Tinker Air Force Base Technical Online Training System Development

Increased Internet connection speeds and new web development tools have greatly improved the possibilities for interactive online training. This paper discusses an online learning system (www.tinker.ou.edu) that has been developed and implemented for Tinker Air Force Base to help instruct base personnel in both environmental management and C135 aircraft maintenance. With this training available on the web, thousands of base personnel are able to take the required courses simultaneously anywhere and at anytime. The developed system includes both website management tools and over 50 lessons that cover 50 hours of training. Various unique features are incorporated into this web-based training program, such as a flexible database management system (DBMS), user tracking and 3D simulation. This paper also presents the server system that was developed to manage the lessons and the multimedia technologies used to construct the training content. The server uses SQL Server Database and Active Server Pages to manage all courses, lessons and user information. 3D and 2D simulations, video, animation, narration, text and graphics are integrated in the training system to present the training content with the support of multimedia technologies, such as Director and Flash.