NASA-LLIS-0971

Abstract

<strong>Description of Driving Event:</strong> <br>In the 1995-1996 timeframe the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) began development of a distance learning capability under the umbrella of the Professional Development Initiative (PDI). This distance learning capability eventually evolved from a Safety and Mission Assurance discipline system into the Site for Online Learning and Resources (SOLAR) (http://solar. msfc.nasa.gov), currently one of NASA's primary distance learning resources. The intent of the initial development effort was to design and implement a prototype system for the Safety and Mission Assurance discipline. Since one of the benefits of a web-based distance learning capability is the ability to provide training to a widely dispersed audience we chose to develop courses targeted to one of our most widely dispersed communities, NASA Safety and Mission Assurance in-plant representatives. (While the courses were targeted to NASA in-plant representatives many of the courses were also suitable for use by other communities outside of in-plant locations). <br>In 1997 after release of the prototype system for use, the development team embarked on an extensive roll out campaign that visited each of the NASA Centers, White Sands Test Facility and Headquarters. After each of these roll out visits we noted an increase in the number of system users and course completions. The data from this time period did demonstrate the capabilities of the prototype system and the ability to provide training to dispersed sites via the Internet. Over the time between 1996 and today (June 2001) the number of course completions has been tracked by the SOLAR system. The results show that there is a wide variation in the number of completions for different courses. For example between the time period of May 1996 to June 2001 the Receiving Inspection course has been completed 18 times. During the much shorter period of January 2000 to June 2001 the Headquarters ISO 9001 Quality System course has been completed 639 times. <br>This data raises the question, was the market for training adequately examined to identify which courses should have been developed? In this case the answer is probably not. While development of the Receiving Inspection class met several needs (capturing knowledge from technical experts that were leaving the Agency, helping demonstrate the web-based training technology, providing training to 18 students) it was developed at the same time the Agency was preparing to implement ISO 9000 across all of the Centers. There was also a need to provide ISO 9000 training to each of the Centers to assist in the implementation process. The number of course completions for Headquarters ISO 9001 Quality System course used in preparation for NASA Headquarters ISO 9001 implementation suggests that a much larger need could have been met by developing a Center specific ISO course rather than the Receiving Inspection course. More careful market selection of courses to be included in the SOLAR predecessor system would probably also have increased the number of users and system utilization earlier in the system's lifecycle. <br>One note concerning the above example: when the Receiving Inspection course was developed it is unlikely that the people who needed to provide Center specific ISO 9000 training would have risked using an unproven web-based training capability to meet their urgent needs. Since Headquarters was one of the later activities to implement ISO 9001, they were able to use what became the proven technology of SOLAR to meet some of their training needs.