Chicago-based Andersen Consulting leverages state-of-the-art computer-based systems to train its people, saving money in the process
Mickey Williamson
Walk into virtually any computerized classroom--whether in an elementary school or corporate training center--and you will find the same basic process in use. Students are expected to read a static screen of information and then press a key or select an answer from a list of options to advance to the next screen. Just as early computer technology did little but automate manual methods of doing business, so, too, instructional technology, or CBT (computer-based training), has provided scant improvement over printed books and standardized test forms.
This scenario reduces the student to the role of passive reader, a selector of multiple-choice answers.
A student who picks the wrong answer sees a message such as ``Incorrect. Try again.'' This process assumes that a student can learn by passively absorbing information, and the degree of learning is measured by a student's ability to recognize the correct answer from among a set of choices. The only real difference between this scene and the traditional teacher/classroom style of pedagogy is that the computer lets each student move through the material at his or her own speed. But information is always presented in the same way and the same order.
This approach to CBT is based, in part, on outmoded theories of learning. Procedural programming methods enforce a linear, sequential interaction between the student and the computer; these methods couldn't help but require every user to learn in the same fashion. On the other hand, event-driven programming coupled with TV-quality video, which has finally matured to industrial-strength levels, adapts to each individual's learning style and lets the user, not
the developer, determine the sequence of events.
Andersen Consulting (Chicago, IL) has capitalized on both these technologies to produce multimedia training courses for its employees. Its efforts are based on research from the ILS (Institute for the Learning Sciences) at Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) and its controversial director, Roger Schank (see the text box ``The Gospel According to Roger Schank'').
That effort has already paid big benefits. In a typical year, Andersen Consulting was spending $200 million, including payroll and travel, on training for 30,000 employees, about half of whom required education in basic business practices. Now, thanks to the ILS-Andersen collaboration, training time is compressed. Until the advent of these CD-ROM-based multimedia courses, employees would take a six-week training course before their first consulting assignments. Today, employees can get ``just-in-time training'' before they begin a new consulting engagement. Even the one or two weeks per
year that partners and managers used to spend in training is likely to be shortened.
Changing Times, Changing Procedures
Here's a typical training experience prior to the CBT project. Pedro Suriel, a staff consultant with Andersen's change management service and a member of the multimedia CBT group, described his six-week introductory training course under the old regime. The first three weeks were spent at his local office. Instructors provided an orientation to the company and its policies, introduced standard procedures used in the change management service when working with clients, and taught about tools used in the service to produce deliverables for the clients. Suriel spent the final three weeks at Andersen's Center for Professional Education (St. Charles, IL). He and other trainees were introduced to a hypothetical company about which they had to gather information and put together a set of observations and recommendations for a consulting engagement.
The new system, known as the BP
C (Business Practices Course), is a self-paced, interactive replacement for the traditional instructor-led program. BPC cuts training time from 65 to 40 hours, according to the company. Also, Andersen personnel can take the BPC in their home offices, eliminating the need (and time and expense) to travel to the St. Charles center. The reduction in training time translates to a payroll saving of about $2 million and a training delivery saving of some $8 million per year, according to Larry Silvey, partner in charge of Andersen's Professional Education Division. Furthermore, BPC's developers have been able to incorporate the experience of some of Andersen's most senior consultants. A trainee about to undertake an assignment in unfamiliar territory (e.g., manufacturing) can visit that portion of the BPC and be briefed on what to expect in the field.
The multimedia application's platform requirements are relatively simple: It runs on a PC compatible with a 33-MHz 386DX processor, 8 MB of RAM, a 256-color VG
A card and monitor, a mouse, a CD-ROM player, an Intel ActionMedia II DVI board, an external audio amplifier, and headphones, running DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1. The 180 minutes of professional-quality video runs satisfactorily on a CD-ROM drive.
