334th TRS could save thousands with online course Published March 29, 2013 By Senior Airman Heather Heiney 81st Training Wing Public Affairs KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- The 334th Training Squadron could potentially save the Air Force more than $500,000 per fiscal year by combining two courses and transforming them from brick and mortar school houses to a consolidated digital classroom. The squadron plans to integrate the current three-day defense readiness and reporting system course with its three-day status of resource and training systems course to make one four-day distance learning course using Defense Connect Online and the Advanced Distributed Learning System. Through DCO, instructors can load visual aids and videos as well as chat live with their students, while ADLS contains computer-based training that is more akin to reading an interactive textbook with audiovisual aids and quizzes. Staff Sgt. Jacob Savoie is scheduled to be the course's first instructor during a service test April 3-6. There are 2,741 students scheduled to attend 112 SORTS classes worldwide in fiscal year 2013. Currently, the SORTS courses are three-day mobile training team classes, meaning that the instructor travels to the students and can have students from that training area or on temporary duty from a different base. The TDY cost for the instructors alone is $250,000 per year. "Half of the instructors love getting to travel the world training SORTS, so they are not as excited about the possibility of our course going online. The other half says they will enjoy spending more time home with their families," Steve Hendricks, 334th TRS SORTS mobile training team chief, said. "All of them are ready to take on the mission and do what's best for Air Force and the command post career field." DCO and ADLS are already being used for distance learning and communication across the Air Force, so there is no additional cost associated with creating an online classroom for the two courses. "It's not a new concept, but it certainly will be a big money saver," Elizabeth LeBlanc, 334th TRS said. The squadron hopes to implement online learning for the course in October.