Naval Personnel Development Command Leads the
Revolution in Training with OutStart LCMS
The U.S. Navy has the enormous task of providing individual training to about
30,000 Sailors each year, totaling 3200 hours of instruction per year. Recently, industry
the Navy launched a new educational initiative, called “Revolution in Training”, Navy or Armed Services
that employs online learner centric delivery to accelerate and improve the solution
quality of learning while reducing the costs associated with traditional
classroom learning.
The Naval Personnel Development Command (NPDC) is leading the Revolution
in Training initiative with the focus on “providing the right training at the right results
time and in the right place for the right Sailor”, in an environment where
Sailors can improve themselves and advance in the organization. The Navy
›
launched this new initiative across the five Class A schools, where Sailors go
›
after recruit training to receive basic technical knowledge for a job or specialized
training. The Navy has more than 60 job fields from which enlistees may choose,
from electricians and avionics technicians to cooks and military police. Navy ›
class A schools are located on military bases throughout the United States,
including Great Lakes, Illinois; San Diego, California; Newport, Rhode Island;
and Pensacola, Florida.
the challenge
The Navy began this new initiative with several Accelerated learning classroom training by reducing staff, reducing
key metrics in mind: The Navy wanted to move from group paced, the Sailors’ time spent in the training
instructor-led training to a self-paced, learner- organization and ensuring access to training
Improved “fleet readiness” centric approach that would enable Sailors to regardless of location or connectivity.
It was imperative that the Revolution in proceed quickly through the curriculum.
Training deliver improved performance They sought a learning solution that would
to the fleet. Ultimately, the fleet wants a measure and build on Sailors’ prior learning
OutStart LCMS enables
highly prepared Sailor that has passed with customized learning content, allowing
through rigorous training and multiple the most dedicated and self-motivated Sailors us to author down to
performance tests. The Navy wanted to to return to their posts sooner.
the learning object level.
have a learning environment that identified
Sailors’ knowledge gaps early in the training Reduced training costs No other vendor can do
process and offered prescribed content that The Navy spends about 14 percent of its total
that using a traditional
would ensure Sailors are getting the right annual funding, about $10 billion, on training.
information at the right time. With the Navy’s time-is-money mentality, methodology.”
less time in training translates into significant
cost savings for the Navy. The Navy wanted to
reduce costs associated with the traditional
Naval Personnel Development Command Leads the
Revolution in Training with OutStart LCMS
the solution 106 days to complete. Now, Sailors can graduate
in as little as 38 days with the same or more
To achieve these metrics, the Navy’s NPDC knowledge. This reflects a 45% reduction in
worked closely with Turtle Rattle Learning, training time and 65% reduction of actual
Inc. (TRL), a provider of training and education in-class training time overall that saves the Navy
services, and Jardon & Howard Technologies, $7,000 per Sailor without sacrificing quality.
Inc. (JHT), a provider of instructional design,
graphic design, programming and program With OutStart LCMS’s prescriptive learning We recognized
management, to help implement the new capabilities, Sailors can take assessment tests
initiative. The Navy selected OutStart LCMS to that identify what they do not know, and then OutStart LCMS as
receive a prescribed course of learning content
provide an enterprise learning asset repository ideal for quickly
and provide the authoring and content that covers only those areas. After studying the
management functionality for the Navy’s prescribed learning content, Sailors can take developing and
Integrated Learning Environment (ILE). As a another test to measure whether they have
consultant to the Navy’s ILE, TRL identified achieved proficiency. This approach ensures that assembling reusable
training is more productive and efficient.
OutStart LCMS’s authoring and aggregation content, while
capabilities as ideal for rapid content
development and enterprise-wide reuse of “About 25% of the Navy’s learners are considered providing the
common learning materials. TRL worked with ‘fast trackers’ and excel at problem-solving on
JHT to develop a comprehensive analysis, their own,” said Lacey. “With their new elearning customized learning
environment, these Sailors can progress through
design, and development approach that that really improves
optimized OutStart LCMS while meeting the courses at their own pace and be rewarded by
Navy’s highly progressive instructional goals. moving into their jobs more quickly.” Other Sailors and accelerates
that need more help receive personalized courses
According to Jim Lacey, president of Turtle and assessments that help them close their training.”
Rattle Learning, Inc., “We recognized OutStart knowledge gaps and move to the next level.
