Technology Training Community

Periodically, ITS Training Services solicits your input regarding interest for vendor-provided training topics that will benefit Penn State’s IT staff. By sharing your feedback in this manner, you have helped us to provide needed training at significantly reduced costs, adding up to more than $425,000 in savings for Penn State’s IT staff over the past several years. Most of this savings has been through aggregation of topic demand and on-site course coordination. However, vouchers, grants, and remote participation of hands-on training have also helped to make essential training affordable for IT staff across Penn State.

Below are links and instructions to this year’s topic assessment and feedback survey. We hope you will consider providing input on relevant topics, as well as feedback on the processes and channels through which these opportunities are coordinated and communicated. The information you provide will help us to better meet your training and communication needs. Please take a few minutes to review the steps below and provide your responses by July 13, 2012.

Step 1: Complete the Survey

Complete the survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VendorAssessment_2012.

Step 2: Topic Assessment

At the end of the survey, a link will be provided to the Harvard Live Question Tool. This will give you the opportunity to weigh in with your specific training needs. Potential topics can be found in (but are not limited to) the Learning Tree course catalog at http://www.learningtree.com/ in the IT & Management Training tab.

To suggest a new topic:

• In the Harvard Live Question Tool, select the “Post a question” link, and paste the URL to the desired course/topic beside the title.

To vote for an existing topic:

• In the Harvard Live Question Tool, click on the “votes” square to the left of the existing topic suggestion.

Please consider the following when providing your feedback:

• Before suggesting a topic, make sure that the topic isn’t already listed in the Harvard Live Question Tool.
• To help gather demand for regional training, please define your campus as your name.
• Do not suggest or vote for topics that you are not likely to attend.
• Do not vote for more topics than you would be permitted to attend.
• Examine all the existing choices before voting.

Thanks in advance for your help in determining and meeting IT training needs of at Penn State.