Teleassistance of trainees in an SME: a case study

PLUME is a project which includes experimental training and research about the use of pedagogical micro-robotics in a computer resource centre in a small business. The training takes place in a small business in the town of SAUMUR for low-skilled manual workers. It is conducted by two training centres and a computer science laboratory. The experimental training consists of a local training process which is realized in the small business and teleassistance of the trainees with teachers who are in the towns of LE MANS and NANTES (90 km from SAUMUR). Teleassistance is a form of distance help including telephone help and computer-based distance assistance. It is this teleteaching aspect that we develop in this paper. We describe the training organisation and the articulation between the local and distance training activities. The case study is of a micro-robotics task using a distance approach. We have developped a distance teaching system based on telephone lines and teleassistance software. We have defined a scenario of the intervention between a group of trainees and teachers and defined a typology of telephone calls. We make many observations about the influence of this distance training on the attitudes of the trainees and on their progress. A few questions remain unanswered but we find that this kind of teaching provide a good solution for small businesses in the areas of new skills and training inside the factory.