Computer Based Training System...
A Computer Based Training System (CBT) is the means by which many companies/corporations deliver courses and training materials to their students, in a form that ensures a valid and strong learning.
The 
Computer Based Training System is a Computer Based Training System that provides a visually rich training environment. The principle architecture of the system is an Application user interface which communicates with the networked system by the ‘fxn Server Application’ (which can be installed on to any machine on the network).
The system is designed to installed to an intranet, with the server application running on any designated PC on that network. Each user machine has the full training system installed, so no unnecessary network traffic is instigated.
Once the Administrator has logged-in, the 'ADMIN' page is shown, which is the access core of the system.
It provides full access to any lesson for browsing purposes, as with the user menu page.
In addition, the Administrators menu panel is shown, which provides the following options:
- View Statistics
- View a User
- Unlock Users
- Edit Classes
- Change Password
- Menu
Also included at the bottom of the Admin panel, is the server profile totals, along with a progress bar for a report of the percentage of profiles loaded from the server. If you need to update that information loaded, a refresh button is provided.
View Statistics
Clicking on 'View Statistics' leads to the 'Statistics Filter' page. Here, the users to be analysed can be filtered by Class (or all Classes) and by a Date envelope. The filtered users are listed in the bottom box.
By clicking on a single username, a button allowing the printing of a certificate appears. The style of the certificate would be designed at point of development.
To view the statistics for the filtered users, click on 'Statistics'. The 'Statistics' page will appear as described in the two images below:
In the two images above, are described some of the features available. For this example, all lessons have been given 10 questions. Also, the results have been generated using random numbers, which explains the narrow bell-curve in the bottom window.
This page scrolls the information dependant on the mouse position (not a slider), so all results can be instantly viewed.
The user list
(the left window):The filtered users are listed here and can be sorted alphabetically or by score. When placing the cursor over a username, a box appears above the cursor, showing the fullname for that user. The bell curve in the bottom window also highlights the bar in which that user lies.
By clicking on a username, the information displayed is changed to relate to the clicked user.
The lesson scores
(the centre window):The lesson number is the immediate reference to each lesson.
Two bars indicate the score for that lesson:
- the blue bar shows the average score for that lesson by the filtered users
- the other bar is the user's score for that lesson and is coloured red when below average and green when above.
The numerical value is also shown, red for the selected user and blue for the average.
When the cursor is placed over a lesson, a box appears listing the lesson hiararchy.
The question results
(the right window):As each system can be defined with a finite number of question retries, each result is coloured (green for correct on the first try, then a graded scale to red for never correctly answering a retry). The score is also calculated on the number questions retries answered. The size of the coloured bar for each question, indicates the amount of time taken to answer the first try for that question. The blue bar indicates the average.
By placing the cursor over a question, a verbose summary appears above the cursor.
The scores for all the filtered users can be printed a page at a time, by selecting the page number in the 'PRINT All User Scores' box above the Admin panel.
View a User
Clicking on 'View a User' in the Admin panel, leads to the page shown to the right:
To find a specific user, three panels are employed:
The Classes panel allows one or all Classes to be filtered.
The Users panel lists the users in the selected Class, and from here the specified user can be selected.
The Information panel displays the user details for the user selected in the Users panel.
Unlock Users
At the development stage, a course can be defined to 'lock' users when they fail to get a retry correct on a particular question. This allows the tutor to identify a problem with one of their students and in turn address it. Once the tutor is assured of the students understanding, the tutor can unlock that user from this menu option.
Locking the user, means that they cannot progress any further in the course, but viewing previous information is possible.
Edit Classes
The structure of the user management is based around classes, therefore users cannot be created without an available Class to join. Therefore, the Administrator must create a Class before introducing the Students to the course.Classes have a number of properties:
- Name - defined by the Administrator
- Created - the date when created
- Current - the number of users in the class that have NOT completed the course
- Completed - the number of users in the class that have completed the course
- Open/Closed - if a class is closed, no more users can join it.
