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

[Donna M. Fritzsche]

Hi Mike,
I think your instincts sound correct.  This project should be treated 
like any other redesign or integration project.  While the metaphor 
is a useful one for gathering buy-in, the actual strategic planning, 
user research, content organization,  metadata creation, interface 
design, labeling determination,  etc.  should all take place like it 
would for any other online project.  The metaphor may or may not 
last.  Or it might act as only a marketing phrase or site name, etc.

Donna Fritzsche
Partner
Strategic Knowledge Architecture and Information Design
www.amichi.info


Donna
At 11:59 AM -0600 4/1/03, MJJAIXEN at up.com wrote:
>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
>
>
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