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JKO provides training for those deployment-bound
U.S. Joint Forces Command's Joint Knowledge Online prepares warfighters for deployment, providing them with an enhanced training capability full of courseware to better prepare them for theater. Robert Pursell has the story.
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Narrated by Robert Pursell, USJFCOM Public Affairs
Featuring: Rick MacDougall, SOCJFCOM’s deputy director of training and Mark Willmann, the knowledge distribution chief at USJFCOM’s JKDDC Joint Management Office
Pursell: About a year ago, U.S. Joint Forces Command’s (USJFCOM) Joint Knowledge Development and Distribution Capability (JKDDC) unveiled a new way of providing courseware to the warfighter.
This courseware, however, is not your typical classroom or field program. It’s available on the Internet through Joint Knowledge Online (JKO).
JKO courseware provides a comprehensive Web-based source of joint task force and combatant command battle staff training information. It also allows initial training opportunities prior to participating in joint training events, or in preparation for real-world operations.
Special Operations Command – Joint Forces Command (SOCJFCOM) recently began to offer a course providing basic background knowledge of joint special operations task force (JSOTF) operations.
The course, called Level I – Joint Special Operations Force (SOF)/ JSOTF Individual Training or SOF 101, is designed for individuals assigned or about to be assigned to a joint special operations task force headquarters that don’t necessarily have a joint or SOF background.
Rick MacDougall, SOCJFCOM’s deputy director of training, explained SOCJFCOM’s greatest advantage of using JKO.
MacDougall: What SOCJFCOM really likes about using JKO is it enables us to reach a more global audience for our 'SOF 101' course. For instance, you can take this course from anywhere and it presents those who are new to the joint or SOF arena with an opportunity to become more comfortable with those environments before they actually arrive in their new assignment. That also provides more immediate value upon arrival, particularly in our case, if they’re deploying into theater.
Pursell: The SOCJFCOM training represents just one of the courses USJFCOM’s various commands and directorates have developed for providing warfighters around the globe with an enhanced training capability full of courseware to better prepare them for theater.
Mark Willmann, the knowledge distribution chief at USJFCOM’s JKDDC Joint Management Office explained that there’s more to it than just courses.
Willmann: [JKO is] more than just courses. We run courses on the Learning Management System but we also run communities of interest with the portal and it’s really one big sweep. We consider it one big system. You can hang documents up there, you can thread discussions, collaborate.
Pursell: Willmann said once users log onto JKO, they have access to a number of training resources, including interactive courseware, handbooks, slide presentations of academic and functional training, joint force employment briefing modules, and joint training videos.
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