INTRODUCTION
INNOVATIVE LEARNING SYSTEM FEATURES A FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND, SCORM-CONFORMANT INFRASTRUCTURE
A groundbreaking distance learning program created by Booz Allen Hamilton, in partnership with the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC), uses a standards-based approach to certify learners in secure environments around the world, enhancing the effectiveness of training, reducing costs, and holding application users to strict performance standards. DMDC earned the 2006 United States Distance Learning Association 21st Century Best Practices in Distance Learning award for the use of a Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) 2004-conformant approach to learning. Its innovative practices are a model for organizations in the use of the SCORM standard.
BACKGROUND
As part of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, the DMDC supports the information management needs of and develops software applications for the DoD and its service members. DMDC also provides training for users of its applications. The SCORM standard establishes a common structure for courses housed on the government learning management system (LMS) so their content can be more easily organized, tracked, and reused for other training. SCORM-conformant courseware also reduces the cost of course maintenance.
Booz Allen's largest curriculum effort with DMDC—and the first set of courses to be delivered by the Enterprise Training Program's LMS—is the Real-time Automated Personnel Identification System (RAPIDS) user certification program. Department of Defense personnel use RAPIDS to issue military identification credentials. DMDC, as the manager of the DoD's human resource information, administers the RAPIDS program for the Department of Defense (DoD). RAPIDS personnel act as critical gatekeepers to the nation's defense information and facilities by controlling the issuance of Common Access Cards (CACs) and other identification media. CACs are military identification credentials encrypted with biometric information and used throughout the world to: access networks and secure information systems; enter DoD facilities, such as base commissaries; and to draw on government benefits, such as medical care.
With the Enterprise Training Program, DMDC established accountability and a standard of knowledge through its certification of CAC issuance personnel. DMDC also improved learning productivity by reducing the time needed to master learning content.
SCORM 2004 SYSTEM ESTABLISHES A STANDARD OF KNOWLEDGE FOR USERS
Through the use of performance-based assessments and the advanced sequencing capability available through the use of SCORM 2004-conformant courseware delivered through a certified SCORM 2004 LMS, DMDC has, for the first time anywhere, established a true standard of knowledge by which to certify users of its applications. The evaluation model used in the RAPIDS courseware, for example, includes both pretest and posttest assessments that require the learner to demonstrate mastery of the subject matter before graduation.
PERFORMANCE-BASED ASSESSMENT ENABLES COMPREHENSIVE CERTIFICATION OF LEARNERS
The certification program exams contain a mix of “traditional” questions, such as multiple-choice, matching, and true-false questions (that test knowledge-based learning objectives) and application simulations (that test performance-based learning objectives). The performance-based assessments are application “simulations.” These simulations are a major component of the pretest exam, the content delivery lessons, and the posttest exam. Course developers produce performance-based simulations using Adobe Captivate, a tool that models a series of actions that the user would have to complete in the actual application. The simulations are employed in the effective Guide-Me, Let-Me-Try, and Test-Me approach. The use of simulations is a particularly effective method of training personnel in an environment that closely emulates their actual work conditions.
Certification exam performance-based questions ask learners to demonstrate their performance of application procedures in a simulated environment. Each step in a procedure is graded, and learners must demonstrate mastery of learning objectives before they can complete the posttest and become certified. Learners can complete the exam component of any learning objective in either the pretest or the posttest. The exam questions are randomly drawn from a pool with posttest remediation links that access appropriate content lessons.
SCORM 2004 SEQUENCING DELIVERS CUSTOMIZED COURSES FOR EVERY LEARNER
Through the use of the pretest exam and SCORM 2004 sequencing capabilities, learners can demonstrate their existing knowledge of the system and opt out of any training they do not need. The result is improved learner motivation and reduced time to mastery of new content.
Once a learning objective exam component is marked as “passed” in the pretest, a review of the associated content is no longer required, and the exam component is marked as “passed” in the posttest also. Learners then complete a personally customized course covering only the learning objectives on which they have not demonstrated mastery.
This technique limits exposure to material known to learners and focuses them on new content, helping to maintain their motivation. This “prescriptive learning” approach also allows experienced system users to “test out” of sections of the training and therefore reduce the total training intervention time. Prescriptive learning is a key feature of the RAPIDS training program because the program is a longstanding program with many experienced users and because issuance personnel must be recertified via the training every year.
