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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.
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By Robert Pursell
USJFCOM Public Affairs
(SUFFOLK, Va. - March 13, 2008) -- 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.
"You log onto their website and they have many courses and [the Level I course] is up there," said SOCJFCOM's Air Force Lt. Col. Teri Strain.
"It gets them started in three areas," said Strain. "If they don't know about special operations, it'll tell them about that. If they've never worked joint before, it'll tell them about other services. Finally, it teaches them about some of the different duties that their other team members hold."
Rick MacDougall, SOCJFCOM's deputy director of training, explained SOCJFCOM's greatest advantage of using JKO.
"What SOCJFCOM really likes about using JKO is it enables us to reach a more global audience for our 'SOF 101' course," he said. "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."
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.
According to recent statistics compiled by the JKDDC Joint Management Office, which developed JKO, the most accessed courses were a survival, evasion, resistance, and escape (SERE) code of conduct course, a U.S. Forces Korea suite containing multiple cultural awareness courses, and a course based on how to combat human trafficking.
Mark Willmann, the knowledge distribution chief at USJFCOM's JKDDC Joint Management Office explained that there's more to it than just courses.
"[JKO is] more than just courses," he said. "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."
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.
JKO also plugs into other sources of learning. Willmann said users can find links to numerous online reference resources, including the Joint Electronic Library. It also supports distributed learning through links to numerous academic institutions and service distributed learning portals, including the National Defense University and the Joint Forces Staff College.
JKO services are available on both the unclassified and classified DoD networks as well as the Internet. The Internet sub-site allows users from all over the world to have access provided they have a username and password provided by JKDDC Joint Management Office.
According to the JKDDC Joint Management Office, just over 37,000 courses have been completed since JKO became available. That's an average of about 1000 course completions per week.
"It astonishes me the number of folks that have been coming in," said Willman.
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