About GISTnet® Courses About GISTnet® CoursesGISTnet® training has been especially created by and for practitioners engaged in international trade, cargo transportation and related logistics fields.
Some courses are designed for trainees needing to learn "the basics," while others meet regulatory compliance requirements (hazmat and air cargo security security). Some courses cover much more advances topics, such as preparing for the Customs Brokers license, or export regulations and licensing, or HTS classification. We are continually developing and improving our courses in response to feedback from our users and subscriber organizations.
In order to address the needs and learning styles of the widest range of students, our courses offer the learner choice as to:
Courses are deployed entirely via the Internet using a proven format, consisting of a series of short lessons which most learners can complete in an hour or less. Each lesson consists of:
Throughout the course a learner has access via email to the course author and the GISTnet staff for assistance with the subject matter and/or with any technical issues which may arise.
GISTnet courses represent a practical and stimulating learning and career development solution for busy people already engaged in freight forwarding and other international trade activities. Our courses are:
Course Enrollment is a 2 or 3 step process:
Courses must be completed within 12 months of date of enrollment. We therefore recommend you enroll in a course only when you are ready to dedicate at least an hour per week to course completion (this is the approximate time it takes to complete each lesson). The number of lessons in each course is shown in the course catalog (current courses vary from 3 to 20 lessons).
The following consists of the actual instructions a student receives when first taking a GISTnet course, which will give you a preview of the GISTnet learning experience.
We want you to have a productive and satisfying learning experience with GISTnet®. Please take a few minutes to read these instructions and tips.
Basic proficiency in the use of an Internet web browser is essential to a satisfying experience with GISTnet. There are six basic features you must know and use, and a dozen more which will enable you to get around with more ease and speed. If you have not already done so, please review our Web Browser Usage and Tips. Then try out and practice any features which you are not already in the habit of using.
Most GISTnet courses are designed as a seamless extension of one or more underlying electronic performance support (EPS) libraries—the same libraries which employers and other organizations make available to their staff and/or members to meet immediate on-the-job information and task performance needs. By dynamically linking the course study/learning assignments to the library, changes in the library source documents and other learning materials automatically flow through to the courses, assuring that the courses are always up to date with the latest library changes.
If you are taking a course as part of an employer-sponsored training program, chances are you will have continuous access to some or all of the underlying library from which your course draws its content. If so, you can directly enter the library at any time to refresh your understanding and check for changes in the information. If you are taking courses as a non-subscriber, or as part of a college or other instructor-led course, you can be assured of always receiving the latest information from the library for the duration of the course. To see where in the library your lesson components are drawn from, or simply to begin browsing the library, select the Outline link on your Lesson page.
Because your course is dynamically linked to a larger library, when you use on-line hyperlinks to access study text, glossary definitions, exhibit documents and referrals, you are indeed in the library. Just as in a physical library, you can browse from document to document as you please, wherever your curiosity leads, and well beyond your lesson study assignment. Those of you who enjoy browsing will like this feature. However, if you simply wish to complete the course in the minimum time necessary, or you begin to suffer information overload, we have several recommendations.
As you begin your study, you will almost certainly encounter terminology which you do not understand or are uncertain about. Indeed, even very experienced professionals and technicians often do not fully understand all of the technical terms they routinely hear and even use. In the world of international trade and transportation, terms may have arcane, non-obvious or even completely different meanings than what you might expect. Reading the definition for every glossary term found in the text—both new and familiar terms—is a very important part of our learning process. Indeed, some of what you need to learn may be found only in the glossary.
Reading past a term which you do not clearly understand, or which is confusing in the context, guarantees misunderstanding of subsequent material! So please resolve always to refer to the glossary when in doubt about the meaning or use of a term.
When you study on-line, terms defined in our glossary will be hyperlinked to their definitions. Please go to the definition for every new term you encounter, even if you believe you already know what the term means.
Note: When you link on-line to a glossary definition, you will notice hyperlinks to additional definitions and perhaps to exhibit documents and other referrals. You are welcome, indeed encouraged, to explore the GISTnet library using these links. But they will take you further and further away from your lesson Study text. To make things easier, we recommend you "bookmark" your current lesson page for quick return.
Basic proficiency at using a web browser is a must. If you are not
already proficient, please refer to
Web Browser Usage and Tips. |
GISTnet course lessons have been designed to maximize your learning and retention by via several proven learning techniques. Please proceed in the following sequence.
Begin each lesson by browsing the "Study" assignment on-line for at least 5–10 minutes to get an initial feel for the topic. View those glossary terms which catch your eye, and then go directly back to your lesson text. Note: You are welcome to follow links beyond initial glossary definitions, but this will take you further away from your study assignment.
