Case 3

Total Learning Concepts
Project 1: eLearning Publishing Tool



The Need

Total Learning Concepts is a leading provider of custom and off-the-shelf training materials for the pharmaceutical industry. Their comprehensive print-, workshop- and CD-ROM-based courseware materials have been used to launch over 90 pharmaceutical products worldwide, many of which have been industry blockbusters. TLC saw the Internet as an obvious evolution for delivery of its instructional materials, and they sought out a technology partner to help them as they embarked on this major new initiative.

The Solution

TLC chose Illumina Interactive in 1999 as the design and technology developer for a custom eLearning course to train Bristol-Myers Squibb sales representatives on a new product launch. That effort was so successful that TLC selected Illumina as their partner for future eLearning development -- with the goals being to develop a forward-thinking strategy for online courseware development as well as to build - from the ground up -- a cost-effective, real-world learning management system for its pharmaceutical industry clients.

What worked for a single course for a single client was clearly not appropriate for a strategic plan that called for hundreds of courses. What was needed was a system that could handle large amounts of content cleanly, be easy to use by the content creators, and flexible enough to handle future needs impossible to predict in the future.

We created a two stage conversion tool. The first stage starts with Microsoft Word files, a writing/editing tool the content creators know well, and translates it into a standard XML format, conforming to a schema designed for eLearning content. A second conversion tool converts the XML into a complete eLearning course suitable for web or CD delivery. Some of the key advantages are:

• Allows content authors to write to a standard, but without worrying about HTML or templates
• Enables reviewers and editors to use standard writing tools for content preparation and review
• Accepts content from multiple sources
• Easily repurposes content to different output formats
• Reduces cost significantly for high-volume courseware development projects

Total Learning Concepts
Project 2: CourseNet Learning Management System

The Need

With their initiative to migrate training materials to the web, they needed a way to provide on-line access to their courses, but their clients have different capabilities. Some have enterprise-scale Learning Management Systems, others have no centralized IT infrastructure. Others simply needed a tactical solution to deliver content to their employees without going through seven levels of red tape in their own organization.

The Solution

Illumina Interactive developed two components - a custom Learning Management System and a middleware layer that allows any course content to communicate with any third-party LMS, such as SABA, Docent, and others, without modifying the courseware.

The custom Learning Management System provides a simple, straightforward system that integrates easily with customers' user bases, but eliminates the overhead of installing and integrating an enterprise application. It provides detailed progress tracking and complete reporting, as well as a variety of security levels, permitting clients to self administer if desired. For those clients who already have an LMS installed, all TLC courseware can be ported seamlessly using the middleware layer that conforms to the AICC standard, as well as providing custom database interaction, so that courseware can be immediately deployed on a client's system.