Monday 30 July 2012

Certificated Distance Learning


Can't travel?  Can't get a week away?  No problem!  Our innovative distance learning courses will teach you what you need to know without any of the expense or inconvenience of public training courses - and you can still take the certification exam!
Vibration or Alignment distance learning allows you to learn at your own pace
As part of a distance learning course, you are given time limited access to narrated or video presentations and course materials to study.  You may take the course from your office or from the convenience of your own home. In the case of the certification courses, when you feel you have mastered the materials sufficiently you may take the exam.
Travel budgets slashed
In these tough economic times, travel budgets have been cut, but that is no excuse to stop learning! In fact, recessionary periods are the best time to hone your skills and improve yourself so that you are in a better position to compete when things pick up again.  Distance learning is a great way to better yourself and gain another certification while saving money at the same time.

Have a question? We've got an answer!
Many of our distance learning courses come with a mentoring option that gives you access to a dedicated Mobius Institute instructor. You may contact your instructor by email or online chat to ask questions. Need a little help? Just send your personal instructor a question and we'll be sure you get a prompt answer.
Secure exams
For the certified courses; when you feel you are ready, you may take the exam and try to earn your certification. The exams are either given online while a proctor monitors you via a webcam or the exam may be given to you by an invigilator - this is a trusted neutral person who agrees to administer the exam according to certain rules that protect the certification process. A third option is to sit the exam with other students when a live course takes place in your area.
How does distance learning work?
We currently have a number of distance learning or eLearning options for you to choose from. The option you choose will depend mostly on how many people in your organization would like to be trained and how you are connected to the Internet. If there are only one or two people who would like to receive training, the best way to accomplish this is to sign up for a course via this website and take the course online. Some of the course materials contain streaming video and audio, so you will need a good Internet connection as well as permission to view these materials on your company computer. When you sign up for a course this way, you just log onto this website the same way you are viewing this now and you can access the course from any computer. If your company will not permit you to view streaming audio or video from your office, you may access the course from home or from any computer connected to the Internet.
If only one or two people require training, but your Internet connection is slow or your company will not allow you to take the course online, we can provide the course to you on CD or DVD.  The training course is licensed per student and only for a limited time period (currently 90 days). We prefer to make this offer available via your corporate LMS or training manager in order to protect ourselves from licensing violations.
LMS and corporate LMS
LMS stands for "Learning Management System".  An LMS system is designed to track individual students through eLearning courses. The course material is loaded on the LMS, each student is given a user name and password to access the materials. A training manager may then track the students progress through the course, monitor how much time was spent viewing the materials, look at quiz results etc. Mobius Institute courses conform to SCORM and AICC standards for these systems.
The Mobius Institute hosts our own LMS system called "moodle" ( www.moodle.org ) If you have a number of people in your organization who require training, this is the best option as it allows your training manager to monitor who has received the training and or how far along they are in their course work. This makes it easier to manage invoicing for the courses as well. We would be happy to discuss pricing options if you have 10 or more people to train. Please contact us.
If you have your own in-house corporate LMS system, we can discuss loading the course materials on it.  If you are interested in this option, please contact us.
Which distance courses are available?
We currently have a number of courses available for distance or eLearning. They are:
Vibration analysis with certification option - mentoring option is also available
Category I ASNT Level I   (new course materials coming soon!)
Category II ASNT level II (new course materials coming soon!)
Category III ASNT level III
Vibration analysis without certification option
Basic - Online  Contact Us for a price
Intermediate CD - single user  Online  Contact Us for a price

Shaft Alignment (learn more)
Alignment - Introduction   online  Contact Us for a price
Alignment - Master CD - single user  online  Contact Us for a price  

What is the difference between the vibration courses with and without certification options?
There are a few differences, the most important being that the certified courses follow the exact same curriculum given in our live classroom courses. If you are serious about vibration analysis and would like to take an exam and earn a certification, then these are the right courses for you.  These courses have been offered to help those who wish to get certified but who are not allowed to travel to attend a live course. Every effort has been made to make these courses as educational and as beneficial as attending a live course. This includes the mentoring option which gives you access to a Mobius Institute instructor for the duration of the course.
Another difference is format - the certified courses are given in a split screen video / presentation format, where an instructor guides you through the course topic by topic and manipulates animations and simulators on the screen to help you visualize and better understand the topics. The non certified courses are in the form of narrated Power Point presentations that allow one to easily flip back and forth through the slides. These also contain a large quantity of animations and simulations however, the certified courses are much newer and contain higher quality state-of-the-art graphics.
Lastly, those who opt for one of the certification courses will also receive a course manual, a pocket guide to common machine faults, a mouse pad with common machine fault patterns on it and a pretty cool pen with a surprise inside!
What is the difference between distance learning and eLearning?
Nothing! Here is a brief explanation in order to avoid confusion. With the exception of classroom training with a live instructor, most of our courses are available in digital format, either in the form of video presentations or narrated slide shows, both with ample amounts of sophisticated animations and simulations to help you visualize the concepts and keep the training interesting. What can get confusing is that we have a variety of ways to deliver this digital content. It can be delivered via our website (you purchase a "subscription" to the materials and begin learning immediately). It can be delivered via an LMS, which allows us and your training manager better control over access to the materials as well as information about the progress of each student. (This is the preferred option for companies who want to train more than a few people.) It can also be delivered on a time licensed CD with the understanding that the materials are to be viewed only by the student or students who are licensed to view it. Just as each student who attends a live course pays his admission, each student who "attends" the digital version of the course, even if it comes on a CD, also pays his admission. Thus, what we are offering are digital course delivered in a variety of ways.
As noted, we also offer a mentoring option for the certified courses which gives the student access to one of our instructors via email or chat for the duration of the course.
For more details of any of our distance learning options please contact us directly.