Training Project Checklist

Answering these questions will help you and the vendor understand the scope of your training.

• Do you have a current training solution?
• How many training hours does your current solution take?
• Have you identified dedicated SMEs to your project?
• Have you prepared an outline of your training?
• What is your budget / deadline for the project?
• Will you be needing an instructor-led course or an e-learning module(s)?
• For an instructor-led course, do you have a trainer?
• For an instructor-led course, will you need a trainer guide?
• For an e-learning development, what is the level of interactivity? For example, do you want knowledge checks, quizzes, scenarios, and will there be media involved? (Pictures, Videos, Animations) Will you want closed captions, voice over work, language options?

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Vetting External Vendors

Please look at our list of recommended vendors for your training development needs. If you decide to go with another vendor, please be aware that they may not be in the supply management system, and you will need to partner with supply management to vet and set up the new vendor.

The vendor must be able to provide the following files at the end of the project:

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How to Interview Vendors

• Come ready with any questions you may have. You will want to know about costs, rates, timelines, communication, and a check-in schedule.
• Request a training portfolio from the vendor and review it.
• Ask what level of experience the Instructional Designer has, their qualifications, the software they use and the number of people who will work on the project.
• Be prepared to answer questions (see Training Project Checklist). The vendor team will want to know the specifics and the scope of your project. The more information you can share, the better. It will allow the vendor to give you an accurate estimate of cost and development timeline for your training solution.
• Plan to have your SMEs and another project member attend the meeting with you.

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E-Learning Best Practices

Closed Captioning:
Closed captioning is a standard option you will want the vendor to include in your training. It does add an additional cost, but you will want this option to help accommodate any hearing-impaired employees.

Voice Over:
Voice over audio is an optional feature for your elearning training. Vendors either hire a "talent" to record the audio files or they can use a program that simulates a spoken voice. There is a cost-saving element if you can have someone on your team do the voice over work, however this is time-consuming, and the quality of your audio will depend on the equipment you have available.

Technology Requirements:
You will need to consider the technology requirements for your learners. For example, can they all access the online training? As a best practice, we highly recommend courses be developed using Articulate 360 and the output required is a SCORM 1.2 package to be compatible with the company LMS.

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Team Roles

SMEs:

• Who will serve as your SMEs? They will need to have a working relationship with whoever is developing your training solution. They will need to be available for regular check-in meetings and to answer any questions the developers may have.

Course Owner:

• You or someone on your team will need to have course owner admin rights in the LMS also known as My Learning. This person will be responsible for assigning the training to employees, managing the rosters if needed, and ensuring the course is going out to the right audience. They will also be responsible for accessing and providing reports, as needed. See the LMS > Administrative Roles > Course Owner tab for more information on Course Owner responsibilities.
• Your vendor will not have access to the LMS. The course owner will need to contact the DCS team if support is needed to have training files uploaded into the LMS. DCS can work with the vendor to coordinate the delivery of training files.
• The course owner should also ensure there is a back-up course owner in the event the current course owner leaves the team.

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Additional Expectations

Maintenance and Upgrades

You will need to consider the shelf life of your course and what maintenance will be needed to keep your training up to date once the project is completed. Is it built into your contract with your vendor, or do you need support of the Design & Creative Services team for upkeep? The best practice is to establish an annual check-in to discuss updates. Of course, if your training has multiple policy changes or other compliance requirements, you may want to build in more frequent check-ins to address those.

If you need support from DCS with maintenance, please note that the team uses Articulate360 products. Vendors may use another authoring software other than Articulate to create E-Learning courses. You can request for your course to be designed in Articulate, but if you decide to go with a different authoring tool, any modifications will need to be made by, and paid for, through the original vendor.

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Corvum Learning & Design

• All-female, veteran / minority owned company and DBE recognized.
• Have partnered with SoCalGas since 2020 on projects with several departments.

Examples of training solutions Corvum Learning & Design has developed for SoCalGas:

• Maximo Mobile Project with Gas Transmission.
• TSR Software Rollout.
• BP26 Software Simulation.
• Compliance Training for Environmental.

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Over J Consulting

Over J Consulting is an engineering, analytics, and technology consulting firm serving some of the country's largest public utilities, including Los Angeles-based SoCalGas, as well as numerous private sector clients. Leveraging the power of its own proprietary digital dashboard interface, the OJC team has been earning increasingly widespread industry acclaim for its unique ability to help large, complex organizations identify business process and product inefficiencies, minimize waste, and optimize process solutions. Among OJC's core offerings is their proprietary technology (Digital Modernization, Application Services, Data Intelligence & Analytics Dashboarding), Training & Simulation (Curriculum Dev and Training Delivery), which reinvents manual business processes, transforming them into secure, easy-to-use systems that eliminate human error and inconsistencies at enterprise scale.

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The Select Group

We partner to build custom solutions based on the intended project outcome. Each solution we develop is specific to a client’s requirements, resource plan, and timeline, giving them maximum confidence in a successful project at scale.

Examples of training solutions The Select Group has developed for SoCalGas:

• Financial Acumen E-Learning (Utility Accounting Org).
• PSIF High Energy E-Learning (Safety Management Systems Org).

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