DAU collaborates with local organizations to create two new continuous learning modules: Javits-Wagner-O'Day program. Cost as an Independent Variable - JWOD - CAIV - Distributed Learning - Defense Acquisition University

Program Manager, Jan-Feb, 2003 by Kelly Nieves

In the past year, DAU has worked with faculty and students from the graduate schools of education of two universities in the Washington, D.C. area: George Mason University (http://www.it.gse.gmu.edu/) and Towson University (http://wwwnew.towson.edu/coe/departments/istcprgram). These partnerships have proven successful in the design and development of engaging and informative online CL modules.

Javits-Wagner-O'Day (JWOD) Program

In 2002, DAU began working with the JWOD Program Office. Located in Arlington, Va., the JWOD Program is a public-private partnership administered by the Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled. An independent federal agency composed of 15 members--all appointed by the President--the Committee has designated two national nonprofit organizations to assist in the operation of the JWOD Program: National Industries for the Blind (NIB) and National Industries for the Severely Handicapped (NISH), serving people with a wide range of disabilities.

Over 14 million Americans live with severe disabilities, and the unemployment rate for that segment of the population is 70 percent. The JWOD Program helps people with disabilities who are unable to obtain or maintain employment on their own.

Michael Barclay, a contributing author for this article and training specialist at JWOD, spent six months assigned to the DAU Virtual Learning Center and worked closely with the faculty and staff on the JWOD module. Though his primary objective was to support DAU's efforts to encourage acquisition professionals to support the JWOD program, he also had time to engage and support other DL efforts. Barclay's work at DAU directly supported JWOD's mission to educate federal customers about their requirement to purchase products and services made available by nonprofit agencies across the country employing such individuals.

JWOD Module

To expedite dissemination of information on the JWOD program to acquisition professionals throughout the AT&L workforce, Barclay and the Center for e-Learning staff leveraged DAU's CLC Web site. To begin, they set a goal of creating an online JWOD module by August 2002. Given the demanding schedule and lack of available resources, they requested the assistance of a graduate intern for this project.

During the spring 2002 semester, Barclay and Nieves analyzed learning needs, target audience, and overall objectives for the module. By June 2002, they had designed the structure of the module and identified learning strategies. They also began designing the HTML template to be used in the prototype lesson of the module.

During the summer 2002 semester, a graduate intern was identified to work on the JWOD project. Sean Young of Towson University spent July and August working with the JWOD team at DAU. They redesigned the layout and navigation of the template for the module to make it more interactive and user-friendly Pages of content scripts were turned into storyboards that were evaluated by both DAU and JWOD staff. Graphics were carefully selected to support and enhance the learning experience of the end-user.