COMET MODULE WINS INVISION MULTIMEDIA AWARD

UCAR's Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education, 
and Training (COMET) recently earned a prestigious national award for 
one of its multimedia training modules.  COMET earned a bronze 
medal in the technical training category of the 1994 Invision 
Multimedia Awards, sponsored by NewMedia magazine.  The 
placement was the second highest in COMET's category.

"It's really nice to know that people outside the meteorological 
community appreciate what we're doing," says Wendy Abshire, a 
COMET meteorologist and one of the team that developed the winning 
module, Boundary Detection and Convection Initiation.  Wendy 
accepted the award on behalf of COMET at a multimedia conference 
that drew over 100,000 people to Atlanta, Georgia, on 23 May.

Some of the other people involved in creating the winning module 
include Brian Heckman, manager of COMET's Distance Learning 
Program and project leader for the module; subject matter experts Jim 
Purdom (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or 
NOAA) and Jim Wilson (Atmospheric Technology Division); 
contributing science adviser Larry Dunn (National Weather Service, or 
NWS); meteorologist John Weaver (NOAA); and instructional 
designers Carl Casey and Sherwood Wang (George Mason University) 
and Brent Wilson (University of Colorado at Denver).  The module 
was programmed by Ed Dawson (Poseidon Systems) and John Murphy 
(COMET), and the U.S. Air Force Academy was instrumental in its 
production.
	
COMET began developing interactive, multimedia training modules 
on laser disc in 1991.  (Following a flurry of home use in the late 1970s, 
laser discs remain popular as a convenient way to store large amounts 
of audio and video data in an interactive format.). Six modules have 
been completed:  Workshop on Doppler Radar Interpretation, 
Boundary Detection and Convection Initiation, Heavy Precipitation 
and Flash Flooding, The Forecast Process, Numerical Weather 
Prediction, and Marine Meteorology.  Over a dozen more are in 
production or planning stages.  Funded by the NWS, Air Weather 
Service, and Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, the 
modules have proven efficient and effective in training forecasters on 
special topics that their formal schooling might not have treated in 
depth.

Each module contains 4 to 12 hours of instruction that can be digested 
in 20- to 40-minute segments at the learner's home office.  About 600 
copies of a module, each containing one to four laser disks, go to the 
U.S. government for eventual use by about 8,000 forecasters.  Another 
100 copies are being sold to other weather services and to universities 
by Weather Information Technologies, Inc.  

The winning module is designed to guide forecasters in using Doppler 
radar data and other information to recognize where and when small-
scale zones of converging wind may produce thunderstorms.  It allows 
the user to issue sample forecasts, with the feedback provided via text, 
graphics, and video of Jim Wilson and Jim Purdom.

The first three COMET modules earned high marks by users in an 
evaluation last year, proving more effective than any previous on-site 
training program.  Among the comments:  "The concept is fun. . . .  It's 
a great training aid," and "These are light years ahead of the other 
things we've had."

"This is quite an accomplishment for our Distance Learning Program," 
says COMET director Tim Spangler, "because it represents recognition 
from outside of the meteorological community and validates our role 
as innovators in the field of education and training.  The vision behind 
the Distance Learning Program is that of Brian Heckman, who 
conceived of this approach to education and training in meteorology 
and insisted that it be done with education professionals."  --BH

THE MAKING OF A MODULE:  INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNERS AT WORK

Gayle Munson is one of COMET's five instructional designers, the 
people who bring meteorological concepts into the realm of computer-
based learning.  After several years of public school teaching and 
exposure to the use of technology in education, Gayle realized the 
powerful instructional and motivational potential of multimedia.  She 
began a graduate degree in educational technology at the University of 
Northern Colorado and, not long afterward, came to COMET.  "It's 
vitally important," says Gayle, "to incorporate sound learning theory, 
developmental and design procedures, and instructional practices 
when human performance is being affected.  We're making every 
attempt to create a solid foundation for the modules based on leading 
research in the field."

In the past year or two, Gayle's main task has been readying a series of 
three modules on marine meteorology.  The NWS, U.S. Navy, and 
other agencies are charged with predicting waves, offshore winds, 
storms, and other marine phenomena.  But sometimes the responsible 
staff have not been trained explicitly, or recently, to do so.  The creation 
of each COMET module begins with analysis of specific training needs 
for agency staff; for example, marine forecasters need to make timely, 
accurate forecasts for an environment with complex, interacting forces 
and limited data.  Designers work closely on each module with a team 
of experts, including two or three subject experts who are intimately 
involved in the module's approach as well as its content.  Other team 
members include graphic artists, programmers, and video production 
experts.

For the first module on marine meteorology, Munson devised a 
museum analogy she calls "The Marine Meteorology Plexeum of 
Exploration," with the word "plexeum" coined from "museum" and 
"plexus" (a network of integrated, interrelated parts).  Each room of the 
plexeum corresponds to a different topic.  Students have a suggested 
touring sequence but may roam the virtual hallways at will.  One room 
has video clips of people who use marine forecastsÑthe skipper of the 
USS Eisenhower (one of the world's largest ships in use), a lobster 
trapper from coastal Massachusetts, and othersÑexplaining the ways 
they use the forecasts.  Another room has a set of questions structured 
similarly to the "Jeopardy!" game show:  columns are headed with 
such categories as "Wave Characteristics," and more "money" is 
awarded for answering progressively tougher questions.

Stephen Lyons, an expert on marine meteorology from the NWS 
regional headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, is featured prominently in 
the module.  Most concepts are presented directly by Lyons, consistent 
with the "cognitive apprenticeship" learning model that lies behind all 
of the modules, says Munson.  "It's the attempt to make visible to the 
learner the thought processes used by experts."  --BH