FCIB, an association of executives in finance, credit, and international business, and Michigan State University Global (MSU Global) recently formed an innovative partnership that has resulted in a new online certification program in international credit and risk management.

The program uses a non-traditional approach to corporate online learning - an asynchronous instructor-led cohort model.

"FCIB wanted to provide unique benefits and added value to its members while generating more revenue for the organization," says Chris Geith, director of the MSU Global Institute. "They wanted to deliver an online education that offered the benefits of small-group training. However, FCIB did not have the in-house expertise to build the most effective online-learning model on their own."

Although FCIB traditionally had earned revenue from membership dues, meetings, and other products and services, the organization recognized that its strongest membership benefits were its face-to-face education program offerings and its facilitation of professional networking opportunities. "FCIB members needed more access to these benefits, but many of these people were dealing with limited travel budgets," says Geith. "So, why not provide these benefits in an online-learning environment?"

Helping to push this effort was a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Market Development Cooperator Program that was awarded to FCIB to create an online course and certification program in the area of international credit and risk management. At the same time, MSU Global was seeking an association partner to help develop online programs to promote international trade, commerce, and economic growth. The two organizations joined forces to build the online International Credit and Risk Management Certification Program, which consists of a basic certification course and an FCIB certification exam, along with access to the FCIB online resource library.

"The first major task was to figure out what the instructional model should be," says John Sener, instructional designer for the project and president of Sener Learning Services. "Together we identified and explored three possible models":

1. An independent study model using self-paced courseware - interaction between students and instructor and among students is limited and optional.

2. A tutorial model, which, depending on the design, is instructor-led or self-paced but requires student-instructor interaction, although student-student interaction is optional.

3. A cohort/learning community model that is instructor-led and requires both student-instructor and student-student interaction.

After careful consideration, FCIB determined that giving students the opportunity to interact, learn from each other, and form professional relationships with each other was what it valued most in a learning experience. Accordingly, the cohort/learning community model was selected for the course design.

"This put us into new and unfamiliar territory," says Sener. "Most online learning programs in the corporate and non-profit sectors use either self-study, Web-based courses (independent study model) or synchronous, instructor-led learning (tutorial model) as the instructional method. By contrast, the use of asynchronous, instructor-led, online-learning approaches, such as the cohort/learning community model, was very uncommon. In fact, I don’t believe this kind of method is even tracked in any industry surveys of online-learning delivery."

To respond to this challenge, the MSU Global team applied its prior knowledge and expertise about best practices in online learning. "Our experience and industry research has found that adult working professionals participate in online learning driven by internal motivation and by their personal development plans," says Geith. "They are less driven by financial incentives and more driven by the belief that the skills and knowledge they gain will be useful within or outside of their organizations. At the same time, course completion rates are improved when successful completion is tied to a recognized credential such as a professional designation or a degree."

Best practices in the industry are focused on enhancing learning and motivation, says Geith, adding that MSU Global applied its knowledge about best practices in online learning using seven primary methods, noted as follows:

1. A priority on interaction: The amount and quality of dialog between learners talking to each other and learners talking to their instructors determines, more than any other factor, the extent to which learners feel that an online-learning experience is better or worse than a traditional course. The FCIB course uses an instructor-led model, emphasizing interaction between participants. This model was chosen to achieve a high-quality learning experience and to facilitate formal and informal discussions between members. Networking among association members is a critical goal of FCIB and best supported through the instructor-led model. Courses are scheduled so all participants can go through the course together as a group and engage in assignment-based discussions to facilitate interaction.

2. Courses focus on self-mastery of the information in preparation for the FCIB exam. For example, short quizzes coupled with specific assignments, feedback from the instructor, and required participation in class discussions enhances learning through frequent, active participation. This variety in learning activities also helps ensure personal identity by making it difficult to get someone else to do the work.

3. Courses accommodate different skill levels by enabling learners to skip over sections that they have already mastered and to go through materials at their own pace within the schedule of the course.

4. Courses use a variety of images, text, audio and video in a learning environment that gives learners choices to accommodate their learning styles. For example, they can choose to hear audio with slide presentations, and they can move through material at their own pace.

5. The instructional design of the course engages learners in meaningful activities. Techniques to enhance learner performance include solving real-world problems, practicing skills in real-world scenarios, and relating new knowledge to existing experience.

6. The support services for the course offer the 24 X 7 convenience of online-learning resources, matched to the degree possible by access to instructors and technical support.

7. FCIB quality assurance processes incorporate the best practices of online-learning assessment and evaluation supported by MSU Global’s expertise and online-learning environment. Quality improvement includes assessment of learning outcomes and learner satisfaction; instructor satisfaction and productivity; cost-effectiveness; and quality service benchmarks for technical support and instructor response time.

One increasingly common myth about the cohort/learning community model in online courses is that relatively small class sizes (12-25 students) are required for effective implementation. FCIB, however, needed greater scalability, both to make their course offerings a more attractive economic proposition and to disseminate the benefits of their certification program to as many members as quickly as possible. As a result, course design incorporated four features that enabled the course to support much larger enrollments for each offering:

1. The course "instructor" role was redefined as course facilitator with carefully and specifically defined duties.

2. Course assignments included many "story-swapping" and other collaborative learning activities which enabled students to share and learn from each others’ experiences - many students had considerable prior expertise in some areas of the course, in some cases even more expertise than the course facilitator.

3. The subject-matter expert was also the course facilitator for the first few offerings of the course, enabling FCIB to develop comfort and expertise levels which would ease the process of bringing on new facilitators.

4. A facilitator guide was developed that included detailed procedures for training new instructors, including an understanding of requisite roles, skill sets, and behaviors.

These design features reduced the amount of instructor time needed to a manageable level, while also providing opportunities for students to interact, learn from each other, and form professional relationships.

The 13-week FCIB certification course has been sold out for the three times it has been offered since May 2003. So far 211 professionals have enrolled in the course from all over the world. Participant evaluations consistently indicate high levels of learning and satisfaction. "This course will enlighten, enhance and encourage you to continue to pursue your goals in both domestic and international credit management," is a typical example of participant feedback on the course.

The course has an unusually high completion rate of 80-90%. All of those completing the course have also successfully passed the FCIB certification exam.

"Results indicate that the cohort model was the correct choice for our learning environment and for furthering the goals of the association in the short and long term," says Ken Garrison, FCIB President. "At the end of the course, many have learned that the network that the course provides is a microcosm of the larger universe that a global association offers."

The 13-week FCIB certification course is scheduled to be offered three times per year in January, April, and May. More online programs are in the works for the FCIB and MSU Global partnership, including a course in export compliance planning to launch this fall.