Magazine

Not Just For The Web

September 1, 2002

earning management systems don't just run online courses. Over the next two years, the Immigration and Naturalization Service will have to hire 20,000 people-about one new hire every hour for 730 days straight. Keeping track of their training would have been an administrative migraine a few years ago, when records were kept on paper or in antiquated computer systems. The big bosses at headquarters would have waited weeks to find out whether all new Border Patrol agents were up to snuff on firearms certification or whether all new supervisors had completed mandatory management training.

Now the officials can just call Ellen Ravelin. She'll have a report ready in hours, if not minutes.

Ravelin, director of training for the INS, and a team of employees in Burlington, Vt., have spent the past few years moving the agency's training records online into a central learning management system. Now that thousands of such records are in the system, INS managers across the country can check up on their employees' training needs any time. What's more, they can monitor training requirements for new employees. The learning management system grabs data about new hires and promotions each week from the payroll system. The system reviews job titles, grade levels and other information to figure out what courses employees need to take and when they need to take them.

Ravelin also uses the system-created by Chicago-based DKSystems-to keep track of qualified trainers, course syllabuses and course evaluations by employees.

Eventually, the INS plans to use the system to manage online courses, too.

NEXT STORY: What’s a COTR?