Technology Transfer Services Relies On Articulate For Mission-Critical Technical Training

This blog post is by Mark Schwartz, Articulate EVP.

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Mission-critical technical training is Lou Rivera’s business. His company, Technology Transfer Services (TTS), serves some of the largest and most demanding companies in the industrial operations and maintenance sector — an environment where failures related to poor training can make newspaper headlines. And, these are not the kind of newspaper headlines any business welcomes.

Because training is so critical to their business, TTS’s clients were initially hesitant to adopt e-learning. But thanks to comprehensive, results-based courses that TTS creates using Articulate Studio ’09, yesterday’s skeptics are today’s most loyal e-learning advocates.

Cost-Effective, Instructionally Sound E-Learning in a High-Stakes Environment

“Our challenge,” explains Rivera, “is to create cost-effective and instructionally sound e-learning, blended learning, simulations, and virtual worlds to transfer skill and knowledge in areas that were traditionally only delivered via instructor-led and on-the-job training. Thankfully, and in large part due to our adoption of Articulate Studio ’09, we’re meeting that challenge for global, diverse enterprises like ExxonMobil, Walgreen’s, Colgate-Palmolive, and Progress Energy.”

View a sample course created by TTS using Articulate Studio ’09

TTS chose Articulate Studio ’09 because it easily integrates into their robust commercial development process. They leverage rigorous course-design standards, a replicable instructional development process, and style guides that facilitate their innovative use of Articulate products. This ensures a consistent, high-quality, yet customized deliverable for each client, while minimizing the learning curve for new course authors. TTS currently has 38 Articulate Studio ’09 Pro licenses, but expects that number to increase as their business continues to expand.

Rivera adds, “While many still have a perception that rapid e-learning authoring tools such as Articulate Studio ‘09 are only suited for basic, small, non-critical modules, we’ve demonstrated that the tools can easily deliver much more than that. In fact, Articulate Studio ’09 is our tool of choice for large-scale production of e-learning projects for clients that often require us to create hundreds of modules for them.”

Articulate Studio ’09 is a critical component of TTS’s e-learning toolset, which also includes Adobe Flash, OpenSim, Unity3D, Adobe CS5, Google SketchUp, Autodesk Maya, and Blender.

“The great thing about Studio ’09 is that it plays nicely with our other course-authoring tools, and we’re able to easily integrate custom content from those products into the Articulate courses,” says Rivera.

A More Dynamic Learner Experience, Superior Training Deliverables, and Lower Project Costs

As a result of using low-price, high-value rapid authoring tools such as Articulate Studio ’09, TTS is able to allocate more resources to optimizing course content. TTS developers work closely with subject matter experts (SMEs), who become an integral member of the team. Based on this approach, TTS developers’ job satisfaction has increased, SMEs have a greater sense of ownership and accountability in the final course deliverable, and the quality of the training has dramatically improved.

TTS now takes on and excels at large transformational projects (videos, instructor-led training courses and/or workbooks converted to e-learning) that were previously cost- or time-prohibitive. Typically, TTS can create interactive, commercial-quality modules in less than 100 total project hours per module. This includes the cumulative project time of SMEs, content developers, e-learning designers, editors, narrators, and QA testers. Cost justifications and returns on investment (ROI) for these types of projects are now at unimaginable levels thanks to TTS’s highly automated and replicable process using rapid authoring tools like Articulate Studio ‘09.

Rivera sums up the value of Articulate Studio ’09 for TTS: “We’re fully capable of developing custom players, SCORM wrappers, testing engines, dynamic interactions, etc. from scratch. However, by having the core presentation, interaction, testing, and publication functionality pre-packaged reliably within Articulate Studio ‘09, we now have the freedom to be more creative and apply precious project resources to significant value-added elements for our clients. This includes animations, simulations, video, and modeling. The result is a more dynamic experience for the learner and a lower overall project cost for our client organizations.”

Thanks, Lou Rivera, for your glowing endorsement. We’re delighted that Articulate Studio ’09 is enabling TTS to deliver high-value, critical training for your demanding clients.