Partners Build Mtgs. Industry Model For Online Education

<B> Partners Build Mtgs. Industry Model For Online Education</B>

By Lauren Bielski and David Marcus

Given the irregular work schedules inherent in the meeting planning profession, it always has been a challenge for the industry to provide--and for planners to get to--educational courses in the field. Now two meetings industry players--a communications company and a consultant--are partnering to develop a model for using the Web to provide online training and certification of meeting planners.

The partners this summer will publish a comprehensive research report on the software and resources available to help companies and associations build effective Websites. By fall they will produce a prototype that will be beta tested by the American Association of Medical Society Executives.

Webster, N.Y.-based Fusion Productions, which specializes in meeting communications skills, will be exploring next-wave training and testing methods at a time when many associations are creating new certification programs. Meeting Professionals International, for example, this fall will bring its new CMM certification program to the United States for the first time. Still, industry experts have questioned the effectiveness of any learning experience outside the traditional classroom setting, where students get live feedback, encouragement and competition.

Fusion co-founder Don Dea acknowledged the concerns were well-founded. "First generation, online educational models weren't that effective because they tended to mirror course syllabus material and didn't incorporate the latest interactive Web design to help, or even measure whether users actually reached learning objectives," he said.

There's no question that the large meeting organizations are interested in the possibility of Web educational programs that really work. The Professional Convention Management Association offers CMP certification on its Website (www.pcma.org) and MPI is looking into Web-based distance learning as well.

MPI, meanwhile, is "in the exploratory stages of working with universities that are doing online education as a day-to-day protocol with their students, and considering integrating online educational courses as an adjunct or formal part of the CMM programming in about 18 months," said chief executive Ed Griffin. The National Business Travel Association, which currently offers CTE training at Cornell University, also is "looking into Internet options for certification."

Fusion joined forces with Elliott Masie, who heads the Masie Center and works as a third-party planner for high-tech events at Fortune 500 corporations (<I>Meetings Today</I>, Feb. 23). The goal of the partnership, he said, is to leverage Masie's corporate research data to build teaching models for the meetings industry. Masie's research will focus on user acceptance of online learning and "share that data on a continual basis with Fusion."

Even the promoters of online learning acknowledge the need for interaction between students and teachers in any educational environment. For CMP certification, for example, Dea proposed online study groups, electronic links to more experienced meeting planners or links to case studies.

According to technology consultant Doug Fox, "There's no question that the online education market will grow exponentially in the next few years. According to International Data Corp., the Web-based education market will be a $6 billion industry in 2002."

Fusion Productions' recent World-Class Websites study revealed that 67 percent of associations currently have Websites, and a large percentage plan to begin educational programs in the next 18 months.