With budget constraints hampering their ability to travel, ASTi customers are taking advantage of a new and more economical way to learn how to use ASTi solutions. Launched June 10, 2014, ASTi's virtual classroom training program has already proven beneficial to 17 customers across the U.S. and abroad, with additional customer training sessions to be conducted in 2015.
The training employs web-based video-audio conferencing, text chat, white-boarding, and screen and document sharing to link ASTi instructors with students. To gain hands-on experience, students work with the latest Voisus® software hosted "in the cloud."
The ASTi virtual classroom training program was introduced in June by conducting a Voisus networked voice communications course for staff at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord Mission Training Complex (MTC) and the U.S. Army Program Executive Office of Simulation, Training and Instrumentation (PEOSTRI). An application engineer at ASTi's training center in Herndon, VA, used Direct Connect Online® (DCO), the DOD's enterprise collaboration tool, to conduct the training course over the Unclassified but Sensitive Internet Protocol Router Network (NIPRNet) for staff located in Tacoma, WA and Orlando, FL.
Since this inaugural event, the virtual classroom training was conducted for U.S. Army customers at Ft. Wainwright and Ft. Richardson, AK; Ft. Drum, NY; Ft. Riley, KS; Ft. Stewart, GA; Ft. Campbell, KY; Ft. Hood and Ft. Bliss, TX. Training was also delivered to MTCs at Schofield Barracks, HI; Ft. Polk, LA; Ft. Knox, KY; Ft. Bragg, NC; and the U.S. Army Garrison (USAG) Sagami Depot in Japan. At press time, USAG Red Cloud (Camp Casey) in the Republic of Korea, the Joint Multinational Simulation Center (JMSC) in Grafenwoehr, and USAG Hohenfels (both in Germany) were scheduled to receive training services before the end of the year.
In addition to virtual classrooms, ASTi conducts training at the company's headquarters in Herndon, and at customer sites around the world.