Gail Wingate

OMDE 603 9020

August 5, 2013
Technology Selection
Word Count (excluding references): 1762
The mission of the hair salon school is to provide small, individually owned salon
owners, managers and stylists, located across the country, top-quality training at a reasonable
cost. Additionally, the school intends to build a community of salon owners and stylists across
the country that can learn in a collaborative environment on a continuous basis. The mission of
the school is to also bring the latest hair styling, cutting, coloring and product trends to these
salons.

Target Audience

According to the owners of the hair salon school, the profile of a hair school student is
usually young, with a high school diploma or GED. They require strong interpersonal skills to
interact with their clients, self-marketing skills, and organizational skills to manage their
schedule, maintain their workstation, and solicit new clients.

Owning and managing a hair salon is very much like owning and managing any type of
business. Owners must know how to manage their salon operations, budget, and employees,
market their business to the public, and adhere to industry and government standards and
requirements, all within a customer-friendly environment.

The Academic Program

The school will teach content that is both generic and state specific. Hair stylists are
required to be certified by each state in which they work. Hair stylists across the country,
however, must learn standard hair styling, cutting and coloring techniques. Furthermore, hair

Gail Wingate
OMDE 603 9020
August 5, 2013
Technology Selection
Word Count (excluding references): 1762

stylists must be taught about industry products, their uses, and best practice recommendations.
Since hair trends are constantly changing, stylists must stay abreast of the latest techniques and
products.

In addition, the hair school intends to offer training in salon ownership and management,
including personnel management, marketing, book keeping, client service, and more.

Technology Application Setting

Each state requires the hair stylist student to spend a certain number of hours apprenticing
to a professional stylist in a salon. The hair salon school will continue to support an
apprenticeship form of teaching in a salon. Each state also requires the hair stylist student to pass
a certification test of hair technology theory. Currently, most salon schools teach hair technology
theory from print materials. The hair salon school believes that hair technology theory can be
effectively taught via distance education (DE).

Technology Selection: Learning Management System

A learning management system (LMS) will satisfy the hair salon schools mission of training and
collaborative learning. A LMS provides both synchronous and asynchronous communications
on one platform, as well as access to the huge reservoir of Web resource materials (Moore &
Kearsley, 2012, p. 81). A LMS offers extensive functionality:

Todays LMS provides the use of text; email; asynchronous discussion boards;
synchronous utilities such as voice over Internet protocol (VoIP); instant-messaging chat

Gail Wingate
OMDE 603 9020
August 5, 2013
Technology Selection
Word Count (excluding references): 1762

features; desktop and application sharing; on-demand video clips and demonstrative
animations; interactive activities, simulations, and games; self-grading exercises, quizzes,
and examinations; and secure assignment drop boxes where students and instructors
exchange assignments and feedback one-on-one. (Caplan & Graham (Anderson &
Ellourni), 2008, p. 248).

Compliance is of particular concern to the hair salon school because all students must be
state certified to receive their license. According to Little (2005) LMSs support regulated
industries by keeping track of what the students have learned and producing required
documentation proving that the students have satisfied their state learning requirements. (p. 126)

The most appropriate LMS for the hair salon school is Saba LMS. Saba LMS provides
web conferencing, a virtual training classroom, online meeting capability, and eLearning and
collaborative web conferencing (Moore & Kearsley, 2012, p. 59). Saba lists the benefits of their
LMS as improving productivity, increasing revenue, and promoting facilitating compliance
(http://www.saba.com/lms). Saba also provides analytics to assess the effectiveness of the
training and to coordinate business objectives with budgets, resources and courses
(http://www.saba.com/lms/enterprise-learning-management/). Consequently, the hair salon
schools mission to train geographically remote hair stylists can be substantially supported by the
functionality provided by Saba.

Strategy for Implementing the LMS

Gail Wingate
OMDE 603 9020
August 5, 2013
Technology Selection
Word Count (excluding references): 1762

The hair salon school is still in its infancy. In fact, the owners of the hair salon school are
currently developing a business plan and working to raise funding to build the business. The
business plan will include the strategy for implementing the LMS to support the school.
Fortunately, since the school is just being developed, the strategy for implementing the LMS will
not have to address legacy systems or processes and their future within the organization. The
implementation strategy is addressed by the following criteria as defined by Bates & Sangr
(2011, pp. 71-74):

Owner/Management Commitment

The primary mission of the school is to build a community of stylists from small salons
across the country and offer affordable training that leads to state certification. The mission also
includes support for a community of stylists, salon owners, and managers throughout their
careers. The owners and managers of the hair salon school are well-versed in the significance of
e-learning and the technology necessary to support this type of learning. Thus, all of the owners
and managers have a vested interest in the chosen LMS technology because they understand the
significant benefits such a system brings to their business.

Technology Infrastructure

The business plan provides a description of the organization structure which includes a
description of the technological infrastructure, such as:

Gail Wingate
OMDE 603 9020
August 5, 2013
Technology Selection
Word Count (excluding references): 1762

The networking, hardware, and software capabilities required by the main offices
of the hair salon school.

The estimated size and use of the Saba LMS cloud, including the estimated
number of users.

A definition of the staffing required to manage and maintain the network,

hardware, periphery software such as MS Word, and other technology. In
addition, the definition of the staffing includes the need for instructional designers
and video and graphics media experts to develop the e-learning curriculum.

