ARA Develops CBRN Defense Awareness Blended Learning Course for Air Force
Panama City, FL (PRWEB) September 27, 2013 -- Terrorist organizations and nations hostile to U.S. interests persist in their efforts to acquire Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) or develop their own capabilities to produce and deliver these weapons. If warfighters ever face WMDs on the battlefield, they must be prepared to recognize the threat and act decisively to protect themselves and continue mission accomplishment.
To ensure preparedness of Air Force personnel to “continue the fight” in a WMD environment, the Air Force turned to ARA’s team of CBRN and Instructional Systems Design experts to develop a comprehensive training course. ARA’s Training Solutions Super Group (TSSG) recently completed the Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Defense Awareness Course for the U.S. Air Force Emergency Management Program managed by the Air Force Civil Engineer Center. The course is part of a blended learning package consisting of web-based training (knowledge-centric) followed by instructor-led, hands-on demonstration performance tasks using the CBRN Survival Skills Instructor Guide, also developed by ARA subject matter experts.
Expeditionary Airmen throughout the Air Force, to include more than 600,000 Active Duty, Air National Guard, AF Reserve and Air Force Civilians, are trained to operate in a CBRN environment anywhere in the world.
“This course ensures Air Force men and women worldwide will feel confident in their ability to identify CBRN threats, understand how to mitigate, respond and recover from those threats and wear their IPE properly,” said Sam Hazzard, Air Force Emergency Management Training Program Manager.
More than 3,000 personnel have currently completed the CBRN Defense Awareness training course. The client is extremely pleased with the design, content, functionality and especially its acceptance throughout the Air Force. A few recent user survey comments included: “Excellent course. Much improved over previous versions”; “Great way to expose the content, I wish all CBTs could be like this”; and “Absolutely nothing could have been done to improve the course. This course is perfect. Absolutely riveting.”
This training, developed by ARA’s CBRN Subject Matter Experts, Instructional Systems Designers and Media/Graphic Developers, is delivered using blended learning to standardize education and training objectives. Blended learning consists of two distinct parts: individual knowledge-based objectives presented in web-based multimedia format and localized performance-based objectives presented in instructor-led/evaluated classrooms or in the field.
The web-based format allows for academic self-paced learning and provides students standardized knowledge about the subject and increased access to course materials. Multimedia technologies are used in web-based training to deliver consistent, up-to-date individual knowledge based objectives. Instructor-led classrooms allow the presentation of procedures to be tailored to mission and threat, with hands-on evaluation of a student's ability to perform applicable tasks.
ARA’s Training Solutions Super Group is located within ARA’s Engineering & Science Division, in Panama City, Florida. To learn more, contact Larry Hull, at lhull(at)ara(dot)com or 850-914-3188.
Neal Anderson, Applied Research Associates, http://www.ara.com, +1 (505) 214-8276, [email protected]
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