Army wants unified system to manage exams, surveys
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The Army is looking to automate the management of thousands of online exams and surveys it uses for training.
The Army is looking for existing commercial software to automate the management of the thousands of online exams and surveys it uses for training across the department.
The Army also wants to improve the process of exam and survey development, it said, which is currently being handled by more than 70 different Army organizations, each of which may be using its own secure domain for development, testing and storage of contents.
In a request for information, the Army said it uses Web-based applications for distributed learning, which automate a range of learning, training and course support tasks, including scheduling, registration, training administration, testing and recordkeeping. To handle all the requirements, Army now wants to acquire an off-the-shelf application to administer all online exams and surveys using one centralized Web-based system integrated with existing training management systems.
The system is being dubbed the Army Exam and Survey Application, or AESA.
Students would use the AESA to take online exams and surveys related to different training programs. Trainers would use the application to import individual question and answer combinations from other training systems or to create and store exams directly through a user interface, said the Army.
Instructors could use AESA to remotely administer exams and surveys to students in either synchronous or asynchronous modes. Overall, the Army said the AESA software would “close a large existing capability gap in online exam training management at the enterprise level.”
Key requirements for AESA include:
- Use of an online enterprise approach to manage the lifecycle of exam content, including content development, testing, exam updating, student access and completion of exams.
- Operation as a standalone or in combination with other business systems using data provided by them or provided to them.
- Near-real-time interfaces or data exchange with other Army training systems.
- Exchange user identity, user authentication, learning object identity and related data.
- Web accessibility for all users with no client-side plug-ins or applets required.
- Operation in the dot com and dot mil networks.