It is Monday morning and Dalana Moore, assistant division controller at U-M-Flint, is preparing to attend a BusinessObjects training course. However, Dalana doesn’t get into her car and drive the 55 miles to Ann Arbor. Instead, she pours herself a cup of coffee and takes a seat at her office computer.
Dalana is one of many U-M employees taking advantage of the Michigan Administrative Information Services (MAIS) Webinar Series. Web-based, instructor-led training is the latest entity in the MAIS administrative data training program, which also includes classroom training and online e-Learning.
The Webinar Series premiered with BusinessObjects TV (BOTV), three 30-minute episodes targeted at specific cross-sections of BusinessObjects users. Used by more than 2,500 staff members on all three U-M campuses, BusinessObjects is a query application used to generate a variety of administrative data reports.
The Webinars allow participants to learn tools, view demonstrations and ask questions —all from the comfort of their own computers.
“Webinars are on the cutting edge of training sessions,” says Jeanne Mackey, performance support analyst and BOTV instructor. “Live sessions are interactive and engaging, but it’s the playback that is especially convenient. You can watch it on your own time, rewind if you miss something, or display the session and the tool in separate windows so you can follow along.”
Mackey has introduced some entertainment into each Webinar with flashy PowerPoints and a BOTV theme song.
“BOTV is meant to be educational, as well as entertaining,” Mackey says. “We all tend to have short attention spans, so I’ve done my best to make the Webinars short, concise and fun.”
The 40 virtual seats for each of BOTV’s first three live sessions filled up in less than 24 hours; there were 112 names on the waiting lists.
“There’s such a demand for Webinars because they fill an untapped need,” says Mark Davis-Craig, data warehouse decision support products team lead. “People are time-crunched and do not necessarily need a half-day of instruction. BOTV offers 30-minute segments on specific topics. If within the first five minutes, you feel like the session isn’t relevant to you, you can turn it off. You didn’t waste the University’s money — or your time.”
Beginning in April BOTV will offer new Webinars on a bi-weekly basis. Upcoming topics will include using formulas and variables, formatting reports and customizing data displays. To register for a live session or to watch playbacks of previous sessions go to maislinc.umich.edu and search “BOTV.”
For more information about using Webinars as a learning tool, contact Mackey at [email protected] or (734) 763-7201.
