1. Advances in Defense Sector Learning
by Bob Little
Introduction
Advances being made in content management technologies, standards and methodologies are making the tasks of
those responsible for providing training and performance support for the world’s armed forces easier and more ef-
ficient. Ensuring that military personnel have up-to-date, just-in-time and on-demand information to keep them ever
ready to perform their duties is a challenge that, until now, has been nearly impossible to overcome.
Not being able to do this brings a number of problems – especially when personnel are on operations. For one thing,
research has revealed that casualties among military personnel often happen because someone is using equipment
that has been serviced with out-of-date technical publications. To make matters worse, people can spend up to 50
per cent of their time looking for information because they don’t know where to find it.
The watchword in the defense sector is ‘readiness’. Military personnel have to be ready to perform their duties when-
ever and wherever they are required to perform them. They can be trained in these duties but, in order to perform
them well – and outperform the enemy – they need access to up-to-date, just-in-time information.
While technology has played a part in helping to deliver more up-to-date information than was previously possible, it
is only in the last year or so that technological advances are making possible the delivery of accurate, relevant, up-to-
date information as and when it is needed.
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© eXact learning solutions 2010

2. Advances in Defense Sector Learning
Technical Hindrances
Up to now, one of the technological hindrances has been the development of proprietary software to produce databases to store technical
publications and other maintenance resources. Moreover, the learning content has tended to be kept in a separate database from technical
publications.
Thankfully, the technology now exists that allows data to be stored in one virtual location, rather than in a number of ‘silos’. In addition, digital
repository technology now allows the processes by which learning materials can be compiled and accessed to be streamlined.
One of the world’s major developers of learning content management systems and digital repositories, eXact learning solutions enables its
systems to be accessed by mobile technology. eXact learning solutions’ solutions serve as a content broker providing advanced searching ca-
pabilities and access to a great many intelligent databases for just-in-time delivery to front line troops via PDAs and other hand-held devices
and heads up displays.
In 2008, eXact learning solutions acquired the HarvestRoad Hive digital repository system, which manages any form of content used in online
learning, corporate training and knowledge management initiatives. HarvestRoad Hive can interface with practically any ERP, learning or
course management system and is integrated with several commonly used course management systems, authoring and content assembly
tools.
HarvestRoad Hive is designed to establish a bridge between islands of content within and across multiple institutions or organizations,
regardless of the type of content or purpose for its existence. HarvestRoad Hive is used to store and manage so called ’learning objects‘ or
SCORM and S1000D
According to John Rowling, Chief Technical Officer (CTO), for the HarvestRoad Hive product line – which was used for a SCORM-S1000D
proof-of-concept implementation for ADL and US DoD, and the NATO M-FASR OSID proof-of-concept: “eXact learning solutions, with its many
years of expertise in building intelligent databases and the application of learning technologies standards, such as SCORM 2004 and techni-
cal publications specifications, such as S1000D, is able to organize vast amounts of data, and make this data not only deliverable but also
usable by service personnel – often ‘in the field’.”
He added: “One of the unique challenges of building content into today’s complex environment of multiple standards is building frameworks
that facilitate the integration of the myriad components. While SCORM integration fits neatly into traditional e-learning development and
S1000D tools are easily available, authors who create mobile content are, typically, removed from learning and documentation standards. Yet
adopting a content development approach that has the standards support embedded in the templates and models provided by tools such as
eXact learning solutions’ eXact LCMS® can make the process effective, efficient and transparent to the authors.”
eXact learning solutions supplies an Open Service Interface Definition (OSID)-based federated content search, discovery, and exchange
across digital content systems which are used in some NATO countries. This facilitates the use of both standards-compliant and non-stand-
ards-compliant content enabling, among other things, the measurement of the efficiency of content reuse.
In mission-critical environments - including energy, utilities, defense, transportation, pharmaceuticals and aerospace - there is a market
driver to digitalize ‘technical content’ such as manuals and maintenance resources for effectiveness, efficiency and productivity purposes.
Additionally, there is an immediate requirement to reuse the technical content within associated training courses without the requirement to
re-author the authoritative source content in the manuals – providing timeliness, accuracy and portability of information to increase occupa-
tional health and safety performance of systems and platforms.
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3. Advances in Defense Sector Learning
Linking content in this way means that changing an item in a technical manual in the design process automatically updates the relevant
training course. This reuse model is often referred to as linking ‘structured content’ (technical publications) with ‘unstructured content’ (learn-
ing courses) and it supports a ‘write once – use many times’ ethos.
“eXact learning solutions’ solutions have been developed with a strong focus on the international standards, specifications and application
profiles that have become the de-facto standards for managing and delivering learning content or objects,” said Rowling. “They are inde-
pendent of the systems that create or assemble content and independent of the systems that deliver online learning experiences, such as
learning management systems (LMS). This means that an organization’s investment in its legacy LMS is preserved because eXact learning
solutions’ system will integrate with any LMS or ERP system and is designed to share content across multiple instances of its application as
well as across other repositories within or external to an organization.”
In recent years, SCORM has become the de facto standard for interoperable learning applications and content. It has been widely imple-
mented in learning applications. It is a mandated requirement for applications and content used by the United States Department of Defense
for education and / or training and is a common requirement in education and training tenders around the globe. S1000D is of interest to all
organizations in the aerospace (both civil and military) and defense sectors. It defines the structure and presentation of technical documen-
tation covering technical manuals, maintenance procedures and Interactive Electronic Technical Publications (IETPs) for all equipment and
vehicles – land, sea or air.
National defense departments across Europe and the United States have stipulated S1000D as a procurement requirement throughout the
supply chain from manufacture through to acceptance. S1000D also defines the requirements for a common source database (CSDB) or
repository that holds the documentation in electronic format.
Time & Cost Savings – and other benefits
Recent thinking on the part of stakeholder communities has concluded that considerable savings in both time and financial cost can be real-
ized if training materials, especially learning materials, could be sourced directly from S1000D content by transforming it dynamically at the
time of delivery. This has formed the basis of the SCORM / S1000D Alignment project.
The key benefit in being able to reuse content in this way goes beyond embedding multimedia within technical manuals: it is the ability to
assemble new publications and courses by reusing components from the trusted source content. When these source items are updated, there
is notification, version control and publishing services available to manage the process effectively and maintain the integrity of the content.
And, while the alignment of S1000D and SCORM is primarily taking place in the defense and related industries, the commercial benefits of
such an alignment are being appreciated across many other sectors.
About the Author
For over 20 years, Bob Little has specialised in writing about, and commentating on, corporate learning – especially eLearning – and technology-related
subjects. His work has been published in the UK, Continental Europe, the USA and Australia
eXact learning solutions
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© eXact learning solutions 2010