International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is a multinational technology company with operations in over 170 countries. IBM manufactures and markets computer hardware, middleware and software, and provides hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. IBM holds the record for most U.S. patents generated by a business for 25 consecutive years.

Meg Petersen, Senior Program Manager for IBM Training & Skills, shared how IBM uses IntelliBoard to help achieve IBM’s organizational educational goals:

At IBM, we run a global business, with a number of different business units that create digital learning. I created an IntelliBoard “squad,” that had representatives from each business unit. We identified the “Top 10 IntelliBoard Things.” There was so much functionality and so much rich data that we could get from IntelliBoard, that it was overwhelming. [The Squad] spent time reviewing the reports, monitors, analytics and features that were part of IntelliBoard. We created a “Top Ten” [to help focus our internal initiatives].

We now have internal business unit representatives responsible for reporting about the success of and the activity on their digital learning. They use it independently to report up through their business units, but we also collectively learned what the top reports are that we might need, or [what] all of these folks might need within their business [unit].

My role is more central. I like to get the aggregate “stuff.” We love the visual aspect of [IntelliBoard], but we also like the real time data, how the minute you click something you're getting up-to-the-minute data. The ability to look at real-time reporting is really critical for us.

[In response to the IntelliBoard impact on eLearning] We look at the basic core stats in terms of how many students are enrolled/progress within the course. We view the activity detail to determine where the engagement falls off. Every business unit has a different level of working with the tool, and how deeply they're using that data. I encourage [our business unit managers] to use [IntelliBoard] to determine needed changes to a course. Is it a course that people are enjoying, finishing, or completing all the criteria? Where do they fall off? Why?

On the quizzes and the assessments, we encourage teams to evaluate the data per question. One of our courses has a “badge quiz,” something that [learners] must score 80% correct, and then receive a badge from the Acclaim system; a microcredential. When evaluating the IntelliBoard data for that badge quiz, we noticed that 90% of our students were getting a single question incorrect. What was going on with that question? We dissected that one question and determined [slightly misleading validity]. We fixed the question and republished the quiz, with less frustration from learners.

Gaining insight into the activity that our learners have on each course to the level of detail that we can get [before IntelliBoard] has been invaluable. [Without IntelliBoard] it's hard to see the engagement. How deep do they go in the courses? Where do they bail out? How do we compare the courses that are 1-hour to the courses that we have that are 3 days? When we compare the completion rates of smaller courses to larger courses, how many people can take one course and then also take another course? IntelliBoard helps to answer those questions.