Before the RAPIDS program was introduced, instructors traveled throughout the world to deliver that training. High turnover and troop deployments to remote sites made it difficult and expensive to ensure training was consistent and timely, and that each user had the skills he or she needed. This instructor-led training program lasted as long as 3 days. The complete Web-based training event now has a “seat time” of 10 to 12 hours, but through the use of sequencing that allows for presentation of only the content lessons on which learners are unable to demonstrate mastery, the average time to certification has been reduced to 5 or 6 hours. The result is a dramatic reduction in the time needed to train users, as well as improved RAPIDS customer service due to the resulting reduction in training “down-time” at a card issuance site.
SCORM REPURPOSING AND REUSE PRODUCE LEARNING PROGRAM SAVINGS AND SPEED DEPLOYMENT FOR NEW VERSIONS OF COURSEWARE
The RAPIDS system, and most DMDC applications, are constantly being improved and updated, and require that learners complete recertification testing every year. The course content and the exam questions are maintained to keep pace with the changing application and procedures.
Although the course content and structure are based on the sequencing of the learning objectives, the learning objectives can be grouped to vary the length of the lessons presented to the learners. Course lessons and course navigation is specified in a SCORM 2004 course “manifest.” Within the Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based manifest file, lessons can be rearranged, added, or deleted in a matter of minutes with no change to the course pages themselves, enabling easy updates to the curriculum when performance needs change.
Using SCORM standards and repurposing lessons allows DMDC to update and maintain course content in a fraction of the time needed for an initial course development. For example, using SCORM and repurposing lessons also allowed DMDC recently to update 80% of the RAPIDS course content in about half the time needed for the initial course development. And, since the use of SCORM makes it easy to move from one LMS to another, the DMDC has also been able to port courses to other government agencies, such as the Department of the Interior, saving resources for the government as a whole.
SCORM 2004-CONFORMANT INFRASTRUCTURE SERVES AS THE TECHNICAL BACKBONE FOR THE TRAINING PROGRAM
Booz Allen provided a total training solution to the Enterprise Training Program, integrating help desk support, implementing an LMS integrated with the DoD's personnel database to meet each student's training needs, and designing and developing Web-based certification courses for users of DMDC applications. The technical backbone for the DMDC Enterprise Training Program is the government off-the-shelf LMS, AtlasPro. Integrating the AtlasPro LMS with the DoD's personnel database allows DMDC staff, contractors, and customers to be automatically enrolled in curricula that match their learning needs.
The result is the Department of Defense's first-ever large-scale Web-based course implementation that conforms to SCORM 2004 course development requirements, uses a SCORM 2004-certified LMS (i.e., AtlasPro), and is Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)-enabled and authenticates learners with their CACs. Booz Allen ensured additional security by making the AtlasPro LMS PKI-enabled. Courses cannot be accessed and personnel cannot be certified without inserting an ID card in a workstation reader and entering a corresponding personal identification number (PIN). This CAC login process ensures that the Certification Program participants are authenticated as users and that the person who completes the certification exam is the person who is certified.
CONCLUSION
The DMDC Enterprise Training program establishes DMDC as an innovative leader in the implementation of standards-based training in the Department of Defense, and has enabled the organization to help ensure the integrity of the DoD ID Card Issuance program through the certification of learners in a cost-effective and flexible manner. The system is available worldwide at any time of the day or night and helps eliminate fraudulent training certification. The CAC login process ensures that the Certification Program participants are authenticated as users and that the person who completes the certification exam is the person who is certified. In addition, RAPIDS Web-based training delivery virtually eliminates the need for classroom training. The overall impact is that in less than 2 years, DMDC has, for the first time, certified over 7,000 RAPIDS users in 1,400 sites around the world.
Participants in the RAPIDS Certification Program are enthusiastic in their support for the training and its usefulness in helping them do their job. Here are some quotes from learners:
This was an excellent tool for VOs [Verifying Official] to provide better customer service and to know our roles and responsibilities. Thank you for the enhancements to the DEERS-RAPIDS systems. I am proud to have participated in this valuable training.
The certification program was really tough but we're glad something like this was made available to us.
The DMDC Enterprise Training Program serves as an example of the power of the SCORM standard to improve learner performance, reduce training program costs, and speed time to market for learning products.
“DMDC EARNED THE UNITED STATES DISTANCE LEARNING ASSOCIATION AWARD FOR THE USE OF SHARABLE CONTENT OBJECT REFERENCE MODEL (SCORM) 2004-CONFORMANT APPROACH TO LEARNING.”
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