I enjoy the conversations on this LISTSERV, but generally go on with my real 
work.  Then, there are comments that require a response.

Those of you who know me, including over 1,300 students who I have had the 
pleasure to interact with in my classes, know that I am NOT a vendor guy.  
And, yet, I have been employed by AIIM as an instructor coming up six years.

Sasha “You (I) understand that course was designed by vendors, …”  Our 
courses are developed by recognized subject matter experts, most of them 
are service providers (they can make the effort/time and have the resources 
to put thousands of hours into developing good course content).  AIIM puts 
out bids for course development across all our courses.  We haven’t had many 
responses by recognized experts who are also putting in 40+ hours maintaining 
their day jobs.  We would not object to such bids – we just haven’t received 
many that I am aware of.

What you apparently don’t know is that the specifications for the course 
content, and the course development oversight, are done by subject matter 
experts at AIIM.  Developers cannot just put anything they want into this 
material.  AIIM also has two Education Advisor groups who must approve the 
content and so there is also a self-regulated aspect to this – competing 
vendors would not allow an unfair advantage by a competitor.

An important mandate in the development of the course material is that it 
cannot be product and service specific.  You offer “…who are trying to sell 
their products and services,…”  Sasha, please provide the instances you have 
from any course material to support your position.  Of course, anyone else is 
free to jump in on this effort, as well.

The discussions, and the specific course, on SharePoint followed a thorough 
assessment by the AIIM staff.  The reason why we address SharePoint is not 
because we endorse it, but because so many records management 
professionals and others are required to work with it on a day to day basis.  A 
large effort was made to ensure that the SharePoint course material, and 
other discussions, gives a balanced perspective to SharePoint.  A vast 
quantity of the course material addresses information governance within 
SharePoint and both the benefits and drawbacks of SharePoint are clearly 
provided.

You indicate that you were disappointed in a particular course.  I am 
disappointed to learn that.  And, at AIIM and anywhere else, we know we 
can’t please everyone.  However, the fact remains that AIIM has had roughly 
20,000 students take our courses and the vast majority of them have been 
very pleased with our offerings.

You say “(that course) is not designed to give practical knowledge, …”  The 
Practitioner portion of our courses address:  WHAT IS (the topic).  So, in the 
ERM course, we discuss What is: capture, metadata, classification, search, 
security and control, RM technology (including how you manage files on local, 
network and removable drives), storage and digital preservation.  And, you are 
suggesting that there might not be any practical knowledge (theory, best 
practices, etc.) in any of these discussions.

In the Specialist portion of the course we discuss: HOW TO IMPLEMENT (the 
topic) environment (policies, processes, people and technology).  Across the 
courses, the subjects include carrying out a business assessment, technology 
assessment, developing information governance, developing your 
requirements, design the processes and technology, implement the processes 
and technology and post-implementation activities.  Again, are you suggesting 
that there might not be any practical knowledge in any of these discussions?

I have been a long time member of ARMA and appreciate the knowledge I gain 
from its resources.  AIIM simply provides another source of information that, 
apparently, 10s of thousands of other people have appreciated, as well.

List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance
To unsubscribe from this list, click the below link. If not already present, place UNSUBSCRIBE RECMGMT-L or UNSUB RECMGMT-L in the body of the message.
mailto:[log in to unmask]