U.S. Army Defense Ammunition Center: Putting Mission-Critical Training Online

Within the first year, more than 10,000 students received ammunition training through the LMS from a variety of locations that include Germany, Japan, Italy, South Korea, Kuwait and Iraq. DAC estimates that the number of students could easily exceed 50,000 in the next few years.

“Having instant access to DAC’s distance-learning products was a tremendous resource,” said Peggy Dean, quality assurance specialist, Ammunition Surveillance, Camp Ashraf, Iraq. “It always fit into our schedules and without ever having to leave the relative security of our compound.”

With the LMS in place, DAC significantly reduced the time and cost of readiness by rapidly producing, delivering, tracking and adapting critical training and information. Once it creates instructional materials, the only recurring cost is the hosting and licensing fees. This means that access to all of DAC’s training modules can be delivered at an annual cost of less than $20 per student.

The DAC can now train anyone with an Internet connection. This has a positive impact on students’ mission readiness and the effectiveness of their units, particularly for soldiers in remote locations. It also ensures all personnel acquire the knowledge they need to do their jobs, as well as increasing safety and security for themselves and for their teams. “If we did anything right, it was because we took a comprehensive view of what our audiences wanted our LMS to do for them,” Scott said. “We have military personnel in the field who need to know the latest shipping and handling procedures for ordnance. And pulling a soldier out of the line in Iraq to take this sort of training in Kuwait often isn’t the best use of the military’s resources. It makes us less effective in accomplishing the mission.”

With training modularized, students don’t need to take a full two-week course to get the 10 minutes of specific instruction they might need. The DAC also gains a real-time, 360-degree view of the skills, training records and performance of its personnel.

According to DAC, training is now easy to maintain, redundancies are eliminated, and time and energy are saved. Changes can be made real time. Updates are automatic. New learning modules no longer need to be created from scratch and new CD-ROMs never need to be burned and shipped. Also, an individual at a satellite facility can easily author information and upload it quickly for everyone’s use.