"We have more than two dozen databases holding our employees' training records, so our goal is to consolidate all of the training activities and records in one location with the LMS," said Noble Morrell, training manager at KDOT. "Once that's accomplished, we can apply the learning-management systems' analytical tools to pinpoint what people need to know."
Heretofore, KDOT hasn't measured this sort of thing. Adding to that challenge is a workforce spread across six district offices, 26 area offices and 112 sub-area offices. But KDOT sees the LMS from Pathlore as a way to appraise the training workers' take. With the LMS analytical tools, KDOT can measure, for example, what percentage of the agency's equipment operators has met their safety and technical training requirements. And the Kansas agency will use the software to track certifications for employees such as equipment operators, surveyors and engineering technicians. The state agency will also use the LMS to send courses via the Internet to transportation workers in field offices across Kansas.
"If we're teaching someone to read a core sample from a section of road, then we also want to know how well they understand the process," Morrell said. "The LMS lets us analyze the effectiveness of training."
The agency's 3,100 employees care for the state's transportation infrastructure, including roads and bridges. KDOT carries out transportation studies, too. Along with maintenance and planning, the Kansas agency inspects the work of numerous contractors at several hundred worksites across the state.
