Vanguard Magazine

Jun/Jul 2015

Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR

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T TRAining 38 JUNE/JULY 2015 www.vanguardcanada.com One key to that is the interactive nature of the training. As Blanchette notes, "passive learning online and passive learning in the classroom is just as ineffective." Consequently, the ATTR proj- ect is focused as much on the instructors as it is on the students. "Nobody joins the military to be an instructor," Hallett ob- serves. As a result, all approach teaching differently, which can lead to uneven program delivery. "However, if we can take what they are knowledgeable about and provide the education method, that's great for everybody." Adds Blanchette: "If you go around the school and observe the instructors in a practical setting, they shine. A lot of them have very good coaching skills because they have been in the units. In the classroom you have some that are very good and some that are basically doing PowerPoint karaoke. That proves to be the most ineffective way of teaching. So change management is a big part of what we are bringing into the school. I've noticed that when the instructors have their say, they love it. "The content is not set in stone either. If a question constantly comes up in every class, then we will modify the module to in- clude that explanation. Capturing the technical expertise of the instructor is important because a lot of the workforce is getting older and that level of expertise is rarely found." As a result, keeping instructors involved in both the develop- ment of the courseware and in how it will be delivered is critical, says Hallett. "They are really proud of the instruction they are delivering and of the students who have got it. They don't want to hand it all over to a computer, they don't think that will work. And in many respects they are right." integrated development In a nearby hangar, Lise Longmire, Calian's senior project man- ager, brings up onto a screen a series of training modules. Draw- ing on everything from TV game shows to online gaming, they employ a multitude of media in an engaging and entertaining way to help students understand equipment, parts and essential procedures. From 360 degree views of components to interac- tive videos on proper processes, the modules encourage a range of problem-solving that isn't always evident at first glance – what Hallett calls learning by stealth. "We have these huge schematics for wiring, for example, which are problematic for everyone to read yet it is something we need to teach," Longmire says. "Instead of a huge roll of paper, with this software you can read the schematic and then follow where to go and visualize how to do a repair." Longmire oversees a team of instructional designers, e-learning developers and project leads for each of the courses. Working with one or two retired military subject matter experts (SME) for each course, the team begins with a story board that captures the criti- cal teaching points and student objectives, and then refines the document, selecting the most appropriate media to convey the lesson, all the while incorporating instructor and SME feedback, until the courseware is complete. The end result is a product that while specific to that course, is delivered in a standardized format with a common look and feel. Since she joined the project two years ago, Longmire has pushed for a level of civil-military collaboration that wasn't initially pictured when the ATTR first came together. Having both parties in the same facility has allowed them to sit and work through contentious points, rather than dealing with conference calls and emails. "Trying to describe what you are looking at on a screen over a phone is not the same as when you can sit together as a group," Hallett said. "We learned we need to keep talking and sharing ideas. Nothing is developed in isolation. The more we talk, the closer it will be to what the end user wants." Added Blanchette: "Collaboration with our partner is essential. If that communication is not strong, the project will have problems." Achieving that level of integration has not been without a few hurdles. Overcoming the military's initial reluctance to share in- formation was something "we had to work on," Longmire said. And developing training programs for aircraft and weapons sys- tems that often involve controlled goods means security clear- ances for staff working on those programs, something "not envi- sioned when the contract was first set." impressive results The shift to more use of simulation in CAF technical training has been underway since the middle of the last decade. So when Blanchette stepped into the Training Innovation Cell in 2012 he found a mix of systems and solutions from companies like CAE, Bluedrop, Atlantis, NGRAIN and others. Rather than reinvent the wheel, CFSATE has captured as much of the source codes and terra bytes of data as possible and structured future contracts to ensure the air force owns the intellectual property to repurpose within other projects. That has allowed the organization to look internally at its own developers – "I call them my screen wizards," Blanchette says – and begin to assume more of the design work as they look to future evolutions of the training courses. To date, the ATTR has been applied to the Common Core course that every aircraft technician must complete, and has be- gun the air weapons (AWS) and avionics (AVS) courses. The avia- tions (AVN ) course is on deck while the aircraft structures (ACS) waits in the wings. Even at this early stage, the results have been impressive. For example, the Common Core program was initially projected to be 75 training days after the air force increased its content by 35

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