09-45

= **LabSMART** = toc

**RTO**
MineSkill Australia (RTO 90928)

**Contact**
Warren Willson (warrendotwillsonatalsglobaldotcom)

= Category =

RTO-Business Partnership

**Business Partner**
Campbell Brothers Limited - ALS Laboratory Group

Executive summary
ALS Coal Technology, a division of Campbell Brothers Ltd., has multiple coal testing laboratories whose existing technicians currently have no national AQTF accreditation in Laboratory Skills or Laboratory Operations. ALS laboratories are geographically isolated in the coal producing regions of New South Wales and Queensland. That geographic isolation, together with consistently high workloads, has effectively prevented implementation of any comprehensive staff development programs to solve the problem using more traditional methods of classroom and distance education.

The proposed solution is to implement an e-learning strategy to deliver professional development and competency recognition remotely using a Learning Management System (LMS) and customised units from the existing PML99 Laboratory Skills Toolbox. The project aims to embed an e-learning pathway in ALS Coal Technology and its wholly-owned subsidiary company AcTest Pty Ltd. That will be achieved by first customising a single generic module from the existing PML99 Laboratory Operations Toolbox, to make the module more directly relevant to the client’s best practice procedures for coal testing.

The customised module will subsequently be rolled out across the organisation’s intranet using the Moodle LMS e-learning platform. The trial e-learning module will be used as the focus of a pilot program for the future implementation of a full e-learning strategy, and will open new e-learning and e-assessment pathways for all laboratory staff isolated both geographically and in other ways. The project will be deemed successful when participants in the pilot program complete the trial module, and when the implementation strategy has been fully tested and documented. E-learning technologies embedded in the ALS coal technology division will also ultimately have significance for their minerals, tribology, and food testing laboratories located throughout Australia and in 35 other countries.