Hearing something explained to you, as well as seeing it on the screen doubly reinforces what you are trying to teach. The voice acts as a guide, a friend, and a companion as the viewer is going through the training session.  Our eyes get tired and start seeing things that are sometimes not there. Voice helps eliminate that by guiding the eye through the written text.

As you can see, these are all great reasons to add voice to your training modules, but the number one reason is that it adds the professional touch needed to give credibility to your training.  Adding audio helps put the trainee at ease by guiding him or her through the process and adding a familiarity to each slide.  Even with the toughest training modules, it’s comforting to know the same friend you had on the last slide or lesson will be with you again, right by your side, helping you out.

Okay, you’re convinced; adding audio to my training is not just a good thing to do, but also the right thing to do, what is it going to cost me – a whole lot less than you might think.  The going rate for adding a professional voice to your training is just over $25 per finished minute of audio.  That price includes everything, all you have to do is drag and drop the files and your training is complete.  It’s a very small investment in the over all scheme of your training, an investment that will pay for itself time and time again. An average-sized web-based training can include professional audio voice for about $500.

Here are some of the things to keep in mind when you’re looking to add a professional voice to your training.  Usually, a male voice comes across as more confident and comfortable, whereas a female voice can often seem more sensitive and soothing.  Make sure the voice is friendly, confident, puts you at ease, and most of all one you would want to listen to for a long period of time.  When negotiating with a professional voice, be sure that all of the costs are revealed up front.  Some voice actors will tell you one price for their services and then tack on extra charges for studio time, production time, and for each audio they may have to recut.  Keep all of this in mind when negotiating a price.  It is best to get the voice to agree to one flat fee that covers everything.

Another way to add professional audio to your training is to do it yourself.  That’s right, you or one of your HR team could easily do the voicing for your projects.  You really can!  For about the price of hiring a professional voice for just one training, you can learn how to voice all of your past, present, and future trainings.  You know the old addage, give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a night - teach him to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.  It really is true, anyone can sound like a professional voice if you just know the few simple tricks on how to use your voice and interpret the copy.  The training is fun, easy, effective, and only takes one short afternoon to complete.  You will be amazed at the differnce in how you sound after just a couple of hours and ANYONE can do it.  It’s not what your voice sounds like, it’s all in how you use it.

This type of training is well worth every penny for not just training the voice and how to use it, but for anyone who talks, speaks, reads a script, or addresses the public or privte sector for a living. With proper voice training, plus RightCourse™’s integrated sound recording feature, you can add professional voicing to any training by yourself and have a more professional and effective training module - for a lot less money.

To hear a sample of what professional narration can do for your trainings,
click here.

RRT’s Program Design
Students in this homebound program are required to attend 5 hours of school per week at a computer lab after regular school hours.  They are also required to do their work from home, if necessary, to complete assignments.  Students can take academic, applied, or honors courses.  During the after school hours, instruction and assistance is available from all of the subject area teachers.  The program follows the academic teaching standards that the state requires and is also consistent with Pocono Mountain School District’s Curriculum.  The program can be adapted to fit any school district’s needs.

RRT’s Program Benefits
Pregnant teens can benefit from RRT’s CyberExtension™ program.  The program’s design can easily be utilized for teen moms so they can spend time nurturing their babies while working toward their High School Diploma.  Students can log in anytime and work from home as well as from the classroom. 

School Phobics have the advantage of working in a smaller, less overwhelming setting.  They need to come in on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and this allows them to still learn to function in a social setting, yet giving them the opportunity to feel less threatened.  They can also access their work at any time online from home.  As a transitional program, this helps the child readjust to the school setting, and hopefully to reenter the school as a traditional student.

Students that suffer from anxiety or medical problems can also benefit from the program.  We have had students who have had medical issues, such as asthma and physical ailments that have inhibited them in the regular school setting.  RRT’s program worked out well for them.  They were able to maintain their work while they were incapacitated and when they healed, they returned to regular school without being behind.

