First there was “training.” Now there is a Departmentwide “learning management system,” which takes training to the next level by being more all-encompassing and by providing more options and services for its users.

This is the concept behind USDA’s new “Agriculture Learning Service” or “AgLearn,” which was formally launched by the Department on March 29, for use by USDA employees.

Cindy Bezz, USDA’s “eLearning” project manager located within the Office of the Chief Information Officer, and a cross-agency team implemented USDA’s AgLearn Service. She explained that “eLearning” is one of the various initiatives which come under the general category of “eGovernment” or “eGov.” “In turn,” she said, “eGovernment is defined as the exchange of products, information, and services through an electronic medium such as the Internet or e-mail.”

The April-June 2003 issue of the USDA News carried a story on eGovernment at USDA.

USDA’s eGovernment efforts are focused on three general audiences: USDA’s customers, USDA’s partners in public and private sector organizations, and USDA’s employees. Bezz emphasized that eLearning is a key feature of those eGovernment efforts focused on USDA employees, among others.

She explained that eLearning is a method in which employees can search for training opportunities, register for training courses, and track their progress in completing curricula online--while, at the same time, trainers and managers can track the progress of those efforts online.

“AgLearn is more about managing training and career development rather than just taking ‘online training’,” Bezz pointed out.

She said that AgLearn is specifically designed to provide one-stop services for delivering, scheduling, and managing “learning events” nationwide for USDA employees at headquarters and field offices. “Our AgLearn services,” she explained, “give employees the ability to search for, and then sign up for, online and classroom training events--and then also maintain their own training records.”

Ultimately, she said, AgLearn will allow a USDA employee to make a request for, get the approval of, and then pay for a course all without paper.

Chris Niedermayer, associate chief information officer for eGovernment within OCIO, explained that, at present, approximately 7,400 headquarters and field office employees from ten USDA program agencies and two staff offices are included in the initial phase of AgLearn. In December 2003 individual agencies made the determination about which of its employees would participate in Phase One. Then in March 2004 the training officers for those participating agencies notified their employees that AgLearn is now available to them, and the employees were subsequently provided with AgLearn student IDs and passwords.

“The USDA training officers involved in Phase One have taken on a lot of responsibility in rolling out AgLearn to their employees and communicating and marketing that service within their agencies,” Bezz underscored. “They have received training about implementing AgLearn and are the first point of contact about AgLearn for their employees.”

USDA employees who are in Phase One will have access to 30 free online courses that are available on a governmentwide basis through the Office of Personnel Management’s Government Online Learning Center, also known as “GoLearn.” These free courses include general administrative topics, such as communication skills, that are of interest to all federal employees. Also, USDA agencies can purchase “Business and Information Technology” courses for their employees to access on AgLearn.

The Department’s own Office of Homeland Security has developed a new introductory course, on the emergency response management system at USDA, which is now available on AgLearn as well as on GoLearn. According to Greg Power, the emergency response training coordinator for the Department’s Office of Homeland Security, by this autumn additional related courses will have been developed and made available on AgLearn.

An online course on cyber security awareness is also to be tested soon and made available for USDA employees through AgLearn.

“More USDA employees are to be added to AgLearn in increments throughout this spring and summer,” Bezz pointed out. “And in the future we’ll have courses which help USDA employees in their career planning.”

“AgLearn,” affirmed Niedermayer, “is expected to be made available--to all USDA employees around the country and around the world who have Internet access--by October 1 of this year.” •