[Sigia-l] "University" as metaphor for corporate training

[MJJAIXEN at up.com]

In an attempt to consolidate all the various on-line training functions, a
proposal has been raised in our company to create a company University,
much like McDonald's "Hamburger U.", except that it's on-line.  The
proposal has taken off a little prematurely (IMHO), as some developers are
already working on the "campus map" (site map) and plans to build
"libraries", "drawers",  and "classrooms" on-line to hold all this training
"stuff".  While I think the idea of a consolidated place for all company
training and education programs is outstanding (and also something we're
already trying to build, minus the "university" metaphor), I'm concerned
that the enthusiasm for the metaphor is blinding people to the underlying
work to integrate all the disparate training programs in each department
with our corporate LMS (Learning Management System) to make a cohesive and
unified place for training.  I'm also concerned that a great idea in
bringing better organization and structure and cohesiveness to our
education program may get hindered by the insistence of a "University"
metaphor that really hasn't been evaluated to see if it really applies.

Does anybody have any experience with consolidating training information
(both for on-line training as well as classroom and other types of
training) into a unified program, and whether or not the "University"
metaphor really carries well into an on-line environment?  My thought is
that the University idea is a powerful idea that can help increase buy-in
from across the various training organizations in the company, but may not
necessarily translate well into a web-based initiative.  I don't want to
kill the metaphor, but don't want the coolness factor of the metaphor to
backfire on a worthwhile program either.

Mike Jaixen
Union Pacific