Enterprise content management system for IT training

Abstract

Information Technology (IT) training is undergoing rapid changes around the world, creating inter-institutional partnerships between IT training centers as well as software and hardware vendors to promote new products and training to users. Online training has resulted in an increasing enrolment of a wider spectrum of learners with more diverse technical skills and needs that must be served. Enterprise content management (ECM) enables IT training centers to deliver education beyond company walls, supporting a range of tools to improve information dissemination, communication, and creating collaborative virtual classrooms. In this article, the authors propose a learning platform with both Web 2.0 and mobile interfaces that supports IT training for nourishing busy workers with the latest IT technology knowledge and skills. Alerts are used as a mechanism to facilitate communications among students, instructors, and administrators. It also reminds students to keep track on their learning progress. The content flow management (such as content editing, content approval, use of content, perform training exercise, practical tests, and examination) as well as external access control for the Web portal can be easily controlled through the e-platform. Besides, the authors also demonstrated how to systematically specify document classifications and tagging of training materials by using the modular design of an integrated IT Training Enterprise Content Management System (ITTECMS) together with ontologies from the Semantic Web. Watermarking technology will be deployed for further protection of the training materials, both online and offline. It also allows the flexibility to create match-making of training content according to user interests. Not only users can retrieve matched contents effectively, vendors can also obtain multi-dimensional analysis of user problems and comments to form a comprehensive knowledgebase and achieve cross-sale of education products to target customers.