BPC Modules
The BPC has 15 modules that simulate a business challenge that an Andersen staff member might encounter in a consulting engagement at the hypothetical Perrin Printing and Publishing Co., a publisher of hardcover and paperback books. Using audio and video clips stored on CD-ROM, you interview PP&P personnel, receive phone calls, get advice from senior Andersen consultants, review internal Andersen memos, and attend meetings with senior PP&P management. At the end of the BPC, you deliver a presentation outlining the kinds of findings and recommendations that would normally be delivered to a client.
With the BPC, you control the pace of learning using a vertical button palette on the right side of the screen (see the text box ``A Palette of But
tons''). The button palette, standard for all modules, lets you access various support systems and navigational tools. Working in a local office, you can tape a memory aid to the monitor, explaining the action of each button.
You can work on department modules in any order; the course map indicates which modules have been completed or partially done and which have yet to be started. This flexibility lets trainees analyze the business in whatever fashion makes sense to them, depending on how their own backgrounds and experience lead them to view the business. By contrast, in an instructor-led course, the teacher would choose the path, and the course trainees would be obliged to adopt the teacher's point of view.
BPC's operating features are designed to take into account good instructional technique and the fact that for many Andersen trainees, English is not their primary language. For example, trainees can use the button palette to replay and review the material as often as desired, and they can
elect to have subtitles appear on any video clip. A small user manual provides time-to-completion estimates for each module to aid trainees in budgeting time, but everything else they need to know is built into the CBT system.
This Is Your Mission
The course begins with a simulated telephone call from Andersen's staffing department. The caller assigns the trainee to a consulting engagement at PP&P designed to provide an overview of the company's business processes and areas where improvement is possible. The caller tells the trainee that PP&P's sales have been good but that profits are down; the caller refers the trainee to the PP&P project manager, who wants a meeting that morning.
In a video clip, the manager briefs the trainee on PP&P's situation and on the makeup of the Andersen Consulting team assigned to the project. Here is one place where the course departs from reality in the interests of educating the trainee. Trainees are not told to take notes during the briefing; those that don'
t will probably have to replay the video clip, a luxury not often available in real life. The lesson that note-taking is important is hardly lost on those who have to backtrack, but the point is not made explicitly. Instead, the course accommodates different learning and organizational styles. According to Schank's theories, you are likely to learn more from your mistakes than from being told what to do.
Each module begins with a memo from the senior consultant on the project, providing detailed information relating to the business function being analyzed. Also, working papers for each module set out a final goal and contain a list of tasks to complete in reaching that goal. In working through this list, the trainee uncovers business issues and records them in the key problems section of the binder. Gradually, the trainee develops an understanding of how the problems in one business area relate to those in other areas.
For example, to analyze the product development function, the trainee must cr
eate a work-flow diagram using built-in graphics tools. The system offers suggestions on how to build the work-flow diagram, but the trainee can disregard them and proceed in some other way--perhaps interviewing a company official--which may be just as productive as the suggested approach.
The HR Model
All but one of BPC's 15 modules present tasks that a trainee would be expected to perform in the course of a consulting engagement. The exception is the HR (human resources) module, which requires the trainee to run the HR department for four simulated years. The goal is to manage the department in such a way that the morale and productivity of three employees (taken to represent the entire employee class) remain high. Dials that show morale and productivity are visible throughout the exercise. A box showing company profits is also displayed to underscore the relationship between employee attitudes and actions and the corporate bottom line. If productivity and morale dip too low, the trainee is fired.
The HR task involves examining each personnel file, which includes position, salary, experience, performance, attitude, and ability. One file reveals that an employee's ability and experience are appropriate for the job, but his or her performance has been consistently low. A simulated counseling session with the employee reveals that he or she has no problem with the work. The trainee can click on a button that gives suggestions on improving performance (e.g., training is important to increase ability, rewarding the employee can increase motivation, and so on).
