Development Of An LCMS To Support Nuclear Security Training Program Management

Using a Systematic Approach to Training (SAT) to develop, manage and deliver standardized training materials for staff with nuclear security job functions can be a challenging process for many organizations. To apply SAT, organizations must accurately analyze, design, develop, evaluate, collaborate, and track developed training products for implementation to various target audiences. Furthermore, housing and managing shared training content adds another element of complexity. Independent assessments of nuclear security training programs have found that a systems approach helps alleviate risks associated with these challenges. A solution that is commonly suggested is the use of a Learning Content Management System (LCMS), which allows distributed curriculum development teams to manage training curricula in a collaborative environment. An LCMS offers additional benefits as well, including:•Alignment of competencies, tasks, objectives, and other reference data to the curriculum material.•Provision of a defensible mechanism for answering questions from auditing agencies by aligning curriculum end products to their source. •Support of modular-based curriculum by leveraging connections across the training catalog to allow materials to be tailored to the training need.•Promotion of common curricula across different technical areas to limit duplication of effort and harmonize messaging.•Increase of active collaboration across distributed curriculum development teams. •Direct linking of evaluation metrics and feedback to training curriculum. •Support for process improvements including being more responsive to branding changes, reducing level of effort to push final materials to training delivery systems.This presentation will illustrate the benefits of leveraging an LCMS solution for building training curriculum for nuclear security organizations with a focus on a case study of an LCMS being built for the U.S> Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of International Nuclear Security, leveraging an open-source Software as a Service architecture. This LCMS balances security requirements with flexibility in designing a user-friendly system for promoting standardization of curriculum and re-use of information. The objective of this project has been to implement a web-based system to manage an SAT development process, creating relationships across the curriculum catalog to increase program efficiency and sustainability.