*Training Methods IDENTIFIERS *Goodwill Industries of America

Goodwill Industries of America (GIA), like many organizations that are national or global in scope, uses distance education to deliver management training. GIA uses distance education to train staff identified as future GIA directors, pending the successful conclusion of training. One of the most serious drawbacks to this and all distance education is its low completion rate. Fewer than half of those who begin the GIA training complete it in the recommended 18 months. Several strategies may help raise the completion rate: (1) to avoid encouraging participants to believe they already have all the management skills and information they need so that completing training seems like a pro forma task, regularly schedule meetings with the students, either by telephone or teleconference or in regional face-to-face meetings; (2) assign the students core courses and then offer them an option to choose among several modules, seminars, and courses; (3) move students through the training together, as cohorts; (4) require tutors to be in contact (telephone or face-to-face) with every learner at least twice per month; and (5) schedule regular cohort meetings, at which students would have the opportunity to compare their standing within the context of their peers. (The document contains a literature review of theoretical models of distance education, a synthesized model, and 29 references.) (CML) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document