Case Study: Train New Child and Adult Day Care Centers about USDA Meal Re-Imbursement Program

Train New Child and Adult Day Care Centers about USDA Meal Re-Imbursement Program

The Issue

The Texas Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Group continuously field trains new and existing Child Care Centers, Adult Day Care Centers, and Day Care Home contractors about the USDA's Meal Re-Imbursement Program. This program helps underserved children and adults get proper nutrition.

The current process places a significant burden on the organization. All new potential contractors are required to have training within two weeks of submitting their application. Secondly, existing contractors need regular updates on new USDA filing rules.

Because of the sheer volume of applicants and the logistics and costs associated with providing training across the state of Texas, it was an impossible situation for the agency. The result was the training department not being able to keep up with the demand, thus delaying contract approvals, and impacting contractors' budgets.

The Solution

Working with the Food and Nutrition Training group, MicroAssist converted the Instructor-Led Training (ILT) into readily available online training; the benefits were numerous. 

MicroAssist loaded the training on to a new custom Learning Management System (LMS), reducing the licensing cost of TDA's current commercial LMS and eliminating the high cost of the manual enrollment process for potential contractors. This second LMS was implemented solely to support the application process and served as a filter by providing the required training to all applicants regardless of whether or not they eventually became contractors. Historically, many prospective contractors would apply, but never complete the process. The new system and course immediately eliminated the need for field-based ILT by the agency and eliminated the substantial travel costs.

For the applicants, this reduced the application processing time for new contractors because they were able to complete the training at their convenience and in compliance with the two week requirement. It also increased the number of applications and reduced the number of questions coming into field offices about them. At the same time, it allows existing contractors easy access to updated USDA filing rules.

Problems Solved

• Transition to E-Learning
• Reducing total cost of Learning Management System ownership
• Training large, widely-distributed audiences
• Converting Instructor Led Training content to E-Learning
• Leveraging in-house training resources
• Demonstrating effectiveness of E-Learning
• Maintaining technology coherency, architecture, and security

For your convenience, this E-Learning case study is available for download below, or you can view demos of our E-Learning projects.

Have a question? Meet Heather Poggi-Mannis, our E-Learning evangelist. Heather has been working in the training industry for 12 years. Her technical background and previous experience includes a BSEE from the University of Texas at Austin, working for Texas Insturments Analog Devices, as well as product manager for a Computer Telephony Integration product line in the early 1990s. In each of these roles she provided outreach and training to both her internal and external clients.

Now Heather is dedicated to helping people find the right E-Learning solution for their organization. She'll take you through every step of the process from technology considerations to content development, all the way through to review, deployment, and hosting.