Workplace Learning In Cyberspace: Designing Effective Content Dr. Gabe Ofiesh Digital technologies are converging to create new information and learning opportunities. The capability of merging text, audio, video, graphics, and animation into platforms such as hybrid CD-ROMS and the World Wide Web using such tools as JAVA and HTML is changing the way information is conveyed and comprehended. In the process, the essence of traditional training, distance learning, and computer-aided instruction is also changing. Learning, information, and knowledge acquisition are moving away from formal institutionalized programs towards learners controlling their own learning experiences and towards providing the individual learner with information on an "as needed/when needed/where needed" basis. The new tools are making the shift more feasible. Prescriptive instructional systems as we have known them in recent years will no longer be needed. Government agencies and companies are going to be down sized if not eliminated. If the past provides any clue, training departments are the first to be cut or down sized. The first entry for helping agencies and companies go into Cyberspace is to assist in providing training on demand via the Internet, etc. The virtual classroom can lead to the virtual workplace, office, telecommuting, etc. Trainers should become uniquely qualified to assist in helping managers to enter Cyberspace by building virtual training sites and classrooms and facilitating all employees learning in Cyberspace. Trainers and educators will have to make radical paradigm shifts to fulfill these functions. BIOGRAPHY Dr. Gabriel D. Ofiesh is Emeritus Professor of Educational Technology, Howard University, Washington, D. C., and President of Communications and Training Systems International Inc. He holds an M.S. degree in psychology from Columbia University and an Ed.D. from the University of Denver. His experience ranges from the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he was Professor of Psychology and Director of Leadership Studies, to the Air Training Command, where he pioneered the instructional systems approach to training. For the past eight years he has served as a consultant to the Office of Foreign Relations, U.S. Department of Labor, with special responsibility for conceptualizing the individualized instruction methodology for the vocational training programs for Saudi Arabia and assisting in the formulation of a Center for Advanced Learning Systems, where he is tracking new technologies of training for the Department. He also has served as chief consultant in educational technology to Price Waterhouse and other multinational organizations. He has conducted training programs in instructional and new educational technologies for trainers in Panama, Costa Rica, Brazil, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Chile, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. Recently he has conducted seminars in new technologies of communications and training systems for various multinational organizations such as the International Labor Office, USAID, IBM, and numerous others. He was formerly Professor of Educational Technology and Director, Center for Educational Technology, The Catholic University of America; Director, Training Methods Study, Comprehensive Training and Education Program, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Defense for Manpower Development; Professor and Head, Department of Psychology, Management and Leadership Studies, USAF Academy. He is the author of a definitive text on programmed instruction, published by the American Management Association. The text has been translated into Spanish and has had wide use throughout Latin America. He is the author of more than 80 articles which are relevant to the instructional systems process. He has given more than 200 invited addresses to professional groups in the United States and in many foreign countries on innovative educational methodologies. He is the founder, first president, and honorary life member of the National Society for Performance and Instruction.