First year of new UI training tool costs $99,000

IOWA CITY - University of Iowa officials hope faculty and staff take advantage of a new online professional development program that costs $99,000 for the first year of a three-year contract.

During a presentation to the UI Faculty Senate Tuesday, UI officials said the program, My Quick Coach, is an "e-learning" tool aimed at professional development for faculty and staff. It replaces a program called Skillsoft that was not being used as much by UI staff in recent years, officials said.

The UI's three-year contract for My Quick Coach costs $99,000 for the first year and $89,000 for years two and three.

Faculty and staff can share content with each other through the program and watch short videos on certain subjects.

Several faculty members asked about the university's investment in the program, and they wondered how the quality of it would judged. Faculty Senator Katherine Tachau, a professor of history, questioned who would have access to the information about faculty users of My Quick Coach.

"Just us, not the company we're paying?" she asked.

The company likely would have access to the list of video lessons accessed by UI users, and to any avatar photo the user posts, officials said.

It will be available to more than 16,000 UI users and while it may not be for everybody, officials think it can be a good tool to talk in groups and foster collaboration, said Kevin Ward, assistant vice president for human resources. This program was chosen after a campus group reviewed the use and feedback of the former program and looked at other options, he said.

"I think it holds a lot of potential, partly for people who don't get to travel or go to conferences," Ward said. "It's something new, different, easy to use and to try, and we're hoping it will catch on."

My Quick Coach is being tested by some UI users now and will have a full roll-out soon, he said. Officials will monitor feedback and use of the program.

Also at Tuesday's meeting, the Faculty Senate approved the permanent retention of the research faculty track, which had been in place on a trial basis since 2008. In that time, the colleges of medicine, public health and pharmacy have voted to allow research faculty positions in their colleges, but only the College of Medicine has such faculty, with 30 current research track faculty.