Background
An affiliate of the U.S. military was tasked with developing advanced medical training and education for warfighters. The project required developing a learning database system featuring personalized training, tracking, and analysis. The results would yield a customized training program for healthcare providers throughout the continuum of care within the military. The proposed system would include four modules: training aids, learner history, data analytics, and recommendations.
Solution
Working with a sister agency within the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)—the Department of Commerce’s network of agencies that help small and medium-sized manufacturers grow and thrive—DVIRC undertook a secondary and primary research effort to understand the landscape of platforms for both medical and non-medical training within the Department of Defense. The project entailed twin goals. The first was to identify existing and developing platforms within the DoD, and to benchmark them against the four modules listed above. The second was to investigate the benefits of the proposed system and identify any features that did not meet DoD needs.
DVIRC explored the research parameters, conducted primary and secondary research on existing and developing systems, and identified gaps in programs through the creation of a benchmark comparison of the proposed system.
Results
DVIRC presented a full set of benchmark data in MS Excel format. The file included both systems with a medical focus and platforms with broader training coverage.
DVIRC also identified several systems that included each of the four modules, however, no overarching system, in existence or in development, matched the required level of sophistication for data analytics and recommendations.
DVIRC and the client reached agreement that the proposed level of personalization for individual learners would be a useful resource, if subjective feedback from mentors and senior personnel could be incorporated in the training needs assessments.