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| Joint Force Headquarters Individual Augmentation Personnel (JF HQ IAP) course students Navy Lt. Autumn L. Daniel, Navy Lt. Jeffrey W. Kremer and Air Force Capt. Brendan B. Finnegan, learn about common problems associated with joint task force operations during the first day of the final in-residence JF HQ IAP. The JF HQ IAP will migrate to an online construct with the upcoming role out of the Joint Knowledge Development and Distribution Capability’s (JKDDC) enhanced Joint Knowledge Online (JKO) portal scheduled for April 30. (Click on this official photo by Army Spc. Andrew Orillion for a high quality version.) |
Joint Individual Augmentee Training Program goes online
U.S. Joint Forces Command’s Joint Warfighting Center hosts the last in-residence Joint Force Headquarters Individual Augmentation Personnel course.
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By Army Spc. Andrew Orillion
USJFCOM Public Affairs
(SUFFOLK, Va. - April 18, 2007) -- U.S. Joint Forces Command's Joint Warfighting Center (JWFC) hosted the last in-residence Joint Force Headquarters Individual Augmentation Personnel course here this week.
The center's Joint Training Group (JTG) closed out the four-day program, which will move online in conjunction with the upcoming launch of the Joint Knowledge Development and Distribution Capability's (JKDDC) enhanced Joint Knowledge Online (JKO) portal at the end of this month.
The course began in October 2005 as a way to prepare active duty and reserve military personnel assigned to deploy as individual augmentees in support of joint task forces in U.S. Central Command's area of responsibility.
The JTG's Scott Shephard explained that the command always intended to migrate the four-day course to an online construct.
"Even as it (the course) was stood up, our guidance was to convert it to an online course when it could be done effectively," Shephard said. "The challenge was that we didn't have all the tools in place to fully execute it online."
Shephard said the course required online tools to facilitate interactivity with subject matter experts, forums, and guided discussions. He said the move to an online course wasn't feasible until JKDDC started preparing to introduce the JKO portal.
"The infrastructure and knowledge management expertise that JKDDC could provide were the main reasons that we decided, about four months ago, that the time was right to look at this conversion," said Shephard.
Shephard said the staff needed to make sure the course stayed effective and didn't simply substitute a series of presentations. Where the in-residence course had seminars and live briefings, the online program will have interactive courseware, recorded briefings, and interactive forums.
"We will replicate the appropriate portions of the course and provide extended training opportunities not available in the residence course," said Shephard.
Shephard said the online course will still take roughly four days to complete and include tests to help ensure augmentees achieve the learning objectives. The tests will be just one component of student evaluation.
"The subject matter experts for each of the topic areas will be able to assess how the trainees are achieving the learning objectives," said Shephard. "So we're relying heavily on those reserve component subject matter experts, almost all of whom have been over in theater so they know how they operate."
Shephard said another key to evaluating the effectiveness of the course will be through surveys sent to course graduates after they have been in theater 30 to 60 days. Asking augmentees how well the course prepared them for their duties after they have begun to use their training is more meaningful than asking at the end of the course.
Shephard said that in addition to saving on both travel time and money, the online course will add the benefit of increased flexibility. Students will eventually be able to take different threads, and tailor the training for their own needs.
"If you have a residence course where everybody is sitting there in the classroom, you are limited in how much you can tailor the training for individual knowledge levels," said Shephard. "By bringing the course online we are enabling the students to better adapt the training to their needs."
He said another advantage of the online course is the opportunity to use the JKO portal to build an online community in which deployed augmentees and students will stay in contact with each other. This will help keep the online forums and discussion threads up-to-date and relevant.
"What we want to do is get folks to make this, if not quite a lifelong effort, at least more than just a four day class of interaction," said Shephard.
Despite the advantages, Shephard said that the online course does have some limitations, chiefly, the lack of a practical application to tie all the training together. Shephard added that solutions to this problem, through gaming technology and modeling and simulation, are being researched.
The biggest impact of the switch to an online course will be on the augmentees, 24 of whom attended the last residence course. One of the attendees, Air Force Lt. Col. Mary Gould, welcomed the switch to an online course.
"If it goes online more people will have access to the information because most units cannot afford the TDY [temporary duty travel]," said Gould. "As a result there will be more people going into the desert that will be aware of basic joint doctrine and planning,"
Shephard shared Gould's outlook for the possibilities that the online course will offer.
"There are a lot of variables but it certainly has the potential to be even more effective, than the in-residence course," said Shephard.
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