RRT offers credit recovery to students that are short credits in order to graduate.  RRT has had students that have taken one or more courses in order to complete their credits to graduate.

RRT’s Program Success Stories

Lauryn Boorstein and Alex Hicks - Two Pocono Mountain School District June 2008 Graduates of the CyberExtension™ program.

PMSD will see their first set of students graduate from PMSD using RRT’s homebound e-Learning program.  If not for RRT’s program, these students would have no opportunity to complete their High School Diploma.  They have completed all four of their high school years using CyberExtension™. They are on track and are expected to graduate in June 2008.

Our first student is Lauryn Boorstein and she is grateful for having the opportunity to complete her education using RRT’s online program.  She began the program in 9^th grade.  She had a very hard time in the traditional school setting.  RRT’s solution fit in with her needs and helped her to excel academically in all areas.  Lauryn states that she “loves learning in a small, one-on-one setting.” She has been on distinguished honor roll throughout her four years in the program.  Lauryn has taken the four major subjects each year as well as several electives.  After graduation, she plans on attending East Stroudsburg
University and work towards becoming a speech pathologist.  She hopes to work with the special education population after finishing college.

Our second student is Alex Hicks and she is also thankful for RRT’s program.  She began the program as a 9^th grader as well.  The traditional school setting wasn’t working for her.  She tells her friends and family that “this program has been the best experience of my life.”  She is proud of her academic accomplishments in PMSD’s homebound program.  She had the opportunity to take her classes online and complete her degree.  She too has taken the four major subjects as well as several electives.  She made distinguished honor roll throughout her four years in the program.  After graduation she plans on going to college to become an Elementary Education Teacher.  She has already begun a program at Northampton Community College.  Right Reason Technologies and Pocono Mountain School District are proud of these two students for excelling in this homebound online program.  The program has succeeded in taking two students that may not have completed high school and turned their lives around.  These are only two students among many that attend RRT’s homebound program that have these opportunities.

Looking to the future, RRT will continue this online web-based homebound program at Pocono Mountain School District.  RRT, along with PMSD, will continue to support these students and help them to excel academically, to grow in self-confidence and to become superior citizens in the community.

Many people out there believe that if something is being used by a teacher for educational purposes, copyright no longer applies. They believe that education falls under that holy grail of “fair use.” However, this is not the case. Fair use requires just that, fair use. It is by no means a blank check. Fair use grants teachers many rights, but it also imposes many restrictions. It is very important that all teachers are aware of these restrictions. When copyrights are neglected, teachers open themselves, and their schools, to lawsuits from the copyright owners.

While copyrights have always been an issue for teachers, even in the classroom, eLearning has led to a whole host of new problems. Teachers download files off of websites, include eBooks, copies of speeches, etc. without ever realizing that they may be breaking the law. In many cases, these are examples of copyright infringement. If you’ve made it this far, it may seem like every teacher is going to break copyright laws. How then, can teachers provide eLearning content while at the same time respecting the law?

TEACH Your Teachers

In 2002, Congress responded to the growing problem of eLearning and copyrights by passing the TEACH Act (Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act).This law was designed to address some of the issues that had been raised when schools decided to enter the eLearning game. Like any piece of legislation, however, the TEACH Act is complex and contains many requirements. Because of the complexity of copyright law, the TEACH Act requires teachers to be properly trained on copyright law in order to be protected by the TEACH Act. While it is only possible to scratch the surface in this article, let’s take a look at three real world scenarios and see how the TEACH Act might apply.

“One of the benefits of the Internet is that that my school gave me a website where I can put files for my class. But, best of all, when I put information online, not only can my students access it, anyone around the world can!”

While it may sound like a great idea, when you are using copyrighted material, you would be breaking the law. The TEACH Act requires that teachers limit access to only those students enrolled in the class. Therefore, when teachers place information on a website, there must be certain safeguards, such as usernames and passwords, used to prevent everyone else from accessing it. Look at it this way; let’s say you put a copy of a worksheet on your class website. When your students are accessing it, you are fine, but think of what happens once you make it public. Normally, people would have to purchase the worksheet for their classes. However, regardless of intent, you’ve just made it freely available to everyone. This could mean that the author loses a lot of money. Because of this, the TEACH Act requires that you limit access to only those students enrolled in your class.

