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This is a story of how the state of Georgia, in cooperation with an industry group, used eLearning to educate and certify over 13,000 people on water conservation in fewer than 90 days. The hero of this story: Moodle LMS. |
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North Georgia has suffered from Level 4 or “extreme to exceptional drought” conditions since the fall of 2007. Some observers suggested restricting watering of urban landscapes. But watering restrictions would jeopardize the livelihood of thousands of Georgians, from nursery workers to landscapers. Government and industry reached a compromise: mandating water conservation education and certification through the university extension system. As the spring growing season approached, time became the enemy: how could the thousands of people who needed the education and certification receive it in time to install new landscapes? The traditional, classroom-based university extension system was overwhelmed.
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The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) banned the watering of new landscapes by anyone who had not been certified through the water conservation program. The Georgia Urban Agriculture Council (UAC) had less than a month to rapidly deploy an online portal to educate, test, and certify consumers and landscapers before the spring planting season.
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The Georgia UAC teamed with Web Courseworks, a learning service provider, to offer the Outdoor Water Use Registration Program through an Internet learning portal. Web Courseworks applied its rapid eLearning development and LMS hosting capabilities to a derivative of Moodle LMS to deploy the portal on time.
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The portal, located at http://www.urbanagcouncil.com/, has educated and certified over 13,000 people on water conservation in fewer than 90 days.
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“Using the Internet is an efficient, fast, superior way to go about this,” says Bret Bowlin of Georgia UAC. Using eLearning, Georgia has been able to educate and certify over 13,000 people on water conservation in fewer than 90 days.
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