News and Updates

Smart Horizons and MindLeaders collaborate to provide a wealth of online training opportunities

Pensacola, FL (August, 2009)—As today’s workforce struggles to balance a need for training with dwindling resources for traveling to classrooms, Smart Horizons, a Pensacola-based division of Advanced Systems Technology, and MindLeaders, in Dublin, OH, announce a joint program to promote and provide Smart Horizon clients with personalized online training that supports organizational success.
The joint program provides thousands of hours of e-learning. Courses can be used to enhance the personal and professional development of virtually everyone, whether learning to balance work and family and use a personal computer or managing projects and networking in an enterprise environment.
“Smart Horizons courseware is specifically designed to operate on the most commonly used computer systems, with minimal bandwidth required to access course features,” said Doug Peterson, Director, Smart Horizons.
Highly interactive, the courses are user friendly and make learning fun and effective through the use of a consistent course interface, appealing graphics, and challenging questions.
“In addition to being user friendly, courses are available in a text-only format designed for use with screen-reading programs, making them accessible to the visually impaired,” said Philip Payne, Director of Marketing, MindLeaders.
As an IACET Authorized Provider, Smart Horizons offers CEUs for its programs that qualify under IACET guidelines and provides a wide range of training services, including content development and hosting, product delivery, and student enrollment, support, and record keeping. MindLeaders is a performance improvement company with nearly 28 years of experience developing technology-based, self-paced training that ranges from personal computer use to networking in an enterprise environment and from food safety to business skills.

Every profession has unique training needs, and the Smart Horizons-Mindleaders collaboration is meeting and exceeding these needs with cutting-edge learning solutions that are both innovative and cost-effective. To learn more about this e-learning collaboration and its many benefits, call 800.261.6248, e-mail info@smarthorizons.org, or visit http://www.smarthorizons.org/.

About MindLeaders: MindLeaders is a learning company with over 27 years of experience designing elearning programs that promote the success of people and companies. MindLeaders courses cover topics from software skills to leadership, from workplace and food safety to programming and network administration. MindLeaders has over 1,000 clients in more than 30 countries in the commercial, government, and education sectors. Located in Dublin, Ohio, MindLeaders is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ThirdForce PLC, headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.

NACCRRA and Smart Horizons Partner to Provide Online Learning Opportunities to Child Care Professionals

Arlington, VA - The National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) announces a partnership with Smart Horizons, a division of Advanced Systems Technology, Inc., a company that specializes in the development of computer-based instruction and training. The partnership will enable NACCRRA to provide more than 800 Child Care Resource and Referral agencies (CCR&Rs) located throughout the United States with the technology to facilitate a variety of e-Learning opportunities for child care professionals. These e-Learning opportunities, which will include a 120-hour Child Development Associate (CDA) training, a pre-service training series, and other state licensing requirements and CDA credential renewal requirements, will provide child care professionals with professional development opportunities that research suggests will lead to higher quality child care.

According to the research, the amount of formal education attained by a child care provider is the strongest predictor for the provider's ability to engage children in developmentally appropriate activities and positive interactions that better prepare them for school. Additionally, providers with specialized training are more likely to be nurturing, reinforce early literacy skills, and challenge and enhance children's learning.

“NACCRRA is pleased to partner with Smart Horizons and make available to CCR&Rs the technology that will enable them to provide vital training to child care professionals throughout the country,” said Linda Smith, Executive Director of NACCRRA. “Through this technology, our members can serve as the means to providing the vital training to child care professionals that will ultimately improve the quality of child care in this country.”

The technology will enable CCR&Rs to offer ongoing training opportunities via the Internet. CCR&Rs will be able to host online meetings and training sessions, self-paced trainings, live, instructor-led trainings, and ongoing programs that blend self-paced trainings with online meetings.

“The technology is very easy to use and will allow CCR&Rs to effectively, efficiently, and affordably train more child care professionals in less time at a reduced cost,” said Smith.

CCR&Rs are located in every state and most communities across the nation. Together, they serve parents and providers in over 99 percent of all populated zip codes. They work with their communities to identify child care needs and create solutions by recruiting and training more than 500,000 child care providers and creating 450,000 new child care spaces annually.

For more information about the technology and partnership between NACCRRA and Smart Horizons, please visit www.naccrra.org.

About AST
Advanced Systems Technology, Inc.® (AST) is a systems and software engineering firm that specializes in information technology, and in the development of computer-based instruction and training. Founded in 1984, AST has grown to more than 300 professional engineers, programmers, military analysts, and instructional systems designers and developers at over 20 locations across the U.S.

About NACCRRA
NACCRRA, the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies, is our nation’s leading voice for child care. We work with more than 800 state and local Child Care Resource and Referral agencies to ensure that families in every local community have access to high-quality, affordable child care. To achieve our mission, we lead projects that increase the quality and availability of child care professionals, undertake research, and advocate child care policies that positively impact the lives of children and families. To learn more about NACCRRA and how you can join us in ensuring access to high-quality child care for all families, visit us at www.naccrra.org.

