By L. David Tigreros, PMP, CISSP
The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) announced the launch of FSiLearn, the Department of State’s newest online learning platform, Nov. 9, 2020. FSiLearn boasts a robust suite of tools and functionality that are on the cutting edge of educational technology. It will facilitate effective training by promoting instructor/student communications, providing near real-time usage and metrics tracking, and offering students a wide range of engaging learning tools. FSiLearn replaces the LearnCenter, which will maintain some functionality through early 2021.
FSiLearn is based on IBM’s Cornerstone application—a robust learning platform that has been tailored to meet FSI’s education needs. FSI will leverage its IBM partnership to benchmark and collaborate on digital training methods and the application’s functionalities, expanding training possibilities well beyond previous boundaries. The platform is device-responsive, mobile-accessible, and bandwidth-sensitive. FSiLearn also supports offline learning, thus promoting truly global access to training. The student interface is clean and easy to navigate, and provides course materials, transcripts, and communication tools. Over time, FSI can even “train” FSiLearn’s artificial intelligence to recommend content to students.
FSiLearn migrated more than 34,000 user accounts at launch in November, approximately 157,000 recent course completions, and more than a hundred active distance learning courses. Nearly 2,000 additional Skillsoft courses were added to the library. FSI’s Educational Delivery Systems Division, in conjunction with other information technology and digital learning teams at FSI, has worked diligently to bring about this first major upgrade in digital learning platforms in more than a decade.
The FSI team invites users to visit FSiLearn today or download the Cornerstone App (“Cornerstone Learn” in the Apple and Google Play app stores), and they welcome feedback to optimize this dynamic new tool.
L. David Tigreros, PMP, CISSP, is the director of the Educational Delivery Systems Division at the Foreign Service Institute.
