Conference 7.286::digital

    What's an ILC?

    re :-1
    
    "What's an ILC"
    
    ILC stands for Individual Learning Centre, also known as OLC Open
    Learning Centre, and once call FTC's - Field Training Centres.
    
    I work for the OLC/ILC in Warrington England, and news of ILC's closing
    down is bad news.
    
    Out of interest could anyone tell me haw many OLC/ILC's there are on
    your side of the pond???
    
    As of 2 years ago we had nine OLC's of different levels/standard which
    have now whittled down to 4.
    
    There is also a NOTES conference relating to FTC/OLC/ILC's which has
    not been used for at least 2 years..... DO people know it exists??
    
    TTFN
    
    Ian Macdonald @OLO

  What kind of equipment does an ILC have? After the ILCs close, can people
in the field still do self-training by improvising, such as by hooking up a
VCR, monitor, and terminal in a conference room? Or will they be limited to
reading books and running whatever self-training programs they can on their
office terminals?
  Are there ILCs in non-field-service facilities? If so, are they closing
too?

 I know that "to a person with a hammer everything looks like a nail," but the
 toolset I'm currently working with -- the World-Wide Web and one of its
 information clients called Mosaic -- is really quite wellsuited for training. 
 As long as one's got access to an X display or a PC, and TCP/IP connectivity,
 one can have really good hypertext-based training.  If the materials require
 audio or even (limited!) video and the workstation supports "viewers" for
 those media, they too can be supported.
    
 Now of course this presupposes that COURSEWARE will be available in that
 format.  Because the World-Wide Web (W3) and Mosaic are based on open
 standards, though, there's every reason to believe that such courseware on
 general subjects will soon exist; and further, that it will be in OUR interest
 to consider offering training in that format ourselves.
    
 I don't think it'll be too practical to offer W3-based courseware on how to
 set up W3 browsers, though... at least till the bootstrap phase is thru... :-)

    
    We start to see more and more training stuff distributed via TIMA. 
    CBI, TBI, etc. 
    
    /Kjell

Oh, come on, if you don't know it, it must not be important for your job! ;^}

    I'm part of that closure for the ILC business. As a senior technical
    instructor for over nine years, it has been my responsiblity to deliver
    self-paced training to field service engineers. Our organization
    pioneered the concept of multimedia training with IVIS, which stood for
    Interactive Video Information System. The system consisted of a PRO350
    and laser disc player.
    
    At one time there were 8 "A" sites, each having two technical instructors
    and supporting staff. Just about every FS Engineer that came to work
    for DEC started off at our training center. We offered instructor
    assisted lab courses along with IVIS, A/V and documentation courses.
    A lot of our courses were prerequisites for Lecture/Lab courses. 
    
    I really enjoyed this type of training environment because you had a
    chance to really get to know the students since you dealt with them
    one-on-one over many visits. I think I miss this most of all.
    
    Here's some parting advice on how to get training within Digital these
    days;
    
    		Use VTX LEARNING to access information on courses.
    
    		Once you know the EY number of a self-paced course you 
    		can order it one of two ways. Lecture/Lab course can't
    		be ordered by students (they have a -L0 variant).
    
    		-P0 courses are ordered through MAILPO @MKO
    
    		-SP (student package - may have everything you need)
    		-IX  5 1/4" diskette
    		-IY  3 1/2" diskette
    		-MT  reel-to-reel mag tape
    		-TK  TK50 cartridge
    
    		all of the above must be ordered through your cc manager's
    		all-in-one account to INH_ORDER @MKO
    
    		For Lecture/Lab courses call DTN:264-7000 for Central
    		Registration.
    
    		To update your training history on completed courses send
    		to: ENROLLMENTS @MKO your name, badge number, cc, EY number
    		of course.
    
    That last bit of info is thrown in because they shutdown the Audience
    Training Consultants Organization, who used to do training plans,
    enrollments, etc. for the MCS Organization. In fact, they is little
    left of U.S. MCS Training anymore. I heard they let go 5 out of 7
    instructors in Colorado Springs & Parker Street. 
    
    Well, for those of you who remain...Good Luck and God Bless.
    
    Good-Bye,
    Jack Walsh