The initial window shown on this page, displays this information. It also provides an input box for the creation of a new Class (Classes can have the same name if created on different days). The list of Classes can be filtered by toggling the 'Closed' and 'Open' icons.
If in the listed Classes there are some containing only completed users, the Administrator will be presented with a "Close" window, allowing the closure of all elligible Classes.
If in the listed Classes there are some containing no users, the Administrator will be presented with a "Delete" window, allowing the deletion of all elligible Classes.
Once a Class is selected, another window appears, to display a short summary of the contents of that Class:
- The Class name
- The created date
- How many current users
- How many completed users
- A small graph indicating the overall progress of the Class
If the selected Class only contains completed users, the Administrator will be presented with a 'Close' window, where the Class can be closed, preventing any further users joining.
If the selected Class does not contain any users, the Administrator will be presented with a 'Delete' window.
Change Password
This option is to be used with care, as it allows the changing of the Administrator's password stored on the server, therefore this affects all Administrators using that server.
Menu
This option return the Administrator back to the Lesson menu.
Over the past decade, Polyfex has developed a number of CBT systems for the military, involving detailed systems’ functions and equipment training for deployable telecommunications equipment.
Obviously, we cannot show screenshots from these courses here, which is why these images are of the CBT functions only
The 
Computer Based Training System is the culmination of development for a customer supplying equipment to NATO. Therefore, it includes the features required by the NATO Computer Aided Training specifications.
This latest release utilises a small Server installed onto any workstation on the network, which stores all the user profiles.
The system also allows the installation of many courses. Note that the system would be bespoke and therefore your courses would not interrupt someone else's based system.
The targetted application for the system, is a training environment where students are in classes (possibly groups from departments, course attendees or defined by the tutor).
General description
After the title page, the system checks that the last saved server is present. If not, a scan is performed to find available servers and verify them.If more than one is found, the user is presented with a list (including the name of the server) allowing the manual selection of one particular server to save.
If more than one course is installed on the workstation, the user will be required to select which course to use.
The entry point to the system is the 'LOGIN' page (shown to the right). Once the username and password are entered, the system checks the server for the validity of the entry. The Administrator also enters at this point, from any workstation connected to the selected server. For an explanation of the Administrator's area, view the next text box.
If the user has no saved profile, the 'LOGIN' page contains a 'NEW USER' button. Clicking on this presents a form (shown to the left).
The user is requested to fill in upto ten fields, which can be customized at the development stage. Also required is a username, password, full name and the class to join.
When the 'SAVE' button is clicked, the server checks the validity and will then save the user profile, and return the user to the 'LOGIN' page.
Once the user has logged-in, the 'MENU' page appears providing access to past and current lessons only.
The menu is expandable and collapsable as many levels of sub-lesson may be available.
Listed |
Collapsable / Expandable |
Lesson 6 |
Lesson 6 << Lesson 6.1 Lesson 6.2 Lesson 6.3 << Lesson 6.3.1 Lesson 6.3.2 Lesson 6.4 >> Lesson 6.4.1 Lesson 6.4.2 Lesson 7 |
If the system has been installed as a standalone system, the server connection is not required, and user profiles are not used. All lessons can be viewed without having to complete the previous lessons, and the questions do not have to be answered. This is useful if the information contained in the course(s) installed, can be used as a resource.
When the desired lesson is selected the GUI is loaded and will present the lesson and questions (as necessary).
The GUI provides full functionality and information to the user, whilst presenting interactive/animated/still graphics and text. This is accompanied with a voiceover and subtitles.
- The user can leave at anytime and their progress will be recorded by the server.
- Course, Lesson and subject hiararchy are indicated.
- The logged username is shown, to prevent the wrong user from continuing when left for a while.
- Progress and page number is updated every page.
- Volume control is easily and instantly accessible.
- Next page and Previous page buttons allow sequential navigation.
A drop-down menu of the subject hiararchy provides direct navigation to subjects already viewed (if a Networked installation, otherwise all subjects are available).
