created

508 review; AICC and SCORM testing; TIA

assessment

Files Sent to Production Site

Files Sent to Staging Site

Final Review by Agency POC

Feedback sent to POC via ATS

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+ LSS project ran from Jan. – May 2011

+ New process started in June 2011

+ Outcome:

– Process is capable of a sustained 5-day cycle time– Thru 105 submitted courses:

• Average cycle time cut to 29 days with 100% success rate (and far fewer complaints)

• Support costs dropped from more than $500/course for integration to less than $200/course

– Course development risk pushed out to parties best able to manage it

– Supports greater scalability

Lean 6 Sigma Project


Current “Fast-Track” Process

Sample testing by AgLearn staff

Forms are completed; files are uploaded or

identified

Files sent to Production Site

Agency official signs conformance form

Files sent to Staging Site

Final Acceptance

testing

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+ AgLearn+ Courseware Technical Reference Guide – Provides technical details for people when developing content for AgLearn

– See http://usda.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/119 for details

+ AgLearn Central SharePoint site – Enhances transparency

Content Integration Guide and Tools

http://usda.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/119


AgLearn Online Course Creation “Swim Lanes”

Briefings

Create new courses

Modify current CA and non-CA

courses

Create new or modify current

courses Other tools/vendors

Procure online COTS courses

Content Integration Process

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+ 2013 is the year of “AgLearn Mobile”

– We routinely get demand-pull requests for mobile learning support– Where we have been:

• Based on the 2012 ASTD conference no one seems to have mastered mobile learning and learning management

• The SuccessFactors purchase of Plateau has modified Plateau’s mobile plans

• Technical constraints– Mobile single sign-on (SSO) authentication– Current mix of USDA platforms

– Now Implementing a Solution:• Working with CourseAvenue’s

OneCourse solution for cross-device launching

The Future of Content on AgLearn

Stnd Cell

Phone

Black berry

Other Smart Phone

USDA Mobile Platforms

(as of May 2012)


+ Goals

– Make mobile disappear• Make learning on a mobile device just another way of learning.• Make it simple and seamless to the user• Example: A course started on a desktop can be seamlessly continued on a

mobile device.– Make it easy to manage and support

• The same infrastructure that supports desktop computers should support mobile devices

+ Expected Measures & Metrics

– Increase in discretionary training– Non-traditional work hours– Reduction in access-related support costs– Training taken during emergencies or down-time

Goals & Expected Measures


+ Where are your source materials?– Do you have all your content in 1 place?

• Source code for your Flash files? AgLearn: ~ 35,000 pages of content and ~1GB of media in CourseAvenue Studio

+ LMS support for launching mobile content?– Step 1: Can you login to your LMS with your mobile device? – Step 2: Can your LMS launch mobile content? How is SCORM/AICC supported? AgLearn: Upgraded LMS, has way to login, identify and launch mobile content

+ What problem are you trying to solve?– Handcraft mobile-only content nuggets? Enable seamless access across

devices/platforms for potentially all content?– Huge difference between a 5 minute “chunk” and enabling a learner to spend 5

minutes in the content of their choice. AgLearn: OneCourse for cross-device bookmarking, enabling learner driven

access.

Enabling Enterprise Deployment


+ Your Skills Inventory– Cross-platform deployment inherently very

technical and “new”• Example: Want audio in a course? .MP3 not

supported natively in Firefox. AgLearn: “90/10” infrastructure in place

+ Design globally, target, implement and support specifically– Target #1: Web-based Delivery to Tablets

• Ease of transition from desktop, Acceptable form factor

• Proliferation of iPads, Lowest risk of user rejection

• Ease of technical support (i.e., delivery is device independent)

– Target #2: Web-based Delivery to Handhelds– Target #3: App-based Delivery to Tablets


Admin

Media Specialists

Content Creators


+ Technology Notes– Start with cross-device HTML5 “structures” provided by CourseAvenue– Personalize with simple file upload or advanced CSS & JavaScript– Enable non-developers to add content– Support with media-specialists as needed




+ Technology Notes– Non-developers use either simple or advanced editor modes– Media-specialists use other best-of-breed tools for media production– All working together in collaborative environment


+ Process trumps technology

+ A common development platform enables process change to be implemented.

– Lack of a platform means fight the battle on multiple fronts

+ Mobile is unique, but it isn’t special

+ Know the risks

+ Know what you can (and cannot) deliver to the end-users

+ Just try it…but understand the process implications!

Initial Mobile Lessons Learned


Visit us at www.aglearn.usda.gov and see how

AgLearn+ is “Adding to Your Knowledge”!

Questions?

John P. Rehberger, Deputy Dir. 703-828-5519Joe Gorup, CEO, CourseAvenue 630-225-4257

enabling enterprise-wide mobile deployment at the usda by john p. rehberger on june 19, 2013 with...

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