Clicking on a context-sensitive How? button tells you when additional training is appropriate. This leads to a video clip of an Andersen partner telling a war story that training is inappropriate when the employee already has the required skills. These video clips were made by real Andersen consultants talking about specific experiences.
Throughout the module, events occur based on the trainee's actions. A trainee who neglects to
document the employee's poor performance before firing him will later on get a notice that the ex-employee is suing the company for wrongful discharge. At any time, the trainee can advance the simulation time on a scroll bar to see the results of past actions, including the productivity and morale meter readings.
Your Point Is Noted
In some modules, you can view taped interviews and type notes into the Windows Notepad. The system automatically connects the video clip with the note file so that both are available on replay. No attempt is made to judge the quality of the notes; but the system does record which clips--and thus which problems--have attracted your attention and which problems have been overlooked.
At all times, you can browse through the BPC's underlying reference system, which defines business terms and other useful information. The system also monitors your mistakes. If you seem uncertain about how to proceed, the system will locate an appropriate place in the reference system
for you. If a mistake is repeated more than once, the system will seek another reference that provides somewhat different information.
When the Done button is active, you can decide whether to end the task or continue working. Selecting Done means it's time for feedback. You may be challenged to substantiate all the problems identified, and this is where note-taking pays off. If there is no justification for listing a problem, it must be deleted. Guessing at the list of problems won't work, either, because you must substantiate each one on the list. Fortunately, interview clips and other information can be revisited at will.
To stop using the BPC, click on the Save button to save your session information to a floppy disk, and then click on Exit. This lets you continue your course work on a similarly equipped computer in any Andersen office. Each module takes between one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half hours to complete.
Module Development
Instructional designers and content experts work t
ogether to create new BPC modules. The development process is iterative, and content experts act as trainees to ensure the accuracy of information. Employees who would normally take the course are also involved in testing. In addition, screen layouts, menu structure, and other aspects of the user interface are scrutinized at this point. Suggested changes are assigned priority according to their impact on learning. After making and debugging indicated changes, between 50 and 100 users test the module. In some cases, trainees are brought to St. Charles; in others, disks are sent to field offices for testing. Feedback on both interface and content is collected and analyzed. At this point, few changes are usually needed, because the major content and interface issues were identified earlier. A pilot test comes next--the final hurdle before the completed system is released to the Andersen community.
Andersen's BPC draws some of its inspiration from the ASK tool developed at ILS. The ASK engine is designed t
o access multimedia databases consisting of 1- to 4-minute video clips culled from interviews with experts, as well as archival video material and text. ASK systems let developers build video-based ``corporate memories''--repositories of expertise that might otherwise be lost to junior members of an organization as their elders retire. Developers try to think of every possible question a person might have about a particular application, to make it easy for people to navigate among the bits of information contained in the system.
ASK's influence appeared, for example, in the HR module, when the trainee wondered whether sending a nonproductive employee for additional training might improve his or her motivation. A button click produced a video in which a senior Andersen consultant told a war story showing that training would be useless where an employee already had the requisite skills but was not motivated to use them.
Teaching Management Skills
Imparting knowledge of procedures and specific t
echniques is only one aspect of CBT. A more complex problem is building skills that involve such intangibles as social interaction and employee management. ILS has created another tool called GUSS (Guided Social Simulation), which is designed to teach complex social tasks in a low-risk, simulated environment that shields you from embarrassment. But experience-based learning needs an instructor to monitor progress and, when appropriate, to offer commentary and anecdotes (by way of video clips).
The GUSS shell has three major components: the interface, which handles input and displays information; the simulation engine, a general-purpose mechanism for manipulating the simulated world; and the teaching modules, which look for opportunities to present useful feedback.
GUSS-based applications could serve a variety of purposes, such as providing a risk-free environment in which budding foreign service officers could practice diplomacy without starting a war. The GUSS components remain the same regardl
ess of the application; developers provide the application's data. In the simulation engine, these consist of agents, locations, and artifacts (e.g., a telephone and project papers). Teaching data includes videotaped anecdotes from real experts, analyses of your actions, coaching data to provide background information, and evaluation criteria used to provide you with feedback at the end of the session.
