Historically, the training time for shore-based courses provided at the Basic Enlisted Submarine School has been lengthy, and in recent years there has been a reduction in resources required to deliver this training. When sailors are engaged in shore-based training, they are not available on board the submarine to perform their duties. Also, data from the fleet indicated that much of the on-board training could be more effective (higher learning standards achieved) and efficient (less time required) than shore-based training. For these reasons, the U.S. Navy made a decision to provide more courses on board the submarine.

The U.S. Navy's Submarine On Board Training (SOBT) office manages the development and implementation of instructional courses and training products on behalf of the Submarine Force Type Commanders (COMSUBLANT and COMSUBPAC) for use on board submarine force commands. The shift from shore-based training to on-board training began about 10 years ago, and today, the SOBT office provides approximately 150 hours of Interactive Courseware (ICW), videotapes, printed workbooks, and computer-assisted instruction in the form of PowerPoint® slides. While the infusion of on-board training has been successful, it also created a management problem.

Short- and long-term management of the training requirements and course data was being tracked using many different non-standard processes, most with varying degrees of success. In early 1997, the Navy made a decision to develop a submarine force-wide tool to support the administration of training requirements and data. The tool is a Training Information Management System (TIMS).

TIMS provides information regarding training requirements (tied to training group), when the training will be conducted, the individuals who are required to attend the training, who leads and monitors the courses, the total number of training attendees, the length of the training, the media that makes up the training (both available and slated for delivery, such as emerging ICW programs), and the test data collected for training attendees. TIMS provides a system management function that allows a system administrator to update this information at any time.

TIMS is providing a flexibility that did not exist previously—most significantly, to allow training managers to automatically resequence training as schedules change. The instructors can also use TIMS to develop and edit tests from an automated question bank, view test data for each course, view and edit student data, and view question response data, all automatically.