A description of the technological recommendations to be made to client salons

utilizing the hair salon school for training.

The hair salon school intends to hire Saba consultants to teach the school
employees how to use the LMS system. Based on recommendations from Saba,
the business plan calls for three months of staff training and support, during which
time the system will be populated with business administrative and supporting
data. An additional nine months will be used to produce the curriculum.

Automated Administration

As the company is still in its infancy, the owners and management plan to automate as
much of the administrative tasks and data as possible. Saba LMS provides administrative tools
such as allowing learners to register for courses, create personalized dashboards to which they
can include access to relevant people and groups and choose the content they are required to
learn (http://www.saba.com/lms/learning-management-solution/).

Gail Wingate
OMDE 603 9020
August 5, 2013
Technology Selection
Word Count (excluding references): 1762

Trainer Support

The hair salon school headquarters will train their trainers in distance education
pedagogies, such as technology-based constructivist teaching (Bates & Sangr, 2011, p. 95)
and the use of Saba LMS to support these pedagogies.

Intended Results of the LMS

Currently, there are no hair stylist schools in the country offering training through elearning. The hair salon school is the first to attempt this type of training. The owners of the hair
salon school intend to use the LMS to provide distance education within a framework that
supports the development and execution of pedagogically sound, constructivist training, and
results assessment.

Barriers to Success

Barriers to success can come from many sources both inside and outside the organization.
The organization must recognize and understand these barriers, and attempt to intercept these
factors as soon as possible, preferably before they have any real effect on the success of the
business. Regarding the hair salon school, there are two significant barriers to success:

Student Expectations

According to the owner of the hair salon school, online learning in salon schools is
almost unheard of. The hair salon school will be the first to attempt to teach the theoretical

Gail Wingate
OMDE 603 9020
August 5, 2013
Technology Selection
Word Count (excluding references): 1762

knowledge required for state certification via e-learning. Students, however, are expecting to be
taught in a classroom by teachers and will be skeptical of the benefits of online learning. To help
address the students ingrained beliefs, Bates and Sangr (2011) explain that the prevailing
culture of the organization can induce change. Due to the organizations mission, the culture will
be one of sound pedagogical teaching theories integrated with technology (Bates & Sangr,
2011). Kim (2012) says innovation requires persuasion, leadership, and the aggregation of
people and resources around a shared set of goals (para. 5). The organizations focus on their
shared set of goals will be apparent in their sales and marketing materials and will help to
alleviate the concerns of potential customers; it will be one of their main selling points. In
addition, the school will offer free sample courses so students can see for themselves the benefits
of online learning before investing their time or money.

Customer Internet Access Speed

For a new company, the cost of a subscription to a cloud service versus purchasing,
installing, and maintaining the software requires much less of an investment in money, staffing,
and technology resources (Ojala, 2013). Consequently, for a startup company like the hair salon
school, purchasing a subscription to a cloud service is much more economical. The major
drawback to a cloud service is that it is only as fast as the network connection used by the user. If
students of the hair salon school do not have access to a sufficiently fast internet connection, then
their learning could be inhibited. Fortunately, using Saba LMS, students can download the
content to their computer, complete the lesson, and then upload their results when complete.

Gail Wingate
OMDE 603 9020
August 5, 2013
Technology Selection
Word Count (excluding references): 1762

Conclusion

The mission of the hair salon school is to train remote stylists in the latest cutting, styling,
coloring, and product trends. In addition, the schools mission is to build a community of stylists,
both novice and professional, that can share knowledge, ideas, and skills, and offer ongoing
support and training throughout their careers. The hair salon school requires a comprehensive,
well-established LMS to support the planned learning environment. Saba LMS offers such an
environment for learning and collaboration, supports a constructivist learning pedagogy, and
provides assessments of achievements.

Fortunately, the school is a new business venture still in the planning stages; and the
owners have believed from the onset that distance education supported by a learning
management system is their key to success. The LMS will differentiate the school from their
competition, and allow the school to reach geographically dispersed stylists with little or no
access to professional styling schools. There is no need for cultural or organizational change
within the school itself because the owners are starting off on the right path. The school will have
to address, however, the commonly held belief among potential customers that distance
education may not be suitable for hair stylist training.

References

Bates, A.W., & Sangr, A. (2011). Managing technology in higher education: Strategies for
transforming teaching and learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Gail Wingate
OMDE 603 9020
August 5, 2013
Technology Selection
Word Count (excluding references): 1762
Caplan, D., & Graham, R. (2008). The development of online courses. In Anderson. & F.
Elloumi (Eds.), Theory and practice of online learning. Retrieved from
http://cde.athabascau.ca/online_book/second_edition.html

Kim, J. (2012). 5 ideas to support innovation in higher education, Inside Higher Education,
Retrieved from http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/5-ideas-supportinnovation-highered

Little, B. (2005). Compliance: A convincing case for learning management systems. Industrial
and Commercial Training, 37(2), 124-129.
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=0019-7858

Moore, M.G., & Kearsley, G. (2012). Distance education: A systems view of online learning
(Rev ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Ojala, A. (2013). Software-as-a-Service Revenue Models. IT Professional, 15(3), 54-59.

doi:10.1109/MITP.2012.73