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A couple years ago only few people out of the former Soviet Union knew
about TRIZ. Now TRIZ, being the systematic technique for solution of
inventory problems, is well known all over the world. Several US fortune
100 companies cite a phenomenal increase in the productivity and quality
of solutions of engineering problems through the use of TRIZ.  Our group
"The TRIZ Experts" has received a lot of requests for TRIZ training form
USA, Japan, Korea, Germany, Brasilia, Great Britain, Sweden, Australia,
Italy, Spain, France, Canada, Israel, and many others. 

Usual 1-3-day-long TRIZ seminars make possible the introduction to TRIZ,
but unfortunately, it is not enough to allow students to use TRIZ in
practice. The existing software also cannot help, because the computer
programs were designed for people already being able to use TRIZ [1,2].
Similarly, it is impossible to become an architect having watched
several movies about beautiful buildings and purchased the corresponding
software, such as ArchiCAD for example. That is why in Russia there are
several different types of TRIZ education starting form the introducing
40-hour course and up to 240-hour training for TRIZ consultants and
trainers. There are also TRIZ programs for school children of different
age [3].

At present, the number of TRIZ experts is insufficient to meet numerous
requests in TRIZ training of engineers from different firms and
different countries. What's more, most TRIZ specialists speak only
Russian and practically all books on TRIZ are in Russian..

On the other hand, engineers of leading firms have no time for deep and
detailed TRIZ training, because they cannot leave their projects for 1-2
months.

Finally, TRIZ being a general engineering discipline supposes creative
imagination and broad views, which unfortunately are not inherent in all
specialists. That is why training should start from solution of problems
close in their theme to students' knowledge and only then pass to
problems far from students' every-day practice. 

So we have the welter of contradictions: for high-quality TRIZ training
of specialists from different countries, there must be many qualified
trainers speaking different languages, training courses must be
conducted in a time that suite everybody, training programs must be
adapted to starting level of all students.  Note that the last two
requirements are interrelated within the framework of traditional group
full-time training: they suppose similar specialization of students
studying in the same class.
 
Let us try to solve these problems by TRIZ methods using the principles
of solving contradictions and the conception of  Ideality.
The ideal training process likely must:  

1. be important for a student
  1.1. Form the training aim in a student. 
  1.2. Continuously support the motivation and progress. 
2. be individual. 
  2.1. Create individual-adapted textbooks. 
  2.2. Create individual training schedule for every student. 
3. include direct and back relations between student and trainer
  3.1. Give the information about student's knowledge and skills to a
trainer.
  3.2. Create such a system of testing tasks and their evaluation, which
gives the most objective pattern of student's progress. 

It follows from these criteria, that ideal training is individual
full-time training. But the main problem is that such training requires
a comparable number of trainers and students. To solve this problem, we
could use the popular now method of group full-time training having a
long history. However, traditional process of full-time group training
cannot meet all the above requirements 1-3. Up to date, all these
requirements were met only in individual full-time training. However,
due to the present number of TRIZ trainers and potential students, as
well as due to the language barrier, individual full-time training is
practically inapplicable for engineers from different countries. 

Let us try to solve this mass of problems in such a way to obtain the
result close to ideal, i.e., to individual full-time training.

A. Language barrier.
There are two subjects: trainer and student, but there is no good
information transfer between them. This contradiction can be solved by
TRIZ methods: "mediator lead-in" or "use of a copy" of trainer, i.e. by
completing Su-Field at the expense of adding the third subject:
interpreter (or translator).

�.  Course adaptation to student's skills.
It is easy to do in individual training, and it can be done by task
differentiation in group training. In TRIZ training, resources can be
used, namely, real problems a student faces and their solution under the
supervision of experienced TRIZ specialist. Certainly, it requires a
longer time than solution of typical training problems, but it increases
student's motivation in training.
 
�. Synchronization of trainer's and students' possibilities.
Separation of the processes of information transfer and receiving in
time and space [4] by the TRIZ method of "pillow put in advance." In
this case, it means that trainer in collaboration with translator
prepare textbooks prior to training and then progressively send lectures
and tasks to students as they master previous material. At the same
time, students study lectures and do tasks in their free time, not
stopping their work. 

I hope, the reader has already a good idea what is the possibility to
joint all these solutions: it is the distance training via Internet.
Just this technique was recently put into practice by the group of
leading TRIZ specialists headed by Genrikh Saulovich Altshuller. You can
know details by sending the request to all_TRIZ@Hotmail.com or visiting
our site http://www.jps.net/TRIZ/triz0000.htm at World Wide Web. 

Distance training arises from a rapid growth of communications and
increased requirements of people being always very busy and living far
from educational institutions to receive a professional education.
Distance training means self-education under external control.
Self-education is independent acquiring knowledge, mastering skills and
methods with strong motivation for receiving education. Originally, such
training was letter exchange between a trainer and a student. It is just
the way, in which the TRIZ author, Genrich Saulovich Altshuller, trained
his first students, when USSR communist power did not recognize TRIZ.

