The American Water Works Association (AWWA) is an international nonprofit scientific and educational society dedicated to the improvement of drinking water quality and supply. Founded in 1881, AWWA is the largest organization of water supply professionals in the world. Its more than 50,000 members represent the full spectrum of the drinking water community: treatment plant operators and managers, scientists, environmentalists, manufacturers, academicians, regulators, and others who hold genuine interest in water supply and public health. Membership includes more than 4,000 utilities that supply water to roughly 180 million people in North America.

In the months following 9/11, AWWA received a grant from the EPA to develop and deploy a web-based course on basic water system security. MediaPodium was contracted to develop the course, and Exelearn Systems was chosen to provide the learning management system. Requirements included:

• Tight implementation schedule
• Capability for both open access (beta testing)and paid access)
• Printable completion certificate including AWWA Continuing Education Units awarded
• Online course critique
• Possibility of in-house deployment of LMS

Work to implement the Exelearn platform for the American Water Works Association began in July 2002. The domain name, training.awwa.org, was chosen such that it would be part of their overall network, even though it resides on a server managed by Exelearn. Once the server was in place, the LMS setup was completed and deployment of the course material began. Testing by Exelearn, Mediapodium, and AWWA commenced shortly thereafter.

In July, AWWA sent an invitation email out to 300 course beta-testers. One-hundred testers registered the first day. No major LMS problems were reported.

AWWA also requested Excel spreadsheet export of student data for transmittal to the EPA, an online course critique and a printable completion certificate available when students passed the test. These elements were implemented over the next couple of months. Credit card processing was added in December.

Three-hundred thirty individuals completed the course during the first phase, and another 700 participated in the second round 3 months later. Since access to the course was changed to a paid model, 500 individuals have purchased the course. The first module is currently provided as a free demo.