“Since I’m covered by the TEACH Act, I do not need to worry about including a copyright notice when I use other people’s materials”

Whenever you use copyrighted materials, regardless of whether or not the TEACH Act applies, you must include a copyright notice. The TEACH Act gives you permission to use the work, it does not make you the owner. Even though you may know the work is covered under a copyright, when you put it up on your website, you need to make sure your students realize it is a protected work so that they realize they cannot reproduce it.

“The beauty of the Internet is that I can upload my lessons, and leave them there for a few years. I don’t have to waste time reproducing the same files each year like I must do with photocopies.”

The Internet is a time saver indeed, but when it comes to the TEACH Act, you cannot simply upload your files and then forget about them. After your class ends (i.e. the end of the semester, the end of the school year, etc.) you must prevent students from accessing the files. Depending on your school’s system, you may be able to keep the files on the server, but you must ensure that students are no longer able to access them.

Conclusion: Training is a necessity

As you can see from these three brief examples, the TEACH Act isn’t a quick-fix. It is not, nor was it meant to be, a blank check for teachers to use the Internet in their lessons. The TEACH Act is a complex piece of legislation that requires proper training to understand it. In fact, the law demands that all teachers undergo a training session if they wish to be protected by the TEACH Act. Through proper training, teachers will be able to understand the TEACH Act, fair use, and other topics related to copyright law so that all teaching, be it in the classroom, or on the Internet, is done legally.

Legal disclaimer: This article contains “legal information” not “legal advice.” This article provides general legal information that is not guaranteed to apply to your specific legal situation. You should always consult an attorney whenever you have questions about your specific situation.

Is It Development?

For years, software developers have relied upon the tried and true Software Development Lifecycle: Requirements, Design, Implementation, Testing, and Release. Even though many consider software to be an art, it has shown that even art can be managed as a project from phase to phase. In the end, good software has gone through  good process.  Content Development can learn a thing or two from our Software brethren.

A Case In Point

So where do I come into all of this. Well, I’m a software developer at heart. When I started developing software, I was part of a large team. The only way we could get our software delivered on time and to our customer’s satisfaction was to proceed through a rigorous development process. It’s been a while since I developed software, but when I found myself in charge of an eLearning Content Development Team at Right Reason Technologies, I learned I must turn back to some of the foundation I learned as a developer. Initially we started creating our content as an art form. Each singular piece of content was custom created and there was little process involved. It worked to some extent…that is until we had seven people trying to create forty training modules simultaneously. That’s when it all fell apart. Time for proper process to take hold.

The First Step

How are you going to work on content in a team? The first challenge is learning how you are going to manage many hands in the content pot. You need a good repository for your eLearning pieces, from images, to Flash® files, to audio and narrative; you want to be able to store everything. Source management tools work well. Most of them allow you to lock a file while someone is working on it. We use Microsoft® SharePoint® for our repository. It allows us to store all of our content while creating a flow as we go though the phases of our lifecycle.

From Software To Content: Requirements

We started with the Software Lifecycle…it was good enough for them, but how does it map to content development? Well, everyone has requirements. In the requirements phase for content development, we need to talk to our customers to see how they will be using the training module. Is it presentation based? Does it need to be interactive and hands on? Are there any supporting materials, like Microsoft® PowerPoint® Presentations and documents that can be used as a starting point? Document everything. As we learned from software, your customer has a vision, you have a vision, the coders have a vision, and unfortunately, sometimes none of them see the same thing. Documentation ensures that you keep your customers in the game throughout the process so that you can produce content that meets their needs.