Smart Horizons Announces Collaboration with Nova Southeastern University’s Fischler School of Education and Human Services

June 3, 2008: Smart Horizons, a division of Advanced Systems Technology, and Nova Southeastern University's Fischler School of Education and Human Services in North Miami Beach, FL, announce a joint program to promote and provide to child care professionals the opportunity to attend the Fischler School to further develop their careers through online and on-site academic programs. Child care professionals who complete the Smart Horizons training program and earn their CDA National Credential or the Florida Child Care Professional Certificate (FCCPC) can be awarded college level credit through NSU’s Fischler School. The Fischler School currently transfers in the CDA National Credential and the FCCPC for nine (9) credits toward the Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree with a concentration in Child Development. The school also offers an additional three credits to professionals who complete the Director’s Credential. Coursework completed through Smart Horizons toward the CDA renewal will be considered to be transferred to a maximum of three credits.

Smart Horizons has worked with qualified child care professionals to develop some of the best and most comprehensive online early childhood training programs. The program is innovative, realistic, and delivered through interactive multimedia programs provided by Advanced Systems Technology, Inc. Smart Horizons is recognized nationally for providing the comprehensive early childhood training courseware to over 575 child care centers throughout the country. For more information about Smart Horizons, visit www.smarthorizons.org.

Nova Southeastern University is the 6th largest independent, not-for-profit university in the U.S. NSU’s Fischler School of Education and Human Services is one of the largest schools of education in the country, serving nearly 15,000 students annually. The school is widely recognized as a pioneer and leader in using distance technology to provide cutting-edge curriculum to educators worldwide. Contact Marsha Lowe, Strategic Initiatives Special Project Manager, Fischler School of Education and Human Services, for more information at marslowe@nova.edu or 1-800-986-3223 ext. 28345.

West Virginia Finds Success with SafeTransit

In the process of updating its training manual for school bus drivers, West Virginia discovered a whole new approach to training that is more comprehensive, more convenient to drivers and districts and even offers some possibilities for cost savings over the state's old system.

The Internet-based Safe Transit training system was adopted just over a year ago. Benjamin Shew, West Virginia's executive director of school transportation, said Advanced Systems Technology Inc., the company that originated Safe Transit (safetransit.astcorp.com), worked well with the state in tailoring not only a new manual but also unique, Web-based, interactive courseware now available 24 hours a day to some 4,300 school bus drivers in West Virginia's 56 school districts.

"Our goal was to standardize (training) and make improvements at the same time," Shew said, "and we think we've accomplished that."

The state has purchased access to Safe Transit for each school district and mandates that all West Virginia school bus drivers must pass Safe Transit's online tests before taking state certification tests. Though districts have the option of not requiring their drivers to train online, Shew said he believes all have adopted Safe Transit, adding that enthusiasm for the system has been high and that pass rates on state certification tests have risen.

"They were able to, the Safe Transit folks, to tailor it to our needs," Shew said. "They sent chapters for our review, we made comments well into the process before it was actually put online. It was a really good working relationship."

AST (www.astcorp.com), based in Lawton, Okla., is deeply rooted in the online training industry. The company employs more than 300 engineers, programmers, analysts and instructional system designers and developers in offices in 12 states. Its several thousand customers include federal and state agencies, municipalities and school districts.

Woody Wilson, transportation coordinator for West Virginia's Roane County School District, said Safe Transit has been a solid supplement to the training program he had in place for his 43 drivers.

"It definitely has been a plus," he said. "What we were observing, I think, was inconsistency," as trainers before took training ideas and materials from various sources. "That's where we got a big help this year. I didn't have to find new training materials. This was a fresh approach. The new technology added interest to the training, and (now) we are assured all the bases are covered, including documentation." In Wheeling, W.V., transportation coordinator for Ohio County, Gary Kestner, said any initial trepidation older drivers unfamiliar with computers may have had was quickly overcome, as the highly interactive Safe Transit learning modules are easy to engage. As in Roane County, he said Ohio County continues to employ trainers to work with drivers, including all new hires, whose training still includes plenty of time spent on the road in real buses. However, in the future, he said he can foresee a time when veteran drivers may be able to complete in-service training, with the exception of monitored testing, on their own, perhaps even on weekends in their homes. That, he said, would represent a cost savings for the district.

"It is a cost savings and frees my time for other operations," he said, adding "I think Safe Transit is an asset long overdue." Shew made some final points:

• The prospect of being able to train online at their own convenience may encourage new drivers to join a district or veterans to stay, lowering attrition and bringing cost-savings.

• Using Safe Transit to supplement initial driver training reduces burdens placed on district trainers, saving time and money.

• Some of the Safe Transit modules - first aid or conflict resolution, for example - may also be used to supplement in-service training of people other than school bus drivers employed by districts.

• Safe Transit electronically randomizes testing. Drivers taking tests in a district computer lab would be presented with different versions; and if a driver were required to repeat a test, he or she wouldn't see the same version twice.

• Safe Transit handles all documentation of coursework electronically, even forwarding results from local districts to Shew's central office.

To learn more about our online training solutions, call Customer Service at (800) 261-6248 or use our Online Contact Form.