Web-based distant learning product takes off, promising to aid those who cannot attend conventional classes

Tranter International Limited, the franchise holder of ExecuTrain, a global information technology, IT, training company based in Georgia , USA , is determined to empower Nigerians with basic IT tools.

The company has launched a product, ExecuTrain Virtual Campus, EVC, a convenient, cost-effective, web-based distance training programme for Nigerians. The product is not only designed as a flexible on-line corporate training option for IT professionals and staff, who wish to learn the basics of desktop applications but also targeted at all classes of individuals in both rural and urban areas. Users of EVC will have access to business courses in Howard University, US. The university will recognise courses done through the EVC programme should subscribers want to further their studies.

"We are trying to empower Nigerians in basic IT tools. This is why we have introduced the EVC which is all about training. With it people can get training wherever they are once they subscribe," Gordon Isiakpere, head media and public relations, Tranter told Newswatch, August 2.

To enjoy EVC facilities, Isiakpere explained that all the subscriber needed to do after paying his subscription fee of about N12,000, was to have access to internet facilities where he logs on to the website: WWW. virtual campus executrain. Com. This, according to him, would be done with a user name and password which is unique to the subscriber. With this, the subscriber is automatically hooked to the EVC on-line learning solution which has more than 500 courses from where he chooses.

"The whole goal is to help improve on Nigeria 's IT literacy level," Isiakpere noted. He said it was in line with federal government's decision to train about half a million people this year on IT. He also announced that his company intended to launch EVC in 25 states across the country.

He highlighted some of the benefits of EVC to include the ability to log on to the facility from anywhere and at anytime; offering of instructor - assisted on-line courses though the product is not basically instructor or classroom based. He also noted that EVC has an on-line technical library that gives users access to hundreds of technical reference books plus a dynamic interaction with experts and peers.

The product, according to him, is comparatively cheap. According to him, "if you have to go to an instructor-led classroom training, you need about N400,000; to become a Microsoft user specialist, you spend about N120,000 to N130,000. But a course in EVC, he said, cost betweenN30,000-N35,000. He argued that EVC is an affordable solution.

Recognising the problem posed by possible unavailability of internet facilities, the public relations head revealed that his company has already commenced negotiations with cyber cafe owners around the city whose facilities would be used as study centres. "We have had series of meetings with Cyber cafe owners who would be accredited dealers to Tranter. By this arrangement you can go to their site, browse and take your lecture because you are now their student," he told Newswatch.

He pointed out that even in the rural areas, the subscriber can just walk into the nearest Cyber cafe, log on and enjoy EVC facilities at a very cheap price.

Tranter is one of the IT organisations in Nigeria which has initiated on-line learning, a programme which is wholly technology-driven. On June 24, Mc Ford Consulting launched a product, E-Schooling- a convenient and time- saving internet- aided learning method for those whose jobs demand cannot attend conventional classroom learning.

Newswatch Volume 36 No 12, September 23, 2002