Design is to software what subject matter is to eLearning. Once you have your requirements, it’s time to identify who the subject matter experts (SMEs) will be. Work with your SMEs to develop an outline of the content. Many times storyboards are used to convey how the content should look. We’ve created our own product, RightCourse™, to handle all of this. It is a great tool to storyboard with and our SMEs know how to use it. It also generates the final content for delivery. Having a tool to handle the entire process makes a big difference. Other tools such as Microsoft® PowerPoint® or Word® can be used as well. Since we develop all kinds of content,

Design: Subject Matter Development

we’re not the SME on most. Learning to communicate with your SMEs makes all the difference in the end product.We go a little further in our design phase to include development of the curriculum and narrative. It is vital that you get the message right before you begin creating content. Narrative can change during implementation, but having it early on lets your customer know what he or she is getting in the end. Make sure to have your customer sign off on the Subject Matter Development Phase. This allows everyone involved to be sure that the customer’s needs are being met.

Implementation: Creative Development

Now it’s time to get your content development team working. Who will gather your media? Who will handle voicing? Who will put it all together? These are the roles that you need to fill during development… all the while making sure that the pieces that are created are stored in your repository. Purchasing royalty free images is a great way to create good content, but it’s vital that you can search for all the images you buy when creating new eLearning content. If you can’t search for it, you’ll spend too much time reinventing it or using a less accurate graphic to get your message across. As with every phase of this process, taking time to organize upfront will do more than save time in the end… it will improve your final product.

Voicing is something that many people overlook in creating eLearning content. Many will use non-professional voice actors. No matter how good the eLearning content is visually, using an untrained voice will always make you look unprofessional. And if you think someone will be good just because they have a nice voice, think again. There is art and talent in delivering content. Go with someone with experience. Look into online voice services like Voice123. You can have many voice professionals bid for your narrative. Try to make relationships with those that you use. If you’re good to them, they’ll be great for you.

Test for Quality Assurance

You’ve put it all together, but who should review the product? Not your customer…not yet, anyway. There will be typos, misreads, bad images and all sorts of bugs in your pre-release. Have multiple people who were not involved in the creation process review the content from beginning to end. New eyes are a vital ingredient to avoid careless oversights or errors. Have them fill out a form for each slide or section in the module. They should note anything that isn’t working properly from a functional aspect as well as a learning flow aspect. If it isn’t conveying the message to them, there’s a problem. Consider bringing back your SME to ensure that it conveys what it’s supposed to convey. After a few revisions, now it’s time to let your customer give his or her blessing to the product.

Release to Production

So, now you’re all done with your eLearning module, right? Well, almost. You still need to version the final product. Make sure you keep all of the source for the release together where you can get it again if you need it. Again, a tool such as
RightCourse™ goes a long way toward solving this problem. Consider this: you released your module for the end users. Everything is working out perfectly. Now your customer wants you to offer the module in Spanish. You go back to your staff and find out that you don’t have softcopy of the narrative or copies of the original images. You need to have someone physically go through the entire training module retyping the narrative so you can send it out for translation. You also need to repurchase the images because you needed to add a few slides for the next version. Keep the source material…someday, sometime, it will save you in ways you couldn’t even envision today.

A Closing Thought

eLearning is an art. That is something I agree with. But when providing eLearning services such as content development, try explaining to your customers that you can’t really quantify why your process will take three months or cost $15,000. eLearning creations are an art, but selling your services needs to be explainable, and for your internal infrastructure, it needs to be definable. Picasso could afford to set his own timelines. As eLearning providers, we must satisfy our customers. Put the proper process around your eLearning development and your customers will always understand why your services are premium. They can always come back to you and expect high quality. And that is the bottom line.

The largest obstacle was managing such an endeavor. Getting the right training to the right people in a reasonable timeframe was challenging enough. But finding a means to track the success of the program and setting a means for continual improvement left the PMVB searching for a solution. PMVB would need to have the ability to manage the entire training process, but each business needed the ability to manage their individual teams. If one company needed specialized training, how could PMVB get that training to the end user without creating a logistics nightmare? The answer was partnering with Right Reason Technologies (RRT).

