NASHVILLE - Nashville-based Duthie Associates Inc. (DAI) announced today the firm has been accepted to membership in the e-Learning Consortium, an international forum for executives who exchange information on best practices, standards and benchmarks for implementing online interactive learning at the enterprise level.

DAI Chairman and Founder Bob Duthie explained, "We're proud to be a member of the MASIE Center's e-Learning Consortium, because in order to achieve sustainable competitiveness, employers need employees who are better learners and more versatile performers than ever before. It's no coincidence that DAI is based in Nashville, which has become a center for the study of the use of technologies for teaching and learning"."

As one of fewer than 200 e-Learning Consortium members worldwide, DAI has access to exclusive comparative reports, conferences, confidential peer-to-peer access to other consortium members, and related research on the evolving e-learning industry.

Duthie noted that The MASIE Center, in Saratoga Springs, NY, is
dedicated to understanding the intersection of technology and learning, in the interest of enabling organizations to leverage technology for learning and performance. Masie Center studies encompass all forms of digital technology useful within learning organizations.

Founded in 1989, DAI develops custom, interactive e-learning courses that assist clients in training employees, customers, prospects, and suppliers. DAI courses are leader-led or self-paced and delivered over the Internet, or via CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. Since its founding, DAI has completed more than 500 projects.

"One goal of The MASIE Center's e-Learning Consortium is to lower industry confusion surrounding learning standards and to accelerate adoption of proven standards," Duthie added.

"Their role in spreading understanding of learning standards and best practices is closely tied to long-term corporate competitiveness," Duthie continued. "Employers need to provide 'learning that lasts,' learning that is imparted to employees in ways that ensure that crucial knowledge is truly portable and reusable, given that each organization's objectives and operations are continually evolving."

MASIE Center emphases include such issues as aligning e-Learning with business and work goals; assessment of innovations, including learning-and content-management systems; virtual classrooms and collaboration tools; authoring and performance-assessment tools; and integration of e-learning with enterprise-requirements planning systems.

Duthie said membership in the consortium also deepens the firm's access to technical knowledge about enabling employers to make wiser investments in measurably effective digital-learning content, as well as better decisions regarding storing, searching, indexing, deploying and revising that content.

Prior to founding DAI fifteen years ago, Bob Duthie was vice-president for Business Development at Nortel Networks, with responsibility for developing business plans and trials to create new markets for telecommunications products. Duthie conceived of accomplishing this through the delivery of interactive training content via traditional telephone networks to learners stationed at personal computers. The firm's first clients were Nortel Networks and BellSouth. DAI's recent clients have included Corrections Corporation of America, Caterpillar Financial, HealthStream, and Meharry Medical College.

Earlier this year, DAI announced Bob Duthie had assumed the role of DAI chairman, and Andrew Duthie was appointed president, responsible for the firm's operations.

For further information about DAI services, please contact Andrew
Duthie, president, via (615) 386-3061. Or, write Andrew@duthielearning.com