Thus, distance training is the synthesis of the group and individual
training, since trainer's contacts with members of student group is
separated in time and space.    
Let us consider in a great detail every requirement 1-3 and the ways to
meet them via Internet. 

Requirement 1. 

1.1. Formation of training aim in a student.

A point that a student understands the aims of training is important by
the following reasons:
 
- at the stage of making a decision to start training or not, it
decrease the probability to give a wrong answer; 
- during training, orientation to the final aim allows a student to
continuously check his or her progress; 
- if the material structure is complicated, intermediate aims give the
possibility to arrange priorities. 

Prior to training students receive the review of ���� [5]; during the
training process, intermediate aims are neatly stated, namely, the
solution of technical problems with different degree of complexity
according to 5-level classification of inventions accepted in TRIZ [6,
5]. 
General and intermediate training aims are formed in a student through
contacts with a trainer and due to structure of the training material. 

1.2. Formation of training motivation 

Formation of the interest in training process and its results is one of
the most important conditions of efficient and successful training. The
following factors very often decrease or even destroy the motivation: 

- absence of immediate results; 
- indifference of other people, especially closest ones, to the fact of
training; 
- inefficient planning of time and, as a consequence, lagging behind the
plans. 

An educational institution can try to allay the effect of the first and
third causes at the expense of organization of the training material.
After most lectures on TRIZ course, students solve problems, and these
solutions are often at the patent level.

To solve the second problem means to create the circle of people
interested in this training. When studying via Internet, the problem can
be solved by forming the virtual student group with students contacting
with each other through the cyberspace [7], having similar aims and
problems in both individual and group activity, as well as similar ideas
about ways to solve them, which form the base for students interaction. 

The significant factor to meet the requirement 1 may be consideration of
a real technical problem a student faced in real practice.

Requirement 2.

2.1. Production of individual textbooks.
Because distance training is mainly based on individual contacts with
student, this aim can be reached. 

2.2. Creation of individual training schedule.
There exist obligatory training measures and recommended terms for
studying the material or some its parts. With due regard for this, a
student chooses the training schedule himself. 

Requirement 3.

3.1. Trainer must have the information about student's knowledge and
skill.

A student gives the information to a trainer prior to starting the
course by filling the registration form and answering all the questions,
presented in it.

3.2. Creation of the objective evaluation system.

Evaluation can be considered as really objective if it:
 - is not only quantitative, but also qualitative [8], i.e., has some
additional comments to student's work; 
- shows the student's progress, i.e., every training stage must be
evaluated. 
Within our course, the evaluation mark and comments to a testing work
done by a student are inserted into the work text and sent back to a
student by e-mail.

Usually, good TRIZ solution to a problem not only solves original
contradictions but also gives some additional super-effect, invisible in
the beginning of solution process. 
In this case, we obtained the following super-effect: 
Each trainer has more or less favorite sections in the course. When
training via Internet, a student receive each course section from a
trainer most competent in it, and in the form being in accord with all
previous and next materials. That is to say, the inversion of the group
method takes place - the group of trainers work individually with every
student!

Thus, studying TRIZ via Internet [5], you will obtain the lectures of
best specialists and individual tasks to be solved in time convenient
for you. As a result of TRIZ training, you will become able to solve
your old and new real technical problems, which seem very difficult for
you now.

    The author during last several years of his TRIZ activity
permanently faces the following problem: 
In most TRIZ books and courses numerous of examples are provided for
explanation of TRIZ ideas. 
It is known that there is no precise border between a set of examples
illustrates some idea, and a proof  of this idea. From how many grains 
a heap begins?  From how many examples it is possible to speak that some
rule is proven ? Do these examples familiar to the student ? Would be
the student satisfy by such approach ? 
After several years of research the author find (as he believes) the
most logical way to represent TRIZ that combines straightforward
reasoning, mathematics-like evidences and illustrative examples. This
scientific approach already gave very emphatic results that are recorded
in inventive activities of our former students. We have several positive
feedback results from our students, some of them have filed for few
patents just during and 3 months after the TRIZ training at Internet.

1. V.M. Tsurikov,  Journal of TRIZ, 1991 v.2 N 1, p. 17 /in Russian/
2. B. L. Zlotin, A.V. Zusman,  Journal of TRIZ, 1994 v.4 N 1, p. 19 /in
Russian/
3. Journal of TRIZ, 1992 v.3 N 4 (Special Issue: Pedagogics of  TRIZ)
/in Russian/ 
4. Note that it is the main way to solve so-called physical
contradictions in TRIZ. 
5.  S. D. Savransky: http://www.jps.net/TRIZ/triz0000.htm 
6.  G. S.  Altshuller "Find the Idea" (Novosibirsk. Nauka. 1991), 221
pp. /in Russian/
7. To create a virtual student group in Internet, we can use IRC,
list-servers, users-group, massage board at WWWeb-pages, etc. In the
future video-conferences in a group could be used. 
8.  Qualitative evaluation is more important for a student, because it
allows better self-control.

Semyon D. Savransky, Ph.D.
The TRIZ Experts
http://www.jps.net/TRIZ/triz0000.htm
(E-mail: All_TRIZ@hotmailcom)