The Solution
PMVB knew the solution had to begin with technology. The only efficient way to stretch across the region in a meaningful fashion for this comprehensive approach required the Internet. Further, tracking thousands of training sessions and individuals across the region was impossible without automation. PMVB partnered with RRT to provide both content creation expertise and the management and tracking of the training.

RRT’s reputation of providing meaningful web-based productions, from content provided by subject matter experts, to content created in-house, and the awards they have received for their web-based creations are well known. RRT’s comprehensive approach to every phase of the training process helped to ensure PMVB’s success. From creation to expertly tracking the individual training sessions, RRT’s approach doesn’t miss a beat.

For tracking management, RRT provided a tiered approach to the organizational structure. At the top of the chain is the PMVB. Visitors Bureau administrators can get a bird’s eye view of each member and the training they are conducting. Member businesses, however, neither needed nor should have access to what other businesses are doing with their own training. For instance, the General Manager at a resort can only see the training available and track the progress of the offerings to his or her personnel. But that is only the beginning. Administrators at each member can drop down to the granularity of an individual trainee.

RRT further restructured the system so that at each individual business, each manager can have access to the individuals they are responsible for training, but not the rest of the business. The permissions are made in conjunction with the needs of each business. The housecleaning supervisor can ensure that his personnel are trained in subject matter meaningful to the job, while the dining supervisor only needs to focus on the training she requires of her staff.

PMVB has offered its members a number of initial training options for their use; some created by PMVB subject matter experts, and some created by RRT. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. And with the platform already in place, many of these businesses have turned to RRT to customize training for their own needs made exclusively for their businesses.

Conclusion
In partnering with RRT, the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau got all it hoped for and more. They believe in RRT’s RightTrack™ Learning Management System and its highly customized approach. In doing so, they provided a solution that each member would not have been able to do alone. This ensures that each of its members receive the required training to promote the area.

Through their partnership with RRT, the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau has significantly improved the value that they offer each of their members. To the PMVB members, it is not RRT who has provided this wonderful solution…it is the PMVB, the team they turn to for solutions throughout the hospitality and tourism industry. For RRT, we know that by making the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau look good, we have again expanded our presence in the region.

Size of Trainings
Sometimes, you may only have a small number of people who need training. Hiring a live trainer is not usually cost effective in these situations. On the other hand, if sessions are too large (often greater than 15), it is difficult to engage and involve everyone. Thus, true knowledge transfer is less definite. In fact, the courts have frowned on “auditorium level” trainings as they may not provide reasonable care to ensure that each person understands his/her rights and responsibilities.

Time
Organizing everyone in an organization to come together at a specific time and place can be very difficult. Different people have different schedules and they may conflict. With web-based training, employees can take trainings at their own pace when they have free time. This results in more people taking the training, and more people absorbing the knowledge presented.

Assessments
Providing a system which includes personalized assessments and review based upon results goes further than a live training to ensure that key legal points were learned.

Proving what was taught at a particular live training is difficult. Even the most experienced facilitator may miss some key learning points if the training takes him/her in a different direction. Within a web-based system, an administrator and a court can verify first hand what was taught and how that individual did in answering the assessment questions. Further, our system provides amplifying information based upon the assessment results while the training is taking place. This real-time adjustment to the needs or difficulties of each particular trainee cannot easily be achieved with multiple people attending a live training.

A web-based system allows administrators to track who took a training and even sends out reports to show who needs to take refresher trainings.

On the surface, open source or free eLearning software may seem like the obvious choice, after all it is “free.” But is it truly free? To understand this question, we will divide the process of using an eCommerce platform into a few key steps: setup, use, and maintenance. Along the way we will compare free and commercial offerings to understand which is truly more expensive. To wrap things up, we’ll take a look at my personal experiences with installing one particular, and very popular, free eLearning platform, Moodle.