You may complete your study on-line, which provides the efficiency of hyperlinks to glossary definitions and other documents. However, if you have access to a printer, we recommend you print-out a personal study copy of each study document using the browser print feature (please refer to Web Browser Usage and Tips, Printing from Your Browser).
There are several reasons why studying from paper may be more effective for you:
If you choose to print out your study documents, begin by printing out the entire glossary (using the link at the bottom of the course page). Next print out your lesson Study text as you enter each lesson, together with exhibit documents (if any).
Note: Some of the exhibits referred to in the text are long documents you may already have seen from previous lessons or courses you have taken. To save paper, only print documents you don't already have available.
Pay special attention to the learning objectives stated in the Introduction to each lesson. If you are studying on-line, make a paper note of these so that you will have them clearly in mind as you work through the lesson. If you are studying from paper, highlight or underline these. Your lesson assessment will focus on these. More important, these are the key points which you should remember long after you complete the course.
Complete your study of the text using the "Study text" document. Make sure you read and understand the meaning of every glossary term. Also read any exhibits which have been included in your lesson.
You may have noticed the "estimated study time" indicated on the lesson contents page. This is a very approximate guide to your total reading time, and is typically longer than needed by those who already have some familiarity with the topic. Please let us know how long you actually studied via the feedback form following your assessment-for-record so that we may better refine this time estimate.
Your understanding, retention and ultimate application of the subject matter is what counts in all of this. Please give yourself whatever time you personally may need to really learn the material and be satisfied that you understand it.
When you have completed your study of the text, glossary and exhibits (if any), you are now ready to begin your "assessments-for-learning," which must be taken on-line. This is a key, "no-fault," part of your learning process, where understanding of study material will be clarified, reinforced and retained. AFLs are powerful because they are interactive, requiring you not only to recall the information you have just studied, but also to focus your analytical skills to interpret the questions and responses—under the self-pressure to "get the right answer." Begin each assessment by reading/reviewing the instructions. Next, carefully read each question and response before making your selection. While we try to avoid "trick" questions, many questions will challenge you to differentiate between similar issues and concepts based on how these are explained in the text or glossary definitions.
Tip: Analyze each part of the question. Next, note which of the responses you are initially drawn to—these are likely to be correct. Then make sure that response(s) you believe to be correct contain nothing that is incorrect. In general, use a process of elimination of incorrect responses as a cross-check to verify that the response(s) you are initially drawn to are correct.
Following each response you will receive a feedback message and a link back to one or more "relevant text sections." For incorrect responses, you will also typically receive a detailed explanation as to why the response is incorrect, and perhaps a listing of the correct responses. Use the hyperlinks in the feedback message to go back to the study text and glossary definitions to clarify your understanding. This way, your incorrect responses provide a rich added learning experience (another example of learning more from our mistakes than from our successes). For questions requiring use of inference, analysis or computation, the feedback message may also contribute important information not found in the text.
The AFL is designed to be taken at least 3–4 times, or until you are confident that you understand the subject matter. Although a lesson may contain only a few questions, each question there will typical have a large pool of randomly selected responses in the database. You will face a different sequence of questions and mix of responses each time to further test and clarify your understanding—any of which may face again on your assessment-for-record.
If you find a question or response confusing, incorrect or overly "tricky," please let us know using the InstaFeedback feature, which you can access from the top of every feedback message page. You simply enter and submit your comments, and the author will receive your message with the exact question you are referring to. In this way we can perhaps improve the question and/or get back to you for clarification.
Once you have taken several assessments-for-learning, and feel confident in the subject matter, you are ready for your "assessment-for-record." You will receive no feedback during this assessment. You will also be given a maximum time in which to complete the assessment (the sum of the individual question times shown). Most responses are scored 2 points if they are correct, or -1 point if they are incorrect.
After you complete an AFR, you will be shown your result and given a report of your response(s) to each question with feedback messages. You may print out this report for further study.
If you pass your assessment, the "good news" will be instantly posted to your learning record, with notification to the parties on your email list. If you do not pass, nothing will occur until you have not passed a several times, at which point your training administrator may be notified to assist you with whatever difficulties you are having.
The final step in our lesson is the feedback form, which we ask you to complete following each AFR. This form is your means of telling us about problems you may have had, recommendations for improvement and how long it took you to complete the lesson. Your comments are very important to our continuing product improvement.
We hope you enjoy using GISTnet courses. Good luck!
If you have any questions concerning our courses, or registration/course enrollment procedures, please contact us (staff@gistnet.com, phone 310-376-2888, or fax at 310-376-8049—we are located in California).