Xerox - from analogue toward digital engineers

Background information Xerox Corporation is a big and international document management technology and services enterprise. A $16 billion company, Xerox provides the document industry's broadest portfolio of offerings. Digital systems include color and black-and-white printing and publishing systems, digital presses and "book factories," multifunction devices, laser and solid ink network printers, copiers and fax machines.

Question/challenge

Around 1996 they made an important shift from analogue towards digital. E.g. the copiers had software instead of only mechanical parts like the years before. The engineers of Xerox who were fixing the copiers at the customers site needed to get some extra skills and knowledge. To close the competency gap there was an urge to organize the learning process in a fast and efficient way. Lot of engineers needed to be updated and certified.

Solution

It was a very blended solution with a lot of different didactical elements like:

• online seminars;
• tests;
• kick-off meeting;
• coaching;
• WBT;
• workshops;
• learning desk;
• (online) discussion;
• personal meetings with coaches;
  
• books;
• FAQ;
• QRC;
• labs (online).

The educational process was divided into 3 main phases:

1. prephase;
2. open learning centre;
3. postphase.

Together the curriculum was 9 months. It was personal learning (sometimes in a group) based on competencies.

The first phase was to prepare learners for the formal curriculum. They had access to the learning environment with some resources. The learners did some pre-tests and with the learning coach and the manager they established a learning contract with all the details (planning, responsibilities, resources etc.). With a online seminar the learners were introduced into the course.

The second phase was a phase with a lot of face-to-face activities. Learners came to the Open Learning Centre (OLC) where they found teachers, computers, labs, resources. Within the OLC they had self-study possibilities (e.g. a WBT) but also presentations from teachers, workshops and personal meetings with their coaches.

After the months in the OLC there was a virtual learning community with e-seminars, resources, discussions and help from an expert. Learners kept in touch and kept sharing experiences, especially they exchanged information about everyday problems in their work.

Remarks

The project was not successful during the first month. It started without the intense coaching and without the learning contracts. The result was that the learners were falling behind and were not motivated anymore. They had problems with the learning responsibility and problems to combine it with their daily job. After the false start (as a result of evaluations) the design of the curriculum changed and the learning contracts and the coaching became the cornerstones of the solution. After the change it became a successful blended learning course. The process was evaluated and there was a parralel group with only classroom based learning. The outcomes of the blended learning group (about 80 people) were significant better. The scores on the Microsoft and Novell exams were higher than the control group. They were even higher than the average international scores on these standard tests.

The investment was the same as for the classroom based training. There was NO reduction of time spend by trainers/teachers. They changed their role and spend less time in presentations and classroom teaching and spend more time in coaching in 1-1 meetings. This was the reason for the positive results. The learner got more personalized help and learned more efficient because with the help of the coach he improved the meta-learning skills.