Engineered Notes

Boldly Teleporting Through Space and Time

I just finished watching Star Trek Into Darkness the latest addition to the Star Trek franchise.  One of the things I like about all the Star Trek stories is the ability to transport through space, and now time.  I always was intrigued about the ability to step into the transporter room and be beamed anywhere.  In the latest episode, they even managed to go back in time. 

Well we are putting the final changes on our own transporter; we call it ESI Distance Learning.  Now you can beam one of our instructors through the Internet to your PC or tablet anywhere in the world and any time you wish. 

For the last three years, we have been working on ways to make it easier for customers to attend one of our courses using the Web.  Our first version is a Webinar based course dealing with pumps.  We took sections from our two-day Piping System Fundamentals course to create a two hour Webinar dealing with pumps, and pump operation.  We used our WebEx account and started with 50 attendees.  That first course sold out, in one day.

Prior to our first Webinar, we were a little nervous; what if people had difficulty logging on to WebEx, if they did not like the Webinar format, if they wanted their money back.  Well the first Web class was well received, everyone liked the format and no one asked for a refund.  Since then we have conducted over twenty pump webinars.  The course is still well attended and we continually get positive feedback from the attendees.

Last year we decided to run our Piping System Fundamentals course (all 16 hours) in Webinar form.  We divided the course into 8 two-hour blocks, and covered two blocks per week.  We also recorded each two-hour block so you can review the information if you could not attend the live Webinar, or if you wanted to review any content.  It was a good start, but we felt it was still lacking. 

We started looking for ways to make the course meet our customers’ schedule, any time of the day or night.  We also wanted them to be able to practice what they learned, and finally we wanted to have the same interactive feeling as a live course.  Sounds like an impossible task.  We looked at it as a challenge not impossible.  So, you may be asking, “How did they do it?”

The distance learning Piping System Fundamentals is made up of nine topics, with many of the topics having multiple lessons.  Each lesson is a pre-recorded video between 15 to 30 minutes in length.  Most video lessons have a Practical Exercise where the attendee can work out technical problems covered in the video.  After completing all video lessons for a topic, a quiz tests the mastery of the topic, and you are provided with immediate feedback.

Each course has a specific start and stop date, with the original plan that the attendee can complete the course in 30 days.  Upon registration, you receive a copy of the Crane Technical Paper 410, along with a copy of the ESI Learning Piping System Fundamentals.  These two books are referenced extensively throughout the course.  Each course is also assigned a Distance Learning Instructor that answers your questions, provide additional insight, and make it a profitable learning experience. 

If you have any questions, they are directed to the distance-learning instructor by either e-mail, or call in phone support.  There is also a forum for all attendees that is moderated by the distance-learning instructor. 

Each week of the scheduled course, the Distance Learning Instructor has office hours where you can ask your questions live and get an answer.  During office hours, the instructor will answer your questions; review the past weeks questions, and provides additional insight.  The office hours are conducted via WebEx and they are recorded for later viewing. 

Upon successful completion of the Piping System Fundamentals course, the attendee receives credit for 16 professional development hours. 

So how can you help?  We are seeking 25 volunteers to “Boldly go where no one has gone before” to test out our distance learning transporter.  If you would like to sign up please e-mail your request complete with name, and contact information to DistanceLearningInstructor-PSF@eng-software.com.  We will choose 25 people at random for the online Piping System Fundamentals course.  It will start on September 1, 2014 and will end on September 31, 2014. This course will be taught in standard US units, and is only open to people in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.  Each of the 25 volunteers will receive a copy of the Crane Technical Paper 410, and the Piping System Fundamentals course books, and upon successful completion of the course will receive 16 Professional Development Hours. 

That’s all I have for this month, as always I would really enjoy hearing from you.