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Fireman's Fund Teams with Lasselle-Ramsay to Build eLearning Situation Fireman's Fund Insurance Company knew that improving underwriters' skills was critical to the company's turnaround strategy. To get its underwriters up to speed quickly and reduce costs, the company wanted to create an underwriting curriculum that could be delivered through electronic learning. Unfortunately, Fireman's Fund had no standardized process for implementing eLearning programs. Its instructional designers were not experienced with eLearning, and the first deadline in the schedule was about to pass without any modules completed. Challenge One factor affecting the development of an eLearning curriculum was a reorganization in January 2002. Four divisional training organizations—underwriting, claims, IT, and management development—had been combined into one corporate services department. Skill sets ranged from people who had never developed a course to people with extensive knowledge of curriculum development—and no one had any experience in eLearning. The challenge was increased because Fireman's Fund executives had been promised that eLearning materials for underwriters would be available in six months. It was the beginning of June, the deadline was 30 days away, and the department had nothing to show for its efforts. That's when they began their search for a vendor. The requirements were threefold: Build an eLearning curriculum that would provide consistent and accurate information to underwriters around the country. Develop a standardized process for building the eLearning materials. Provide a training professional to coach subject matter experts in how to develop eLearning courses. Solution Lasselle-Ramsay assessed the situation, and their first recommendation was to separate the writing and programming of eLearning modules. Programming was immediately assigned to other resources, so that the team had to focus only on learning instructional design from an eLearning perspective. The next step was to develop eLearning standards and tools. To get a module ready by the end of June, Lasselle-Ramsay helped Fireman's Fund instructional designers create a minimal set of basic standards. Although not much more than a style guide, it was a good first step toward meeting the rapidly approaching deadline. Tools developed included templates for module outlines and storyboards, and interaction models to engage users, such as pop-up windows and quizzes. The results were nothing short of fantastic. After the first course was out the door, seven other courses were developed, as well as 11 curriculum maps for underwriting. The feedback from users was very positive; they liked the eLearning built internally better than those that were commercially available. After the first module was finished, Lasselle-Ramsay consultants and Fireman's Fund personnel collaborated on developing a more comprehensive set of standards. Now a 100-page document describes every aspect of the methodology. Lasselle-Ramsay mapped out Fireman's Fund work processes to give employees the skills and knowledge to sustain themselves. In fact, the eLearning initiative with underwriting was so successful that Fireman's Fund is now working on the claims area, and Lasselle-Ramsay is coaching a whole new group of instructional designers. Because they don't have to start from scratch, Fireman's Fund expects course development in claims to go much faster. "Lasselle-Ramsay is a major strategic partner for our organization." —Rowell Matt Dir. of Instructional Design & Development Fireman's Fund Read the Fireman's Fund Case Study

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