EAST LANSING, Mich. - The United Auto Worker (UAW)-DaimlerChrysler National Training Center will launch a state-of-the-art Web portal and online learning program designed with Michigan State University that will allow 77,000 UAW-represented DaimlerChrysler employees and their qualified dependents to attend college without leaving their homes or workplaces.
The online distance education program - a joint operation of the union and the automaker - is unique because of its extensive Internet-based support system, special online readiness guides and technical-assistance lines designed to help workers and their qualified dependents successfully complete college courses and degree programs.
The UAW-DaimlerChrysler National Training Center will formally unveil www.LearnNTC.com at a ceremony Monday, Oct. 9, at 10:30 a.m. at the center's main facility at 2211 E. Jefferson Ave. in Detroit.
"This is a collaboration between industry and education that capitalizes on the best uses of technology and the Internet to reach an audience that otherwise may not have access to higher education," said Joseph Codde, an assistant professor of educational psychology and coordinator of the MSU College of Education's Virtual Interactive Teaching and Learning (VITAL) program. "UAW-represented workers at DaimlerChrysler will now have access to courses and degree programs 24 hours a day, seven days a week via the LearnNTC.com Web site."
Under the direction of Rhonda Egidio, director of the VITAL program and professor in the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education, MSU experts spent more than a year creating the sophisticated Web site that provides users with access to readiness courses, community activities, news and information, and institutions selected as "preferred providers."
More than a dozen colleges and universities have been screened, evaluated and granted preferred status, and eventually officials expect the choices of higher-education institutions for online learners to number in the hundreds. Online learners, however, are not restricted to the preferred providers and may select from the hundreds of schools offering online programs nationwide.
According to Egidio, "Learning online certainly has the access and flexibility advantage, but it is also a way to become comfortable with technology skills. Choosing online courses gives a person a reason to develop technology competence and we know these skills are valuable to workers today."
The MSU VITAL program was created to promote educational use of the Internet as a learning medium. Over the years, the program has offered computer-based lab courses to community college faculty on the "how-to's" and pedagogy of designing and teaching Web-based courses.
The National Training Center, established in 1985 for UAW represented workers at DaimlerChrysler, offers educational and employee assistance programs designed to develop a world-class work force that will lead DaimlerChrysler through the new century. Today, the National Training Center directs approximately 46 educational and work and family life programs in 44 locations across the country and at its eight Regional Training Centers.
For more information, contact Rhonda Egidio at (517) 432-3623, Joseph Codde at (517) 432-9259, or Victor Inzunza at (517) 355-1826.