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Ken Haas (standing), the multimedia training manager at Carthage Veterinary Service (CVS), Ltd., talked to student members of WIU's Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) chapter about instructional design in a business setting during a mid-February field trip for the students. Haas graduated from Western in 2004 with a bachelor's degree in instructional design and technology.
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Members of WIU's AECT student chapter that attended the field trip to CVS. L to R: Jessica Ruebush (graduate student, Macomb, IL); Ashley Gose (senior, Towanda, IL); David Liska (senior, Macomb, IL); Carlo Daniels (junior, Macomb, IL); Dr. Hoyet Hemphill, chair of Western's instructional design and technology department; Kerry Wisdom (graduate student, Jamaica); Putrini Mahadewi (graduate student, Indonesia); and Xiaokai Jia (graduate student, China).
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CVS is in the process of gradually retooling the former Carthage College campus. The company recently finished remodeling work on the multimedia training department's new location, located in the rehabbed Carthage College's Anthony Hall (middle building in photo).
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IDT Alum Hosts WIU Students at Carthage Vet Service's Multimedia Training Dept.

March 12, 2010

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MACOMB, IL -- On any given workday Ken Haas, the multimedia training manager at Carthage Veterinary Service (CVS), Ltd., and native of Nauvoo (IL), may find himself designing Flash animations for an instructional CD or DVD or scoping a new project for which he will serve as the project manager. Haas, who has worked at CVS since he completed an internship there in 2004, is an alumnus of Western Illinois University's instructional design and technology (IDT) program. In mid-February, Haas hosted a group of IDT students, both undergraduate and graduate level, at CVS's headquarters in Carthage (IL). The goal of the trip was to help IDT students gain an understanding of instructional design work and project management in a corporate training and consulting service setting.

Located on the former Robert Morris College campus (also formerly Carthage College, which moved to Wisconsin in the 1960s), CVS serves the swine industry with animal health-related services, with nine veterinarians who work with swine-industry operations in the U.S., Japan, China and Brazil. The company also houses a multimedia training department, in which Haas, as well as WIU IDT alumna Amy Bogatz, develop high-end multimedia training for the swine industry.

CVS is in the process of gradually retooling the former Carthage College campus. The company recently finished remodeling work on the multimedia training department's new location, located in the rehabbed Carthage College's Anthony Hall. Last month, Haas took time out of his busy schedule on a Friday afternoon to host the WIU students, who are members of Western's student chapter of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), and the student group's faculty representative, Hoyet Hemphill, chair of Western's IDT department.

Haas started out his presentation with an overview of CVS, but got down to the business side of instructional design when he talked to the students about the multimedia training department's variety of projects.

"We use all kinds of tools here. We utilize software in Adobe's Creative Suite 4 Master Collection, which includes programs like After Effects, Photoshop, Flash and Illustrator. We also use the Adobe products Authorware and Captivate. We need all of these tools to offer the portfolio of services we do, such as instructional CDs, DVDs and videos; Flash animations; webinars; podcasts; 3D games and simulations; website and graphic design; digital photography; and audio production," he noted.

Haas also explained to the students how the nature of his instructional design and project management work has changed since he began working at CVS almost six years ago as an intern.

"When I first started, the work we were doing was primarily along the lines of internal training projects -- multimedia, CD-type lessons developed for our managed farms and the employees who work on those farms," Haas explained. "From those projects, we started to get a lot of interest from farm operations outside of the company, which had heard about the company's training lessons. So we started selling the training to other companies. Now, we are working with a few multinational companies and developing training lessons for them. One of those companies, Pfizer Animal Health, for which we developed a 3D multimedia training simulation called 'Virtual Walking the Pens,' along with numerous other projects, has been utilizing our training development and instructional design services for the past several years. We are also doing a great deal of consulting in the swine industry, which has helped us grow the number of projects we work on and has dramatically influenced the revenue my department brings to the company," Haas added.

Jessica Ruebush (Macomb, IL), a graduate student in Western's IDT program, WIU AECT chapter president and who organized the field trip to CVS, noted that Haas' presentation helped her understand the breadth of work an instructional design professional can encounter in a small yet growing organization.

"They seem to use about every technology tool out there," she said, recalling the slide from Haas' presentation that identified the software applications he and his team utilize on an everyday basis. "It was really valuable to hear Ken talk about how he and his team approach instructional design projects and the variety of equipment and applications they have to know how to use in order to do their jobs. It was also good to see how his department applies the instructional design process. It's clear that he uses what we learn in our IDT classes in his work every day."

Haas explained that in addition to designing training lessons and managing projects, he also spends time looking for various applications that help him do his job and manage his multimedia training department more effectively. He said, too, that his instructional design work at CVS is complemented well by the fact that the ID work he does is swine-industry specific -- the nine vets who also work at CVS comprise an invaluable in-house resource of subject matter experts.

"That really gives us our competitive edge, as I see it," he said. "There are all kinds of non-industry specific multimedia shops. But CVS is unique in that we have our team of veterinarians who serve as our content experts. That fact really allows for a smooth process, as far as developing the lessons, because we have the subject matter experts and the developers all working together in the same organization," Haas added.

Learning from the Best
Field trips -- like the one the AECT group took in February to meet Haas and learn about instructional design in a business setting -- help students learn about the opportunities available to them in the IDT field, Hemphill noted. He added that, over the years, the AECT student chapter has arranged numerous field trips and has brought in many guest speakers to discuss instructional design, training, virtual reality and game development.

"The IDT department works closely with the group in helping find and support guest speakers and field trips," Hemphill explained. "I especially want to thank CVS and Ken for their support over the years. Ken has been a guest speaker for us, has come to our annual job fairs and was generous enough to offer this recent field trip experience for our students."

Haas, who graduated from Western in 2004, noted that he enjoys facilitating learning opportunities for WIU's IDT and AECT-member students. He added that he likes to give back to the IDT department, because, in part, he feels that his education at WIU prepared him well for his job at CVS.

"I think my education in WIU's IDT program was top notch," Haas said. "The entire faculty -- well, that department is just awesome. They all have lots of practical experience, and you can tell they are instructors who really enjoy teaching. It made going to class every day a pleasure."

For more information about CVS, visit www.hogvet.com. For more information about WIU's IDT undergraduate and graduate program, see wiu.edu/idt/. To see photos of the WIU IDT/AECT students' visit to CVS, check out WIU AECT's Facebook Fan Page at www.facebook.com/WIUAECT.

Posted By: Teresa Koltzenburg (WIUNews@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing