Case Study

Published March 2009

Where Collaboration Counts

Jeff Erlichman

The USDA dramatically improved the agency’s e-learning through collaboration between senior management, the training community, the IT department and program managers, along with the support of the learners themselves.

What makes one government agency’s e-learning programs succeed while others’ don’t?

Success is the product of collaboration between agency senior management, the training community, the IT department and program managers, along with the support of the learners themselves.

The AgLearn program at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an example of such collaboration. AgLearn is an enterprise-wide LMS built on the Plateau 5.8 platform, delivering more than 8,000 courses to more than 130,000 USDA employees and partners worldwide.

Through this collaborative effort, USDA has been able to drive enterprise performance improvement in its workforce and create a model that other government and private-sector organizations can replicate.

Missions and regulations change all the time. While that’s not new, the rising cost of travel and in-person instruction is. This development has created the need to conquer distance while delivering the same learning outcomes.

In the case of AgLearn, success isn’t measured by having 8,000 courses, but having 8,000 courses that employees and contractors actually use.

Launched in 2004, AgLearn got a boost, according to Stan Gray, the USDA program manager for AgLearn, due to USDA leadership initiatives to consolidate and reduce IT systems and lower IT investments.

Before AgLearn became the USDA’s single learning management system (LMS), there were seven different systems with varying capabilities for managing and tracking training. Although one had the ability to deliver training, for the most part they served just for training records, according to Gray.

But while easy to use, AgLearn did not meet USDA’s utilization projections. Gray’s job was clear: Drive enterprise performance improvement in the USDA workforce through AgLearn.

Using ROI to Get Top-Down Support
To get top-down support, Gray sold management on the ROI AgLearn could deliver. He made sure AgLearn had executive buy-in, demonstrating how it put money in the agency’s pocket and provided USDA employees with more learning opportunities.
“What we found was that, USDA-wide, (29 agencies and staff offices), no one really had a good handle on how much money USDA was spending on training,” Gray said.

Gray stressed to management AgLearn’s return on investment and ability to provide more training to USDA employees at no additional cost.

Since the beginning of 2008, all requests for external training must be submitted, approved and tracked through an AgLearn online authorization process.

“The spinoff of that, in terms of ROI, is that we now see how much money USDA is spending from a corporate standpoint, and now we can understand where this money is going,” Gray said.

1 2 3 Next Page »

blog comments powered by Disqus

Executive Search

Senior Manager, Global Learning & Talent Development
11/19/2009
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT) is an organization of member firms devoted to excellence in providing professional services and advice. We are focused on client service through a global strategy executed locally in nearly 150 countries.

Director, Leadership & Organizational Development Parkland Health & Hospital System
10/26/2009
Parkland Health & Hospital System (www.parklandhospital.com) located in Dallas, Texas has been voted one of "America's Best Hospitals" by U.S. News & World Report for 16 consecutive years and recently named one of the "Top 100 Hospitals to Work For" by Nursing Professionals Magazine.

The World Bank Knowledge and Learning Coordinator Washington, DC
12/22/2008
The Latin America & Caribbean Region (LCR) of the World Bank serves over 30 countries, mostly middle-income which, despite having middle-income economies, still struggle with pockets of poverty and high level of inequalities.