The Massachusetts State Referee Committee opts for online referee training to reduce costs and increase knowledge retention - saving 20 percent of its annual operating budget and slashing previous training costs by 50 percent in the process.

The Massachusetts State Referee Committee (MSRC) is the state referee association for the United States Soccer Federation (USSF). It provides referee training, certification, assessment, and all-around education for soccer officials engaged in youth, adult, amateur, professional, and international soccer matches in Massachusetts.

Challenge

The MSRC provides training, certification, and other services for more than 5,000 referees, who officiate over 350,000 games annually. From providing instruction on proper equipment to pointing out if a player is off sides, this broad training can be a major, complicated, and expensive undertaking, as one might imagine.

Until recently, the MSRC referees participated in a 16-hour, classroom-based training course prior to the season. This was a timely and costly process for the nonprofit organization - involving staffing fees, as well as travel time and expenses for trainers and learners alike.

With a need to alleviate these roadblocks and leverage technology both effectively and cost-efficiently, the MSRC decided to look for an alternative training solution. It needed one that would provide the flexibility needed to train 5,000 geographically distributed individuals in a cost-effective and timely manner.

Solution

After looking at all the solutions available, the MSRC chose to work with Brainshark, a provider in on-demand presentations. With Brainshark presentations, which can be viewed online, no downloads required. MSRC trainers could incorporate audio, video, attachments, quiz questions, and more into their training modules to provide an engaging multimedia experience.

In addition, the referees-in-training could view and revisit the online content, retaking quizzes until they felt comfortable with the material. Anecdotally, the refs overwhelming expressed appreciation for the ability to watch the new, online training modules at their leisure - rather than rearrange their schedules or miss out on a fun, sunny afternoon to attend an in-person session. Check out a Brainshark online training module used by the MSRC to address player equipment here: http://www.brainshark.com/massref/law4.

Plus, with Brainshark's tracking capabilities, MSRC officials could determine which refs had completed training modules - and more important, which had not. In addition to being alerted to individual views, the MSRC also could see how long each presentation had been watched, as well as how quiz questions were answered. Prior to Brainshark, calculating quiz results had taken a significant amount of administrative time.

As a result of these benefits, the MSRC began by moving half of its training program online, reducing staffing and material costs, along with travel time and associated expenses. "By leveraging a technology like Brainshark's, organizations such as the MSRC can easily reduce the costs and improve the effectiveness, efficiency and convenience of training," says Brainshark CEO Joe Gustafson. "The MSRC is a great example of how to successfully implement on-demand training. They came at it with a game plan and created a program that exceeded their objectives. As organizations look to succeed in this challenging economy, implementing on-demand training is a great way to cut costs and improve efficiencies."

Results

Through its use of online learning via the Brainshark modules, the MSRC was able to reduce the cost of its soccer referee training program by 50 percent, save 20 percent of its overall annual operating budget, and get rave reviews from participants. John Utter, training coordinator for the MSRC, says the hard and soft savings have convinced his organization to move even more of its training to the online realm. "For a nonprofit, saving 20 percent of our annual operating budget has a huge impact, helping us free up money and time for other priorities and programs that will bring value to our community," says Utter.

"Brainshark is easy-to-use for referees and trainers alike, and we're looking forward to continuing to use and improve our online training program in the future. The positive feedback from our students - as well as from the players, coaches, and fans they work with - has been overwhelming. With this soccer training, they're having a ball," he adds.

In addition to the major cost-savings realized through Brainshark, the MSRC has gained greater consistency in the quality of training content. The MSRC also reports that its referees love the convenience of the online training model and feel the multimedia presentations promote better knowledge retention.

Pleased with the positive feedback and results, the MSRC is planning to extend its use of Brainshark beyond referee training. New uses will include recertification and upgrades; training for assignors, instructors and assessors; and MSRC recruiting and retention efforts - helping to realize even greater cost savings and benefits across the organization.

Irwin Hipsman is director of customer community for Brainshark.

John Utter is a volunteer training coordinator at the MSRC and responsible for the implementation and tracking of technology training solutions.