Setup

Many, though not all, commercial eLearning products have some kind of initial or setup fee. On the surface, this would clearly seem to cost more than the free alternatives. However, one needs to delve deeper. For example, who will setup the eLearning platform? If it is a free piece of software, you really have only two options, either someone in your organization or someone you pay to do it for you. Many schools, especially high schools, do not necessarily have the technical expertise to setup a SQL server or properly configure a firewall to allow an HTTP pass-through (if that sentence sounded like Greek to you, then you understand exactly what I mean). Therefore, you need to either spend the time to obtain this expertise or pay someone else who already has the expertise. In either case, you are spending time and money on this free product.

Once you decide who will setup the platform, the next question is where it will be run? You can either host it yourself on a machine at your school, or you can pay someone else to host it for you (there are numerous companies that exist simply to provide hosting for free eLearning platforms). If you run it yourself you may also incur cost because your Internet connection and server need some upgrading to keep up with the demands an eLearning system can place on your computer resources. If you’ve made it this far, you can already see you will pay something to setup your “free” eLearning system. But, depending on what your choices are, these may wind up just being setup costs. With a commercial product, you don’t just pay up front, you continue to pay for as long as you use the product. It would seem as though free software is still much cheaper. But once again, we must keep on digging deeper.

Use

Free eLearning packages often include more features than you can possibly imagine. Generally, their features far outnumber the feature sets of commercial products. This might seem like a great thing, however, in many cases it can wind up costing your users a lot of time. Free eLearning software generally takes the approach of trying to please everyone. They do this by adding a multitude of features. However, for the most part, you neither want nor care about most of these features. Just as a few examples, some include the ability to conduct polls, use “smilies” during chat sessions, the ability to setup custom “wikis,” etc. As a result, they wind up getting in the way, causing clutter that reduces the ease of use of the program and costing your users time. However, even if you do wind up finding the product with the perfect feature set, there is still the problem of support.

While most free eLearning software provide support (and in some cases very good support), they are generally there to provide support to the administrators of the system, not so much the teachers and students that are using the software. As a result, when a question arises, it is your staff that must field it. This requires you to have an on-site support person for students and teachers to contact. If you do not wish to take that approach, many companies exist that provide support contracts for free eLearning platforms, but these contracts cost money. Yet again, the free eLearning software turns out to be not so free.

Maintenance

The final area to understand is maintenance. eLearning software is constantly evolving. Problems are being fixed and new features are being added. To take advantage of these new features and fixes, you must be running the latest versions of the software. Naturally, these programs do not install themselves; someone must do it. This may seem easy enough, but that’s not always the case. Upgrading software is not always as simple as clicking the “Update” button. Sometimes, you may need to make database modifications, or actually change the coding manually (again, if it sounds like Greek, you understand the problem). Additionally, there are always risks involved. It is possible that something could go wrong and your database is cleared, or the program no longer functions properly after the upgrade. Yet again, you either need an expert on staff or you need to pay someone (probably through a hosting company) to maintain your system for you.

Worse yet, consider the scenario where you find a serious flaw in the software. You are not a paying customer. In reality, the software makers have no true obligation (other than the goal of providing useful software to everyone) to correct the issue. Therefore, it may come down to you either simply ignoring the issue or paying someone to fix it for you, neither of which is a good solution.

A Hands On Look at Installing Moodle

Many of our customers, and potential customers, ask us the same question you’re wondering if you are reading this article: why should I pay you when I can get the software for free elsewhere? While we tell them essentially the same things previously stated, we also realized that we should investigate some of these free products so that we would be sure to give our customers the best answer. One of the first free eLearning platforms we looked at was Moodle. I will take you through the setup process and the initial login. In many cases, this setup will mirror the experiences of many schools. Do keep in mind that this part of this article is meant to get a bit technical so as to truly show the detailed steps involved.

To begin, we had to choose our test system. Most, though not all, of the schools we have dealt with are running Windows® based systems. So we decided that we should do the same for our testing purposes. We chose to use a Windows® 2000 Server machine. This included Microsoft’s Internet Information Server (IIS) built right in, so we chose to use that as our web server rather than installing another piece of software. Fortunately, we already had a copy of Microsoft SQL Server (Microsoft’s database server) so it seemed as though we were ready to begin installing.

