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GCN Home > 08/12/02 issue

Air Force units innovate with e-learning software

By Dipka Bhambhani, GCN Staff

The Air Force Information Warfare Center at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, recently began using electronic-learning software to track human resources information for military personnel.

Interestingly, the Air Education and Training Command at nearby Randolph Air Force Base had been using its own application of the same software for more than a year.

Both organizations are using Plateau 4 Learning Management System from Plateau Systems Ltd. of Arlington, Va., but in completely different ways.

The Information Warfare Center uses Plateau 4 to manage personnel training histories; the education command is migrating its training courses from desktop PCs at five military bases to be accessible on Internet-connected computers anywhere.

An online learning system that can manage military coursework should also be able to combine personnel information about everything from fields of expertise to health records, said Maj. Steve Doub of the Air Intelligence Agency.

"The learning management system provides a clear picture of training and education requirements," Doub said. "Supervisors and commanders have a more efficient way to assign and monitor employee accomplishments."

Tracking training

The system captures, for example, which software versions workers have learned, what briefings they've received and what health problems or inoculations they have. It also tracks ancillary courses that personnel must pass in antiterrorism, computer security, fire prevention, information assurance, intelligence oversight, operational risk management and safety.

The Information Warfare Center wanted to offer "a complete array of training courses that would ensure each warfighter is capable of performing in any contingency, anytime, anywhere," Doub said.

But implementation wasn't easy. Doub said the Air Force had to transfer data from three separate databases into Plateau, and each database had different names for the courses. "The development team had to establish a new naming convention that would permit consolidation of hundreds of courses," he said.

A new course numbering system also was necessary. About 1,200 workers can access the system, but only about 45 take courses at any given time, Doub said.

When a worker completes a course or is affected by a personnel action, the update automatically goes into the person's Plateau record.

More news on related topics: Defense IT, Web Strategies, IT in Action