Space-Age Training Offered To Commercial Industries

At present, SpaceLab training programs use manuals, briefings, high-fidelity simulators, and flight simulations. Trainees must travel to a training site where they learn to operate in-flight experiments aboard the Space Shuttle. Personnel who will remain on the ground in support of those in space also are trained in this manner. The training program requires an average of two years to prepare and conduct. It requires the participation of instructors and trainees located around the world.

Looking ahead at accelerated launch schedules, increasing demands, reduced training time, budget reductions, and the rising costs for trainees from around the world to travel to training sites, NASA and TBE have been seeking a better way to train space operations teams.

Interactive Multimedia Training provides a solution. It resolves these and other problems by merging the best communication techniques and technologies in one powerful, complete package. It reaches each trainee with the same information every time and allows trainees to set the pace at which the information is presented. Students use a computer “mouse” control or enter appropriate computer keyboard commands as they proceed through the training program. Students may repeat various portions of the training program as many times as necessary to gain a complete understanding. When the course is completed, students are provided with immediate feedback to evaluate their performance.

Interactive Multimedia Training stimulates the senses with color, motion, sound, and touch to increase comprehension and maximize the effectiveness of available learning time. The course content is easily customized and updated on CD ROM disks. The updated materials can then be sent to trainees who may proceed through the new material at their convenience.

TBE developed its pathfinder course to train NASA personnel who were involved in operating the crystal growth furnace to be flown on the second United States Microgravity Laboratory (USML-2) SpaceLab mission. The new approach trains operations personnel in how to operate the furnace’s hardware and software systems, science, and operations procedures. It also reviews “lessons learned” from previous missions. This has been a successful “proof of concept” in establishing the value of Interactive Multimedia Training as an effective, efficient training tool.

After TBE developed this new training concept, the firm became aware of a need existing in the commercial market for quality training on specialized systems at a reasonable price. TBE combined its expertise in training with its ability to package interactive multimedia courses, thus enabling it to offer industry a method of qualifying and certifying new employees and re-certifying experienced workers.

A major Huntsville manufacturer asked TBE to develop an interactive training program for its own employees. TBE developed training courses to teach newly hired workers the proper method of performing their jobs, emphasizing the proper use of safety equipment and explaining how the worker’s job is integrated into the overall production of the product and operation of the industry. In addition, the company has been provided with a means of testing new workers to ensure they are qualified to operate expensive equipment and aware of proper safety precautions to prevent injury to themselves and damage to the equipment or the firm’s products. The employees also are shown various types of problems encountered in manufacturing the product and the proper way of correcting them.

The finished program benefits the firm’s employees by providing them with a means of improving their skills, thereby enhancing their opportunities for promotion and higher wages.

Additionally, managers have found the program offers a new way of upgrading veteran employees’ skills as new equipment is introduced or improved manufacturing methods are introduced.

Local employers are finding that fully trained and certified workers ensure them of a maximum flow of quality products without bottlenecks caused by inexperienced workers. Better quality controls ensure the number of rejected parts are substantially reduced. Both factors contribute to increased production and lower costs for the manufacturer.

For more information on the new training method, call 1-800-USA-NASA.