Step 1: Install PHP
PHP was generally designed to be a language for Linux systems. It does work on IIS, however, the Moodle site gives no information on this process. Rather, they explain how to install it on Apache. Yes, you could install Apache on Windows, but, most of the schools we have dealt with already have some kind of web server running, we took the approach that they would more likely wish to install it on their existing server rather than setting up a separate one. After a few hours of digging though the PHP website and some forum posts, we successfully got it running under IIS.

Step 2: Install a database server
As I already said, we had Microsoft SQL Server running on our machine so we thought this step was already done. However, a closer look at the Moodle website revealed that it only works with SQL Server 2005, Microsoft’s newest version. Unfortunately, we were running an earlier edition so we were faced with a decision: upgrade to 2005 or install a free database server such as MySQL. Based on the recommendation of Moodle and the fact that the goal of using Moodle is to save money, we opted for the free MySQL program rather than paying to upgrade SQL Server. After a bit of grappling with the MySQL installer (MySQL is another program that was designed for Linux but works on Windows), we finally got it installed. But, that wasn’t enough. Let’s remember that this database will be used to store student’s grades and other information that is protected by laws such as FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) that require you to do everything possible to keep the information secure. Securing a SQL server is not a trivial task. You need to ensure that permissions are properly set, that no one can access it from outside of your local network, etc. After about a half of day of work, we were reasonably satisfied that our database was secure.

Step 3: Install Moodle
This seemed to be the easiest step of the installation process. Everything went very smoothly and Moodle seemed to be up and running. However, we went to upload a new lesson and everything stopped working. After searching on forums for quite a while, it turns out Moodle uses a very old and somewhat obsolete technique for retrieving files that involves using slashes after a filename. IIS, by default does not support this, nor did our installation of PHP. It took a few hours, but we eventually found a setting in PHP that made everything work fine.

In the end, we did have a working version of Moodle installed. However, we spent 2 days requiring 2 IT professionals to simply get the product installed. After installation, we still had quite a bit of configuration to complete before everything was up and running. Moodle may be free, but the time and effort involved in getting it up and running have their own cost. Not to mention, our staff would now need to monitor Moodle for updates, PHP, MySQL, etc. because any one of these products could have a huge security hole that puts the entire system at risk; when you run it, it’s your responsibility to maintain it.

Conclusion

In the end, there are two options: you either need to have an expert in the product on staff or you need to pay someone else to be your expert. If you have an expert in a free eLearning platform on staff, then perhaps it is the proper solution for you. However, if you need to hire someone to run the system, or pay someone else to run it for you, it’s not really free anymore. In the end, the old saying, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” rings true. It may seem to be free on the surface, but if you dig a little deeper, you’ll quickly realize that it costs as much, if not more, than a commercial platform.

The policy first outlines the purpose of this legislation and sets an objective to the policy. It states that “The State Board of Education directed the Ohio Department of Education to provide schools with model policies and strategies that eliminate negative behaviors and recognize positive behaviors that promote safe and secure learning environments for all students and staff”. Districts must keep this in mind as they draft their policy.

Definitions are provided for terms such as ‘harassment’, ‘intimidation’, and ‘bullying’. The definitions establish that these terms can cause mental or physical harm to a student. The policy goes further, defining it in terms of electronic harassment/intimidation/bullying as well. This kind of bullying causes mental or physical harm through electronically transmitted acts.

The policy then defines what types of acts may be considered harassment. After defining the terms, the policy delves into the arena of complaints. There are three different types of complaints: formal, informal, and anonymous. Formal complaints are those that are filed to administrators and faculty by parents or students. Informal complaints are those which go to the faculty and are documented from that point. These are typically verbal complaints. Finally, anonymous complaints are informal complaints in which the name of the student can be kept in confidence. The policy calls for action no matter what kind of complaint, and review to follow.

