The Rhode Island Technology Council plans to include an Internet-based training program on its Web site in the near future.
A connection to Tutorials.com is expected to be added to RItech’s site by early June, according to Thomas Mulhearn, the trade association’s executive director. It will give RItech members and non-members, who pay a fee, access to more than 150 tutorials on commonly used computer programs.
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Among the featured courses are lessons on: Windows 98, Office 97 Suite, Quicken Deluxe 98, NT Server, the graphic design package PhotoShop and the database program Visual Basic. It offers training in the latest software applications from Microsoft, Lotus, Intuit, Adobe and Symantec.
”One of the major focuses of RItech is the area of professional development,” Mulhearn explained.
The association was originally formed as the Rhode Island Software Association in 1997, with the goal of helping member companies promote training initiatives and improve the industry’s political clout. This January the association changed its name to better illustrate the variety of businesses that have joined its ranks.
Giving Rhode Island’s high tech companies a link to Tutorials.com will help them offer inexpensive training programs to employees, and do it in a more modern manner, Mulhearn said. “Most companies have used the industrial model – having an instructor-led course,” he said.
Tutorials.com, however, is geared towards workers who are interested in or more used to learning at their own pace on a computer. This is particularly helpful with younger workers, who, Mulhearn said, are “more attuned to computer-based learning.”
The site offers online training programs, which can be tackled at the student’s own pace and at whatever time he or she would like. Tutorials also include video and audio components to help in the training process. Course lengths vary anywhere from three to 14 hours, if played from beginning to end, according to information available on Tutorial.com’s Web site. Those taking the training courses, however, can access the program as often as they would like for the duration of their subscription time, which can run from one week to six months or longer.
System requirements to use the training programs include an Microsoft Windows 98, Windows 95 or Windows NT operating system, and one of the following Internet browsers: Netscape Navigator 3.0+, Internet Explorer 3.0+, or America Online 3.0+ for Windows 95.
”Computer instruction is going to be the instruction of the future,” Mulhearn said. “For industry we can provide computer instruction for about 20 percent of the cost of instructor-led courses.”
What RItech has done is strike a licensing agreement with 7Street.com, which owns the tutorial site. RItech will be allowed to sell access to the tutorials through its own Web site, according to Mulhearn.
Depending on the access required by individual users and the number of tutorials needed, the cost could run as low as $10 a week for a particular program, he said.
Members of RItech will be given discounted rates, although non-members will be able to purchase access to the tutorials as well.
