Education and demonstration – Occupation
Reexamination Certificate
2001-02-07
2003-07-08
Cheng, Joe H. (Department: 3713)
Education and demonstration
Occupation
C434S350000, C434S362000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06589055
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the field of interactive electronic methods and systems for the training and certification of employees. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods and systems for interactive computer-aided training and certification that utilize multi-media content to provide instruction to and obtain feedback from a plurality of trainees via a computer network.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Companies and organizations in various industries are required, whether it be by law or by sound business practice, to provide training on a regular basis to their employees regarding safe, efficient, or otherwise necessary procedures for performing their job tasks. In particular, local and federal government agencies often require employers in certain fields to not only provide particular types of periodic training to employees who perform certain tasks, but also require those employers to certify on a regular basis that each such employee has received the training and has demonstrated a minimum understanding of the training materials. For example, the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) requires airlines and/or airports to provide periodic safety and security procedures training to employees that perform certain tasks (e.g., airport operations personnel, airline ramp workers, fuel truck operators, etc.) to help ensure that federal aviation protocols are followed. Additionally, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) requires employers in certain high risk industries (such as the construction and chemical manufacturing industries) to regularly certify that employees in various positions have the requisite understanding of any applicable safety regulations. Similarly, there are various state and local jurisdictions that impose like requirements upon various other occupational fields.
Traditionally, companies and organizations provided such occupation specific training and certification functions to their employees by sponsoring classroom-like instruction for their employees. In such cases, a professional instructor is hired to teach trainees (or employees who are seeking periodic re-certification) the required site-specific or task-specific subject matter in a traditional classroom environment. At the end of the “class,” the trainees typically are administered a test to judge whether they had mastered the necessary minimum materials required for certification or job approval.
In the art of employee training and certification, a variety of approaches have been taken to remove the need for live instructors and thus automate the training of employee personnel in the work environment. A common approach comprises using one or more books to introduce training material to a trainee, after which the trainee is subjected to a certification test requiring he or she to answer multiple-choice questions about the material. Often, after the certification test is over, a page reference is provided for the reader to review his answer, whether correct or incorrect. If correct, he or she then is instructed to continue with more new material. If incorrect, reference is made to an explanation and the reader is asked to again select the correct answer to the multiple choice question.
Using such take home book classes provides added flexibility in that employees can take training classes and receive certifications as needed. Additionally, self-taught classes eliminate the need to hire and coordinate class attendance with skilled instructors. However, such self-taught book classes suffer the significant disadvantage that trainees are deprived beneficial interaction during the training process. Additionally, book courses also suffer from an inability to clearly convey certain subject matter, such as applications of the material to real-life situations often encountered on the job.
Currently, various systems and methods for computer-aided training and certification are also known. While a great deal of interest has arisen in this field recently due to the emergence of computers into everyday life, and especially into the workplace and classroom, an optimal computer-aided training and certification solution still has not been provided. Computer delivered training systems can take advantage of interactive logic and multi-media content, such as audio or video clips, to provide a better alternative than book-based training, but the current utilized approaches have significant drawbacks that relegate computer-based automated training to the status of an unacceptable alternative for traditional classroom instruction.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,609,358 issued to Sangster et al. teaches a computer system for providing video-based training to trainees. The system uses a video monitor and a network of computers to instruct a plurality of trainees at a given time by accessing and displaying appropriate video content stored on a video disk. The patent alleges that its system is useful in providing training to employees at their work sites and in allowing multiple trainees to interact with one another as they would during related real-life situations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,360,345 issued to Hon teaches a system in which a computer is used to monitor physical actions performed by a trainee and then provide appropriate feedback, in the form of audio or video clips, to the trainee. The audio/video clips contain instruction relating to the correct manner of performing a given task that the trainee is attempting to master. In response to the trainee's performance on the test actions, the system then selects and displays audio and/or video clips that are expected to further explain skills that the tested trainee has not sufficiently mastered.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,616,033 issued to Kerwin discloses a computer-aided training system that allows administrators to select instructional materials, in the form of generalized hypothetical situations and simulations, that are applicable to a given trainee's particular type of job.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,149,438, to Richard et al., discloses a network system for computer aided instruction wherein a network of computers provide instruction to students by accessing a central library of content stored on a remote mainframe server. Such mainframe systems traditionally run special courseware programs on the students' remote workstations to access information from the server and display the information on the device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,820,167 issued to Nobles et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,162,060 issued to Richard et al. disclose distributed computer systems for providing learning materials to students, testing students, and managing test scores. In both systems, a plurality of computing devices administer tests to the students and then transfer test scores to a central location for storage and administration by proper officials.
Although the foregoing disclosures present a variety of approaches for presenting automated training materials to employees and then checking their responses, they do not provide sufficient opportunity for a trainee to interact with instructional material customized to provide both task-specific and site-specific training information relating to the trainee's job type and work site, respectively. Similarly, the prior approaches have not provided a system that adequately provides training to employees and tracks and manages certification results over both local networks and over distributed networks such as the Internet.
Thus, there remains a need in the art for an improved system and method for computer-aided training and certification that overcomes the above-described and other disadvantages inherent in the prior art.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention is an improvement over the prior art systems and methods for the training and certification of employees for work environments that require both task-specific and site-specific training.
In light of the above-described and other disadvantages inherent in the prior art, it is an object of the present invention to provide a syst
Martin James
Osborne Patrick J.
American Association of Airport Executives
Cheng Joe H.
Christman Kathleen
Hogan & Hartson LLP
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