The last part of the policy outlines what trainings should be composed of if the district is allocated funding to do so. Students will undergo a training that will introduce them to the district policy, appropriate to the age group. Not only will students partake in training, but faculty must also participate in a training regarding the school’s policy. The main purpose of these trainings is to educate both students and faculty on how to prevent harassment, intimidation, and bullying.

This multi-faceted policy goes in further detail, and can be found at the Ohio State Department of Education website. The next step is for school districts to adopt their own policies, which follows the model policy created by the State Board of Education. Policies must be completed by this December.

You may be wondering, “What does this federal investigation have to do with my email monitoring policy?” The answer lies in the details of the decision. This case specifically dealt with the issue of personal emails hosted by an ISP. In no way did it ever address the issue of business email monitoring. However, it states that “e-mail users maintain a reasonable expectation of privacy in the content of their e-mails.” This determination could have some important implications for businesses. There is a reason why it is OK for a business to have closed circuit cameras in a store, but not in a restroom. In the store, there is no expectation of privacy, but in the restroom there is. If the court upheld that there is a reasonable expectation of privacy when it comes to email, it is likely that one day this could be extended to include business email accounts as well, at least under certain conditions.

So, to sum it up, in the short term, the Warshak decision will not affect your email monitoring policy, but one day it may. Rather than waiting for that day to come, why not begin preparing now? The whole decision revolves around a “reasonable expectation of privacy.” If you can ensure your employees have such no such expectation, you can limit the risk of having a lawsuit on your hands. With a few simple steps you can reduce the likelihood that your employees believe they have an expectation of privacy and reduce the risk of a costly legal settlement.

1. Notify your employees of your email monitoring policy
   
   If you do not notify your employees that email is being monitored, they may be able to make the claim that they had an expectation of privacy. Currently, this argument would not likely stand up in court. However, the Warshak decision could change this. You can help protect yourself from this argument by informing all of your employees of your email monitoring policy. Better still, require your employees to sign the email monitoring policy. This gives you documented evidence that everyone in your organization is aware that you make no claims of privacy when it comes to email.
2. Institute a “business only” policy
   
   In its opinion, the court continually cites “personal e-mail accounts” as the focus of the decision. However, it is possible that personal emails sent from a business email account could fall under the decision’s broad language. To help prevent this, institute a “business only” policy. A business only policy informs your employees that they should not use their business email addresses for personal emails. Thus, if personal emails are sent from the address you can make the claim that they were in violation of your email usage policy and therefore have no expectation of privacy.
3. Monitor email
   
   This may sound a bit confusing, but you should actually monitor email rather than just having a policy. If everyone in your organization is aware that email is not really monitored and that the policy only exists on paper, they may be able to claim that they still had an expectation of privacy. By actively monitoring email, and documenting the monitoring efforts, you will have a paper trail that shows your monitoring policy does not exist in name only.
4. Host your email internally
   
   If you have the resources, consider hosting your email internally. One of the main reasons why the court sided with Warshak was that they believed there is an expectation that an Internet Service Provider (ISP) will not read private messages. By removing the ISP from the equation you can help protect yourself. Hosting the emails on one of your business’s servers is one way to remove the ISP from the situation. If you host the emails on your servers, it is much easier to prove you should have access to them.

As it stands, the Warshak decision has little or no effect on business email monitoring. The decision will likely be appealed to the Supreme Court and may even be overturned. However, the guidelines presented here will protect you in case the decision stands. Plus, even if it doesn’t, having a clearly written policy of how you monitor email and how email should be used will help ensure that all of your employees are aware of your email policy and agree to follow it. Further, monitoring email and hosting the emails on your system can further reduce an argument of “reasonable expectation of privacy” by showing that your employees knew there was no privacy.

Legal disclaimer: This article contains “legal information” not “legal advice.” This article provides general legal information that is not guaranteed to apply to your specific legal situation. You should always consult an attorney whenever you have questions about your specific situation.