Authoring Instructional Materials (AIM) is a management system consisting of a set of commercial and government

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

used by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

for the development and design of training curricula and instructional content. First proposed in the 1970s, AIM was designed to maximize the efficiency of the curriculum development process through the use of computer-based automation tools. Currently, over 300,000 hours of the Navy's instructional materials exist using the AIM system. AIM comprises the toolsets AIM I and AIM II, which were developed for the Personal Performance Profile approach and the Task Based approach respectively. AIM II stores training content on a SQL server, serving as a

relational database A relational database is a (most commonly digital) database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970. A system used to maintain relational databases is a relational database management system (RDBMS). Many relatio ...

for managing the relationships between instructional material elements.

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and

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are available as content outputs. Newer versions of AIM include the Content Planning Module (CPM) and Learning Object (LO) Module. The modules incorporate data from the Job Duty Task Analysis (JDTA) process, which aids the revision and creation of training programs. The latest version of the system is AIM 5.0.

History

The idea of AIM was first proposed in the 1970s, and development of the system began in the 1980s. In the 1980s, AIM was introduced as an Operational Requirement by the Chief of Naval Education and Training (CNET) and initial R&D was performed by the

Navy Personnel Research, Studies, and Technology The Bureau of Naval Personnel (BUPERS) in the United States Department of the Navy is similar to the human resources department of a corporation. The bureau provides administrative leadership and policy planning for the Office of the Chief of Nava ...

(NPRST) division. The toolsets AIM I and AIM II were first released between 1987 and 1997. An updated version of AIM, integrating the new CPM and LO modules, was developed between 2006 and 2012. According to the

Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division The Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD) is an Echelon IV command of the United States Navy, reporting to the Commander, Naval Air Warfare Center - Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. NAWCTSD is lo ...

(NAWCTSD), AIM as a system for streamlining curriculum development was able to reduce the "number of hours spent for development of new training materials by as much as 25% and for maintenance of existing materials by as much as 50%." The system is currently managed by NAWCTSD, while development and primary support for AIM is provided by the computer software firm Carley Corporation

References

External links

Authoring Instructional Materials (AIM) main websiteAuthoring Instructional Materials (AIM)
on the

website {{US Navy navbox United States Navy schools and training Educational software