By Jeff Harrison-Turner, Managing Director, OP & S

Close Move

As a long time premier supplier to the UK armed forces (& some overseas), OP&S has established itself as a provider of both quality bespoke e-learning solutions as well as many 'best of breed' authoring and design tools.

Of the many outstanding software tools on offer from OP&S (Quest, Designers Edge, QDL), Course Information Builder (CIB) stands out not least because it was designed from the ground up to meet a military requirement.

Originally created around JSP requirements, CIB currently meets most of the existing DSAT standards and is expected to meet all of these by Q3/4 2005.

Built as a modular system CIB currently comprises CIB_TNA,CIB_SCALAR,CIB_DESIGNER and CIB_SBUILDER with additional modules – CIB_LPLANNER and CIB_SBOARD expected by Q1 2006

The CIB Scalar

With an increasing requirement to provide standardisation in design and documentation across all branches of the military, CIB allows subject matter experts, designers, lesson planners and trainers to work from a common platform and most importantly, allow that data to be shared intelligently.

With provision for everything from initial sponsor requirements to automated distribution lists to evaluation – CIB is proving to be a powerful and flexible tool in the creation of new training materials.

Standardisation brings lots of benefits to both the individual user and the MOD as a whole. Users report like for like savings in time and effort of up to 70% over traditional design methods.

This translates to significant cost savings or productivity gains at the initial design stage; but here is where CIB really comes into its own - although CIB promotes a standard approach to data import the output reports can be customised to suit the individual service without compromising data integrity.

This means courses produced in CIB can be easily shared across branches of the military quickly and easily thereby eliminating costly re-working or worse, replication.

CIB_TNA

Training Needs/Task Analysis using scalar approach to design. Top down – Bottom up configuration. One to one and One to many facilities. Incorporates self determined DIF analysis etc.

CIB_SCALAR

Standard Training Objective, Enabling Objective and Key Learning Point design. Incorporates true red-lining and full search capabilities.

CIB_DESIGNER

The heart of the system taking TO/EO/KLP’s and allowing the designer to add resources, media, instructors etc. Place accurate timings and costs against each option to produce standard reports.

CIB_SBUILDER

Syllabus Builder allows designers to construct modular lessons grouped into discrete units ready for input to scheduling systems.

CIB_LPLANNER

Coming soon, scheduling modules to work directly with your output from CIB_SBUILDER

CIB_SBOARD

Planned for early 2006, CIB_SBOARD will provide visual story board facilities to enable the designer to produce enhanced training materials or directly output to e-learning format.

CIB is available from OP&S who can be contacted on 08700 754 907 (+44 116 238 6880) or at www.ops.ltd.uk

Author Information - Jeff Harrison-Turner

Managing Director

Unlike many in the e-learning industry, Jeff Harrison-Turner did not start out in training.

Having worked successfully in industry for a number of years designing and developing new products, running support centres, providing sales backup and so on, he finally formed his own company, OP&S.

It was during this early period that he came to a crossroad marked ‘Training’.

Always passionate about quality and service, OP&S’ requirements for training simply could not be met by the rather bewildering choice on offer. None of which seemed to deliver anything of real quality.

Choosing to do it himself, Jeff undertook a variety of courses in Instructional design, Train the trainer and so on in as much to learn about how not to do it as to gain insight into the fundamentals. The consequence was he became hooked on training / e-learning and convinced he could offer something better, something substantial and something that delivered.

The rest is history. Now the MD of OP&S and chairman of the AdVantage group, Jeff heads one of the most successful e-learning companies in the UK.

OP&S can be contacted on 08700 754 907 or email Jeff Harrison-Turner at jeff@ops.ltd.uk

Bespoke e-learning solutions.

Author Information - Jeff Harrison-Turner