Agents observe and react to events in the simulated world. They are capable of speech acts. Agents can move from one place to another in the simulated environment, use artifacts (e.g., answering the phone or reading a document), and also react to events generated by the trainee that affect them, whether or not they have directly observed the event. Agents are endowed with a mental state, represented internally as a list of states of mind, selected by decision rules whose subject or IF statements are states of mind and whose predicates or THEN statements are mental or physical actions. When you view a rep
resentation of an agent on screen, three meters indicate the agent's state of mind along three axes: happy to angry, calm to threatened, and interested to bored.
Who's the BOSS?
Using GUSS, ILS and Andersen have collaborated to build an application called BOSS (Basics of Supervisory Skills), which lets trainees practice management techniques by supervising a simulated performance-evaluation process. BOSS works through computer agents endowed with personalities, mindsets, goals, agendas, and motives. Trainees interact with these agents, and the agents react to the trainee's inputs. Agents can be configured for various personality traits. For example, if a consultant is preparing for a meeting with a prospective client known to be highly argumentative, then an agent can be given argumentative traits. The trainee can then try out a variety of approaches with the agent to gauge the client's likely reaction to each approach.
One BOSS module is aimed at new managers with little or no experience in
evaluating subordinates. If the course trainee wants some philosophical background on evaluations, expert agents can provide a brief video orientation. BOSS then sets up typical situations relating to employee evaluations. The trainee plays the role of the manager and can seek expert advice before making a decision. The advice comes from video clips of Andersen managers and partners, who answer questions based on experience they have acquired in handling specific situations. The knowledge of experienced people is an important part of a corporation's capital assets, according to Doug Holyoak, an ILS-trained education specialist at Andersen. ``The big thing right now is to make sure that we can capture it, then index and retrieve it at appropriate times,'' he said.
BOSS's developers thought long and hard about how people could converse with the computer agent. The developers rejected natural language input as too complex and settled instead on constrained responses in a variety of categories, each repres
ented by an on-screen button. Trainees can ask for additional information; request an agent to do something, such as set up an appointment; respond to something the agent has said; tell the agent about something (e.g., make a recommendation); engage in small talk; perform a courtesy, such as apologizing; go to another place; or read documents. The trainee's action will determine the agent's response, which will be in keeping with the agent's underlying personality and state of mind.
Agents inherit their decision rules and initial mental states from a set of tables relating to gender, personality type, company, department, and position. Male and female agents inherit different conversational attributes. An agent defined as a CEO inherits decision rules associated with a ``generic'' CEO. For example, the CEO expects employees to be interested in the company's success. In BOSS, all employees are initially endowed with the values and beliefs that Andersen identifies as common to the people it hires.
Developing the Courses
Developers created the BPC using Authorware Professional for Windows (Macromedia, San Francisco, CA), an object-oriented authoring tool that supports the incorporation of text, graphics, audio, animation, and digital video. Supplementary code was written in Microsoft C, Smalltalk, and Microsoft's Winhelp. Development of the first BPC version took about 18 months. The development schedule reflected the reality that two of its most important tools--Authorware, along with the Intel ActionMedia II video board that was chosen to enable smooth-running video--were still being beta-tested. Nonetheless, the project came in on time.
The original design team consisted of seven multimedia designers and developers, with assistance from ILS. At its peak, the team had 30 full-time members. Some team members were responsible for making textual style consistent in all 15 modules; others managed graphics standards for uniform application of such nuances as highlighting and shadows. An importan
t design goal was to provide a video war story or explanation when the trainee made a mistake. Despite all the available technology, the development team needed to build its own tool to link Authorware code and the Winhelp file system.
