New Horizons Launches Integrated Learning Program

In a move to offer the benefits of traditional classroom instruction blended with the convenience of eLearning, New Horizons Computer Learning Centers Inc. said Monday that the company's innovative "Integrated Learning" model is now being rolled out to its more than 170 company-owned and franchised training centers in North America.

The Integrated Learning model offers three content-equivalent methods of delivering information technology (IT) training -- Classroom Learning, Online LIVE Learning and Online ANYTIME Learning. Classroom Learning, in which the company has specialized for nearly 20 years, delivers IT training in an instructor-led environment. Online LIVE sessions are "classrooms on the Web" featuring instructor-facilitated classes delivered in a synchronous manner via the Internet. Online ANYTIME delivers training in an asynchronous, self-paced manner via the Internet or on a CD-ROM.

Integrated Learning positions New Horizons as the only IT training company in the world with the powerful ability to deliver training that is consistent in content whether delivered in a traditional classroom or over the Internet. The multi-million dollar initiative includes building a Web-based technology infrastructure to deliver live, interactive IT courses over the Internet, new eLearning courseware, a library of self-paced learning modules and development of enterprise-directed marketing initiatives.

"Today's marketplace requires learning solutions that deliver the best training for employees in multiple geographic locations," said Cushing Anderson, program manager for learning services research at IDC, a leading research and analyst firm for the IT industry. "In addition to offering courses when and where students want them, the unique benefit of New Horizons Integrated Learning is that it offers consistent content across various methods of delivery. For companies that use different delivery methods, this is important," said Anderson.

"Integrated Learning allows us to provide our customers with the total solution regardless of `what they want to learn' and `how they want to learn it,'" said Paula Moreira, vice president of integrated learning. "During the next few weeks, every New Horizons center in the U.S. and Canada will receive a personalized visit from a member of our 20-person corporate training team. Following this full day of training for key center personnel, each location will then be authorized to introduce and begin offering Integrated Learning. This will be a significant benefit for customers, who will have a choice of Classroom, Online LIVE or Online ANYTIME courses, or a combination of all three."

By September 1, all North American centers will deliver their course offerings using the Integrated Learning approach. The second phase of the rollout, which will begin in the fourth quarter of this year, includes the launch of Integrated Learning to New Horizons' international locations in 46 countries.

New Horizons Online LIVE Learning provides synchronous, interactive classrooms on the Web led by instructors who are specialists in online training techniques. The New Horizons investment in Internet training technology offers Online LIVE students real-time, hands-on laboratories rather than simulations, individual student queries and instructor responses, chat capabilities, help desk support and an online archive of live sessions available to students for follow-up review.

New Horizons Online ANYTIME Learning is a new library of more than 400 New Horizons courses available via the Internet or CD-ROM for self-paced learners. With content equivalent to the classroom, Online ANYTIME is an option for self-learning outside instructor-led environments.

"For the first time, students can gain career-enhancing knowledge and skills any way they want, any time they want, and employers can be assured of consistent quality and content anywhere in the world," Moreira said. "The results are a greater retention of learning by students and a higher return on training investment by their employers."

Students enrolled in any of the three types of courses will be allocated a private Web page with password access to class schedules, tracking progress and options for taking advantage of multiple-delivery methods.

In addition to its academic innovations, New Horizons Integrated Learning represents significant new business opportunities for franchisees and managers of company-owned training centers, Moreira noted. "The delivery methods and their various combinations provide a clear-cut competitive differentiation and advantage in marketing to national enterprises," she said. "We can now provide corporate training managers with a single source for unprecedented choice of method, location, timing and custom training."

The initial course offerings under the Integrated Learning banner will include both office productivity applications and technology classes such as Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD), Microsoft Visual Basic Programming, Linux, A , Network , Certified Novell Engineer (CNE), Lotus and network security. New course catalogs that reflect the Integrated Learning concept will be available in August.

New Horizons Computer Learning Centers Inc. is the world's largest independent IT training company and a subsidiary of New Horizons Worldwide Inc. (Nasdaq:NEWH). New Horizons provides customer-focused computer training choices by delivering approximately three million student training days per year. During the past year, the company was listed among BusinessWeek magazine's "100 Hot Growth Companies"; FORTUNE magazine's "100 Fastest-Growing Companies"; and FORBES magazine's "200 Best Small Companies" in America. With more than 280 centers in 46 countries, New Horizons features over 2,000 classrooms, 2,700 instructors and 2,200 account executives (salespeople).