The Aircrew Coordination Training Enhancement program is a continuation of the US Army Research Institute (ARI) priority to promote applied research and development (R&D) of the Army Aircrew Coordination Training (ACT) program. The goal of the ACT Enhancement effort is to provide a web-delivered, interactive aircrew coordination training system that provides Army aircrews worldwide with the knowledge and skill-sets needed to increase flight safety and mission effectiveness in daily operations. The research plan consists of three major phases - upgrade and sustain the existing ACT program, refresh and maintain the upgraded ACT program, and deploy advanced ACT applications.

This paper describes objectives and outcomes of ongoing high performance team training system R&D under the guidance of ARI. The prototype products from the first phase of research include two interactive multimedia courses of instruction with supporting training materials. Development of courseware web application components and production of graphics are achieved with a suite of Macromedia Flash and Dreamweaver UltraDev authoring tools. The Aircrew Course and Instructor Course include a fully integrated Data Management System that tracks student demographics, provides graphic feedback displays during evaluation exercises, and facilitates electronic course critiques. User testing and validation results indicate high levels of acceptance for both the training and performance evaluation components. Initial testing of the prototype courseware on the Army's distance learning suite supports both the web-based and instructor facilitated delivery strategies for Army-wide implementation. The ACT event-driven scenarios serve as model constructs for integration of ACT into advanced aircraft simulators and multiple aircraft training exercises supported by distributed interactive simulation. Ongoing research activities include developing web-based training support packages and institutional training to support Flight School XXI. Training effectiveness results have led the Army to initiate research into applying the ACTE courseware design and delivery model to other than aviation systems.