PERTH, ON, 28 Sept., 2006 - As global pressure builds to develop Alberta's oil sands resources, one of the biggest obstacles to successfully exploiting the province's black gold is building a skilled labour force. Shell Canada's Rob Baxter is jumping over that obstacle with Learning Content Management System (LCMS) software from dominKnow Inc. of Perth, Ont.
A 28-year veteran of Shell Canada, Baxter is the Operations Training Coordinator for the Scotford Upgrader just north of Edmonton Alberta. Today the upgrader and its 206 4th class power engineer process operators turn 250,000 barrels a day of diluted bitumen into 180,000 barrels a day of synthetic oil that in turn is sold to refineries for gas, jet fuel, heating oil and diesel oil.
When Baxter started in 2001, construction was ramping up to a peak in 2002 of 12,400 people building Shell's Scotford Upgrader. His mission was to train teams of operators so that the $3.8 billion project would be producing revenue as soon as the construction was complete.
"I knew that we had to take advantage of an online learning system," says Baxter. "Though 95% of our operators had industry experience, it was like we hired experienced 747 pilots but now they had to qualify to fly an Airbus 340. The 'spray-and-pray' approach of classroom learning wasn't going to cut it in this situation."
Baxter found what he was looking for with dominKnow LCMS. dominKnow's software includes facilities to set student learning objectives, report on progress, track all student activity and conclude with an e-assessment to ensure actual learning has occurred.
dominKnow has created easily identifiable Return on Investment (ROI) as well as strategic competitive advantage for Shell.
The most popular courseware among the 70 different e-assessments or courses created either by dominKnow's services division or in-house by Shell, is the Scotford Upgrader Overview. With more than 178 learning objects, more than 600 operators have taken the course either at the upgrader facility or at Shell Canada's Oilsands University in Calgary.
The upgrader overview course is part of a four-step, six-month validation process. The first step is to establish that academic knowledge is present. The second step is to sketch and describe from memory the oil extraction process. The next step is a walk-through of mechanicals and related safety practices, and the final step is skills demos. E-learning is critical to step one.
"Since we often hire from related facilities in either oil and gas or fertilizer plants, dominKnow's ability to drive self-paced learning is a real time-saver that also makes learning more relevant. Operators don't have to sit in a chair looking at someone's bad Powerpoint slides listening to what they already know. A truism in adult learning is the mind can absorb what the ass can endure," deadpans Baxter.
Not to mention that sitting around in instructor-led classes offering needless repetition is a very costly proposition at Shell Canada. "Our per person cost runs to $500 per day," observers Baxter. With dominKnow we cut classroom time in half. If 180 people take a given course, that's an instant savings of $90,000 on a single course."
There's more than money at stake. "We're in a highly competitive environment to get the best people," says Baxter. "And trust me, those people would much rather engage in self-paced courseware than sit in a lot of classrooms learning what they already know. Fast, efficient e-learning means better morale, better productivity and better safety records. All of this makes Shell a preferred employer in an oil sands environment with thousands of job vacancies."
About dominKnow
Founded in 1997, dominKnow Inc. creates learning software and related courseware development for learning system reseller and e-learning organizations in North America, Europe, and Asia. Its flagship product, dominKnow LCMS, is a feature-packed, Web-based Learning Content Management System (LCMS) for creating, managing and delivering high-quality learning across any organization. For more information on dominKnow Inc. and its products or e-learning courseware development services you can visit the company's Web site at www.dominknow.com.
For more information, please contact:
Bill Beacham, CEO
dominKnow Inc.
bill[at]dominknow.com
(613) 264-0096
Jennifer Noxon, Publicist
market2world communications inc.
jennifer[at]market2world.com
(613) 256-3939