LCMS as ideal for quickly developing and Jim Lacey,
Sailors can be involved in a training simulation, President, Turtle Rattle Learning, Inc.
assembling reusable content, while providing
the customized learning that really improves then easily leave the application to take a quick
and accelerates training.” Added Mary Louise assessment test, and then go right back into the
Hutchings, Vice President at JHT, ”OutStart LCMS simulation. “We are really impressed with the level Saved approx. $5 million by reducing
enables us to author down to the learning of granularity that OutStart LCMS provides with course development time by almost 50%
object level. No other vendor can do that using a its prescriptive learning tools,” added Lacey. “By First, TRL worked with the Navy to identify the
traditional methodology.” giving Sailors this level of flexibility and control common, recurring training requirements across
of their online learning experience, the Navy has all five A-Schools, as well as the unique training
reduced its training hours while at the same time, elements of each school. They discovered that
the results improving the quality of their training.” of the 3200 instructional hours required in the
first 5 courses, about 500 hours were common
Saved approx. $8-10 million by reducing “This level of speed and quality of training is and could be reused. While traditional content
training time by 45% required by the new specialized ships that development with LMS delivery would have
The Navy spends about $10 billion on training can be configured based on a specific threat”, required the developer to build all 3200 hours
each year, and wanted to reduce that metric explained Hutchings. “When Sailors are assigned of content, OutStart LCMS authoring results in
by reducing time-to-competency. The Navy’s to a new ship, they need immediate training to Sharable Content Objects (SCOs) which can be
move from instructor- led training to a learner work on a ship outfitted with equipment they’ve assembled and reused dynamically. This reuse
centric online delivery approach that included never seen before. They now have “Just in Time” capability ensured significant savings in both
prescriptive learning made a significant impact training and can even download customized time and money for development of the 3200
in reducing the number of training hours. For training to their portable device.” required hours.
example, the IC school pipeline used to take
US Navy
Naval Personnel Development Command Leads the
Revolution in Training with OutStart LCMS
The Navy originally estimated it would take propagated through to every place that the delivering through a blend of channels. OutStart
years to develop all the required hours of content is used. These efficiency gains increase LCMS taps into the Navy’s learning content at a
course content. In reality, it only took 7 months as more content is created and stored in the single source, and delivers it as native content
from the initial content analysis to the first repository. through the Web, print, CD, presentation, PDA,
Sailors graduating from the courses, showing and SCORM. The Navy has also improved the
a significant reduction in course development Also, developers could start building course way it can identify knowledge gaps early in the
time. The actual development time was about content very early in the process based on learning process and address them immediately.
4-1/2 months. This time savings resulted in an the instructional design. Since presentation “For the first time, the Navy can monitor
approximately $5 million cost savings. is separated from content, they don’t have to the Sailors’ progress at the learning- activity
worry about the final look and feel, as that is level, rather than just seeing who completes
“In total, we have satisfied some 5,000 hours all customizable and applied at delivery time. graduation at the end of the training,” said Lacey.
of instruction with 800 redesigned hours They also don’t have to spend time checking OutStart LCMS tracks all learner interactions and
of stand-up and paper-based instruction to their content for SCORM compliance. All reports on results. This information shows the
web-based elearning in 20 months,” said content created in OutStart LCMS is SCORM 1.2, Navy where learners are and how it impacts their
Hutchings. “Traditional methods could have and SCORM 2004 compliant, and OutStart LCMS job performance.
required up to 8 years.” can ingest SCORM content created by any tool
and manage it, maintain it, and assemble it for Using OutStart LCMS’s configuration
To achieve fast and consistent authoring, the delivery. management functionality, the Navy can track
Navy used OutStart LCMS’s template-driven where changes in curricula have impacted
environment that allows instructional designers, “We would have had to hire a slew of time to train. Tweaks and improvements can
course developers, and subject matter experts programmers for a project on this scale,” said be made immediately, based on analysis of
with no programming knowledge to rapidly Hutchings. “OutStart LCMS shortened the which learning objects are slowing Sailors
develop learning content. Reuse is promoted development process considerably by allowing down. “The ability to manage content at this
from the start because content is stored as us to author down to the smallest SCO level level is unprecedented,” added Lacey. “We refer
SCOs. And because OutStart LCMS’s repository for maximum reusability. Also, everything we to it as ‘mass customization’, in that we can
of reusable learning objects is searchable, exported is automatically SCORM compliant, create remediation loops that automatically
developers can find and reuse relevant existing saving even more programming time.” trigger based on how a Sailor performs with the
content when building courses, rather than content. Each Sailor could theoretically take a
having to develop content from scratch. Because Achieved blended learning and improved unique path through the material. We can make
the Navy’s content is stored in a single virtual knowledge analysis changes to the content within 24 hours of when
repository in OutStart LCMS, any changes to that The Navy realizes that every Sailor learns we receive the feedback from the Sailors,” said
content only need to occur once, regardless of differently. OutStart LCMS supports personalized Hutchings. “We can add to a simulation or beef
how many times and to how many formats that learning by serving up content to each Sailor up content immediately. We make the changes,
content is delivered. Changes are automatically based on his/her profile and learning needs, and export it and upload it literally overnight.”
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