Interactive learning increases retention

Mar 1, 2006 12:00 PM

Initial Security, San Antonio, Texas, uses a high-tech way to train its security guards — online.

Initial Online Academy is available to the company's security personnel, first-line and mid-level supervisors, field managers, site managers and executive staff. Pre- and post-tests are used to measure students' retention on each course. To date, students enrolled in Initial Online Academy have increased their scores more than 23 percent from pre-test to post-test grades. Delivering content consistently allows every officer to be trained uniformly while permitting regional variances. An electronic audit trail enables managers to measure the progress of each student.

The Web site provides employees unlimited access. Each employee receives a user name and password. The system tracks where they are logging in from and how long they use the program. The Web site features video clips, a post log and news, and it allows employees to access individual courses similar to an online college course format. “In the past, videos were used to train our employees,” says Leonard Courtright, regional vice president. “Feedback from our employees shows an increase in learning retention when compared to our previous program and to other companies' programs. This training fosters more interaction than videos did in the past.”

Feedback has suggested that the program is up-to-date and consistent. The program is available online in the company's larger markets and will be available to all employees by this summer. “It has been proven to increase long-term retention of key information versus conventional classroom teaching and video-based training,” says Randal Dorn, president and CEO for Initial Security's U.S. operations.

A study conducted by the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Sciences, Alexandria, Va., found that, on average, students retain 5 percent of what they hear in lectures, 10 percent of what they read, and 20 percent of what they see and hear in audiovisual presentations. But add “practice by doing” and “teach others/immediate use” — which the computerized simulations from Initial Online Academy provide — and retention rates shoot up to 75 and 80 percent, the study says.

“Initial Online Academy's Web-based training puts the student in control of the learning process, thus allowing for extremely high retention rates,” says Timothy J. Freesmeyer, founder and president, Etico Solutions Inc., the company that developed the interactive program.

Initial Online Academy's Web-based training offers a variety of new courses and refresher training. These initiatives can be completed by the officer-on-duty or whenever Web access is available. “Our e-learning employees appreciate the flexibility of working the training around their schedules,” Courtright says. “A key security requirement voiced by our clients is the need for consistency across geographic areas and at all levels of staff. Our program ensures that personnel are properly and uniformly trained.”

Initial Security's e-learning program also serves as a screening tool to identify applicants who lack the basic computer skills and those with academic strengths and weaknesses. “We are able to identify trends within groups of employees at particular sites who warrant additional training efforts,” Courtright says.

Initial Online Academy is student-driven so employees can move along at their own pace. “Officers who need additional time to fully understand a learning module can work at their pace, review and, if necessary, re-review the course module, until they have mastered the material,” Courtright says.

The e-learning system also allows for deployment of new information to security personnel based on policy and procedure changes by the company, Dorn adds.

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© 2012 Penton Media Inc.

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