VA officials suspend development of e-training system to rework strategy

The Veterans Affairs Department is holding off on further development of a workforce e-training system until top officials meet early next year to rework the project so it can meet prescribed deadlines, department officials said.

VA personnel, some of whom have criticized the learning application, are still obtaining training through the system in the meantime.

The Learning Management System is one of 45 information technology projects the department suspended in July for being over budget or missing deadlines. By February 2010, VA's assistant secretary, chief information officer, and other office of information and technology leaders will meet with the learning system's project team to reassess the system's overall mission and its components, VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts said on Wednesday. Officials originally planned to meet in December, but officials moved the date because of scheduling conflicts.

"What was of concern was timeliness and timelines. If timing is off, that can be costly," Roberts said of the department's concerns about the project. "There will be some adjustments, but we don't know what those are until the team meets."

Information technology is integral to VA, sustaining everything from electronic medical records to dispensation of benefits. "Our leadership team is taking the time and the extra effort to make sure each IT project is looked at and taken care of as an individual initiative," Roberts said. VA is working on about 283 technology projects.

The changes will differ for each project but could include the replacement of the program manager, contractors and a portion of the government staff.

Meanwhile, department employees who helped develop the training system initially -- but have since left the project -- said the key problem with the application is that the contractor, the e-learning firm Plateau, has not configured the system to meet advanced standard specifications. The tool's lack of functionality disrupts compatibility with some Defense Department training systems, these employees said.

Several employees contend it is critical that VA's learning content work with Defense courseware because there is overlap in training between the two departments on subjects such as spotting signs of potential workplace violence in coworkers.

One VA worker said that based on his experiences and product test logs obtained by Nextgov, the system has not met contractual obligations to support courseware that conforms to newer editions of Sharable Content Object Reference Model 2004, a collection of standards and specifications for Web-based e-learning. Defense supports such standards and has done so for years.

In 2007, VA awarded the software development firm Plateau a contract worth more than $10 million to expand and speed up the development of the learning system. Plateau's application currently allows the department to offer and monitor congressionally mandated training in cybersecurity, sexual harassment policy and other topics.

Close to 300,000 VA employees use the training tool's 4,000-plus courses, and they have completed more than 6 million courses in 2009, according to Plateau's estimates.

Plateau, which has customers in every cabinet-level department, said the compatibility issue is minor and called the criticisms false. Less than 1 percent of courses use the advanced features that Plateau presently does not support, company officials said. One reason why the firm does not adhere to such specifications is because inconsistencies exist between the newer editions of the standard, Plateau officials said.

There is no requirement in the contract that VA courses must be compatible with Defense courses, they added.

The Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative, which Defense oversees, defines the testing criteria for federal learning management systems, such as VA's Plateau system. ADL outlines the certification requirements for SCORM, approves certification testing centers and publicly reports certification results.

According to ADL, certification is not a guarantee that a product has been tested for defects in functionality, nor is it a guarantee that the product's courseware is instructionally sound.

ADL's position is that vendors should migrate to the current release version, SCORM 2004 4th Edition, to take advantage of improvements and fixes for software bugs, ADL officials said on Wednesday. ADL records show that Plateau has not sought certification at the third or fourth edition levels. Twenty-seven learning management systems are certified for SCORM 2004 3rd Edition. The fourth edition was released on March 31. To date, no system is currently certified for the fourth edition.

Plateau's most recent certified product, called Plateau 5.8, was certified as conforming to SCORM 2004 2nd Edition through independent testing by the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Keyport in February 2006.

If VA is using Plateau 5.8, the second edition-conformant courseware should work on the system, ADL officials said. But If Plateau has changed its system since February 2006, second edition courseware may not work, they added.

Plateau officials on Wednesday said the company has released minor updates and patches that VA is using but has not made changes that would negatively affect SCORM courseware compatibility in any way.