At the project's inception, collaboration with ILS could hardly have been closer. The seven original development team members, normally based at Andersen's Center for Professional Education, went to work at ILS, studying learning theory. ``They helped us think about what the participant would actually do on the job with the information we were providing,'' said Marianne Acovelli, the BPC project manager.
Savings and More
According to Larry Silvey, the ILS/Andersen relationship has grown considerably from its early days. Today's focus on applied research has Silvey wondering about several problems that the Northwestern University organization can help Andersen solve.
The mathematics of Andersen's investment in CBT are ``pretty compelling,'' says Silvey. A
t least half of the 30,000-member Andersen organization requires business practices training. Moving those people to the St. Charles facility is costly. By creating educational tools that people can use in their home offices on their own schedules, Silvey notes, ``we strongly believe we're getting more effective education in less time spent in the learning process.'' Silvey figures the company regained three times its original investment (estimated at between $3 million and $4 million) in just the first year of BPC's use and will continue to save as much with each passing year. The 40 percent reduction in training time translates to a payroll saving of about $2 million and a training delivery saving of some $8 million per year.
Two technology issues remain for Andersen. One is cross-platform deployment. While most Andersen offices have standardized on PC compatibles, ILS is a Unix and Mac shop, so some of Andersen's development work had to be done on the Mac. Porting across platforms is an ongoing issu
e, according to Joe Carter, managing partner for Andersen's Center for Strategic Technology and Research in Chicago. ``We're currently using a lot of different tools to address the problem, but we'd like to have a single set of tools that we could use across the board,'' he said.
Silvey is waiting for fully multimedia-capable 3-pound notebook computers so that consultants can pursue their training wherever they may be. In addition, he wants to hook CBT into Andersen's Knowledge Xchange system, a worldwide communications network based on Lotus Notes that is currently under construction. Then, he says, networked workstations will allow you to call a central location and take advantage of expert advice, process guidelines, and industry-specific information to help with consulting assignments. ``I think Knowledge Xchange is going to make a big difference in the way we look at things. We're going to be able to pass information and ideas around and make the best possible use of our knowledge capital,'' he sa
id.
What Contemporary Multimedia Training Offers
Andersen Consulting wanted to improve the quality and cost of the training it must provide for over 15,000 employees per year. It needed to do the following:
-- Present knowledge of the company's business practices,
procedures, and policies.
-- Provide up-to-date training tailored to an employee's new assignment.
-- Improve managerial skills.
-- Make training accessible at any Andersen facility.
The Course Design
-- 15 integrated modules, expandable to cover new areas.
-- Consistent user interface.
-- Use of digital video to reinforce points and present options.
The Hardware
-- 33-MHz 386 PC compatible, 8 MB of RAM, and a 120-MB hard drive.
-- CD-ROM drive.
-- Intel ActionMedia II DVI video board with VGA monitor.
The Savings
-- 40 percent reduction in course time.
-- Eliminates need for most travel.
-- $10 million total annual savings.
Lessons Learned
-- A good CBT system provides for a
variety of learning styles.
-- There's more than one correct answer to a question and more than
one way to approach a task.
-- People learn more from their mistakes.
-- Correction should come immediately after the mistake is made
and should take the form of pointing out alternatives, not
presenting a single correct response.
-- Information is often best remembered if it comes in the form of
stories told by expert veterans.
-- People with different backgrounds and experience may choose to approach
course material differently. There is no single correct way to begin.
Illustration: During a simulation, students try keeping PP&P afloat over multiple business cycles. Through this activity, they acquire an understanding of HR management principles.
Illustration: Once students have viewed an interview with PP&P's editor in chief, they construct an information flow diagram of the Product Development function and identify key problems in process.
Photograph: Larry Silvey, partner in charge of the Professional Education Division, Andersen Consulting
Mickey Williamson is a journalist based in Warwick, Massachusetts. She can be reached on the Internet at
wmson@equinox.shaysnet.com
or on BIX c/o ``editors.''
High-Tech Training
