Multimedia techniques have offered new opportunities to companies wishing to provide timely education to their work force, in an era when the pursuit of competitive advantage has never been greater. A form of experiential learning providing an interactive simulation of processes reduces the demands on experienced staff and costly resources. The author is developing such a programme in Statistical Process Control (SPC) for Nortel Ltd, a major multinational corporation, using a proprietary authoring package. This paper outlines the SPC features and techniques inherent in the learning environment and describes the approach taken in the experimental stages of the project. Lastly, a synopsis of the programme structure is given.
Rachel Thomas joined the Computing and Informatics course at Plymouth University as a mature student, having previously been employed in local government. She also assisted for a while in the administration of a precision engineering company. Her professional training year (year 3 of the degree course) was spent with the Information Systems department of Nortel Ltd at Paignton, Devon, where her responsibilities included familiarising management with a software tool for Business Process Re-engineering, as well as delivering presentations on the benefits of BPR. Now in the fourth year of her degree, she is working in co-operation with Nortel Ltd to develop the training programme described in this paper as a major project, whilst specialising in multimedia and business related studies.