Creating the International Training Management Web Site: A Corporate University Portal That Shares Best Practices

DISAM Journal, Spring, 2001 by Charles E. Collins

The Army CGSC does have concerns about all of their materials being available on the open internet and is considering putting their course materials on an intranet that would only be available via limited .MIL access. CGSC is considering using Army Knowledge Online as the system to provide access from outside the CGSC installation. DLIELC has placed its web site on a commercial server and thus their web page carries an .ORG address, insuring easy access by all. DISAM has placed their web pages, including the ITM web page, on a .MIL server that is not behind a firewall. This is a correct statement, in that such an arrangement has been set up at Wright-Patterson AFB. Obviously there are significant access issues to be dealt with.

Is Internet Web Page Use Applicable to Other DISAM Instructional Areas and to Other Schools?

Once the ITM web page was actually ready for use, the value of the page both for in-house educational use and for use by managers in the field quickly became evident. Naturally, the idea of using a similar web page approach in providing information for other DISAM instructional areas became apparent. To that extent, the DISAM training faculty briefed other functional managers at DISAM on the establishment and use of a web site to host training materials for other security assistance functional areas such as international logistics, FMS case management, FMS financial management, etc. While the value of providing instruction and reference information via the internet was quickly recognized, the biggest drawback was the thought that these other functional experts would also have to learn to use MS Frontpage and actually run a web page. This appeared to be a daunting task and review of it is still underway as this article is being published. Actually, within the DISAM Overseas course, the regional seminar directo rs had already been providing their instructional materials via CD-Rom disk. Providing these materials via the internet is simply a natural extension of this.

During the previously mentioned visit to Ft Leavenworth Kansas it was found that the Army Command and General Staff College has now adopted use of the internet as the total repository of all instructional materials. This is done for all students, U.S. and international alike. Inquiries at other military schools have revealed similar interest in providing instructional materials via the internet. The Air Force Institute of Technology is perhaps typical, covering the entire range from providing only conventional hard copy, to providing electronic format on disk, to complete use of electronic format via the internet. When one considers the rapidly expanding use of the internet in so many distance learning applications in our civilian education community, there is little doubt that it is only a matter of time until use of an internet web site for educational information sharing purposes becomes the norm.

Is the ITM Web Page an Instrument of the DISAM Corporate University?

For those not familiar with the concept of the Corporate University, a quick search of the internet reveals a wealth of information on the subject. Obviously, this concept of what modern, successfully competitive industry training and education should be is very profound. It should be fairly safe to establish that DISAM must become the corporate university for the Security Cooperation community. It is also obvious from the literature that internet based education is an absolutely essential element of a successful corporate university. If DISAM is to keep pace and successfully evolve as that corporate university, computer based training and online education and training must proliferate.