As mentioned at the start of the chapter, it is often a good idea to use Moodle for initial and on-going provision of product knowledge training. One such organization which does this is AA Ireland.
AA Ireland has been the 'Champion of the Motorist' since 1910 with over 550,000 customer relationships and employing over 480 employees. AA Rescue is Ireland's premier roadside assistance product and uniquely in Ireland, over 80 % of breakdowns are handled by their patrols.
AA Roadwatch is Ireland's premier traffic and travel information service, where updates can be heard across Ireland's national and local radio network and accessed on their travel and traffic portal, http://www.aaroadwatch.ie.
AA Ireland worked with the Irish Moodle partner Enovation Solutions to implement Moodle in their organization. Now that they have been using Moodle for a number of years, Mary Dempsey, the training manager with AA Ireland says, "Moodle has become a critical tool for AA Ireland."
The training department at AA Ireland administer new customer service agent training, as well as keeping existing agents up-to-date with information about rate changes, and product and procedure changes. The main problem for AA Ireland was the amount of paperwork that was associated with the processes, particularly around the training assessment process.
The idea of a learning management system was introduced to help the training team reduce the paperwork and make as much material as possible available on-line in an easy-to-access environment for agents on their desktops.
Selection of a suitable solution should be based on defined needs; both immediate and long term needs should be taken into account. "We considered a number of options", said Mary Dempsey, training manager with AA Ireland. "However, what attracted us to Moodle was the fact that it suited our department's needs with its wider uses as an HR intranet and general information repository."
Often the success of a project can be measured by whether the solution which has been implemented has actually been adopted fully, and is being used for the purposes defined. For AA Ireland, Mary explained, "Moodle has become an invaluable tool for the training team, and the wider organization."
Mary explains that AA Ireland administers the majority of the courses through the online environment, including attendance and assessments. "We are at the stage where our agents are accessing it regularly for product updates. We are utilizing databases for data collection and collation which was previously a paper-based task. The AA Roadwatch team is even using the Moodle forum option for internal traffic updates, which is great."
AA Ireland, like many organizations, feels that it is not just about putting paper-based work online. Two lessons which they draw from the project are:
- Design and presentation require consideration if replacing paper-based solutions with system-based solutions
- Training of key administrators and ensuring content is kept up-to-date is vital
AA Ireland have one key bit of advice for those who are considering implementing Moodle and that is to plan ahead and to try and put a structure in place pre-launch, particularly if there are a number of departments involved.