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| Articulation of Operational and Training Materials Yvonne Barnard1, Guy Boy1, Michel Tremaud2, Francis Payeur2
 and Xavier Fauré2
 1 European Institute of Cognitive Sciences & Engineering
 4 avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
 Email: barnard@onecert.fr
 2 Airbus, AI/STL
 1 Rond Point Maurice Bellonte, 31707 Blagnac Cedex, France
 Abstract
 This paper presents the concept of articulation of operational
 and training materials. It is based on the results of
 the ArtiFACT project ( A rti culation of F COM, C ourseware
 and T raining.) On the one hand, operational materials
 are progressively shifting from paper to electronic
 support. Both user needs and electronic possibilities
 guide the subsequent transformation. Training materials
 are available on electronic support for a long time. Thus,
 it is obviously interesting to transfer training experience
 in the design and development of electronic support to
 current operational needs. On the other hand, training
 has progressively become performance support over the
 years, i.e., initial training largely continues during operations
 and needs to be supported consequently. Articulating
 operational and training materials benefits to both
 sectors of activity.
 Introduction
 In many complex operational domains, such as aircraft
 operations and maintenance, the actual work and training
 to perform the tasks are organized separately. The organizations
 that are responsible for developing, operating and
 maintaining the systems, as well as training operators, are
 often separate organizations or departments. The same
 group of people does not often create technical manuals,
 operational manuals and training materials. Consequently,
 these materials may differ considerably, although most of
 the topics treated are the same. Some of the consequences
 are:
 • inefficient ways of producing material, much re-doing
 of material, leading to high development costs;
 • inconsistencies between different documents, leading to
 potential problems for safety and effectiveness;
 • ineffective ways of training and lack of transfer of
 training, because procedures at work differ from the
 ones trained.
 Now that much of the training, technical and operational
 documentation is becoming electronic, opportunities open
 up for integration of material and for re-use of material. In
 this paper we describe how integration and re-use of mate-
 Copyright © 2002, American Association for Artificial Intelligence
 (www.aaai.org). All rights reserved.
 rial can be developed in different forms. We investigated
 the articulation of aircrew operational manuals and related
 computer-based training material.
 The work described in this paper was performed in the
 ArtiFACT project (Barnard et al. 2002) that was carried
 out for Airbus, for the development of documentation and
 training. The next section introduces operational and
 training documentation. The ArtiFACT methodology is
 presented. The articulation concept is explained in the
 light of the differences and commonalities between operational
 and training documentation. An architecture of articulation
 is proposed introducing the concept of documentary
 units (Payeur 2001). Examples of documentary
 units and a method to use them in courseware development
 are provided.
 Operational and Training Documentation
 This work is based on the Flight Crew Operating Manual
 (FCOM). The Airbus FCOM consists of four large volumes
 in paper format that must be available in the cockpit
 at all times. The FCOM is an essential part of the operational
 documentation for a commercial aircraft. A manufacturer
 must supply it. This documentation should be developed
 according to human factors principles (Tremaud,
 2000). Its uses are many and varied, and its content must
 be updated continually to stay current with the deployed
 fleet. As such, the FCOM is a dynamic document. The
 Airbus FCOM is also available in electronic format, created
 in HTML from the paper version, and as such a pagebased
 document.
 The training material contains courseware for pilots
 who have to learn how to fly a new type of aircraft. The
 current Airbus courseware has been carefully developed,
 following well-established didactic principles and is currently
 available in PowerPoint. The system part of the
 courseware has the following structure for most parts,
 such as for electric or hydraulic:
 • a system description, with schemes and images of the
 panels and screens in the cockpit;
 • normal operations describing how a fully operational
 aircraft has to be operated in normal conditions;
 • abnormal operations, describing what happens if some
 systems fail and the actions the pilot should take;
 30 HCI-Aero 2002
 From: HCI-02 Proceedings. Copyright © 2002, AAAI (www.aaai.org). All rights reserved.
 • a summary;
 • a quiz, for self-testing.
 For a long time, different departments created both kinds
 of documents. Courseware development is based on an
 analysis of the pilot's tasks and related training goals. Although
 courseware development strongly relies on operational
 documentation, and the definition of the items in the
 training curriculum refer to the documentation on a detailed
 level, the actual courseware is developed independently
 from the other documentation.
 Training and operational material could be much closer
 together, developed simultaneously, or even integrated.
 We will use the term "articulation" for this coordinated
 development of both kinds of material.
 Methodology and First Results
 The articulation concept was investigated using two
 methods: the Group Elicitation Method (GEM) (Boy
 1996) and individual interviews. GEM provided a first account
 including consensus and differences among aviation
 personnel. A group of seven people was asked the following
 questions. How do you see the ArtiFACT (A rt i culation
 between F COM A nd C ourseware/T raining) concept
 implemented? What will be the gains and losses of an integrated
 FCOM and courseware? Please describe the concept
 according to its usability (i.e., how it should and/or
 will be used). How will this new type of electronic FCOM
 be created and revised? How do you see interactions between
 actors in operations and training? How will its content
 evolve? How will responsibilities be distributed?
 The Group Elicitation Method (GEM) is a brainwriting
 technique augmented by a decision support system for
 constructing a shared memory. The brainwriting technique
 was introduced more than three decades ago to facilitate
 the generation of ideas or viewpoints by a group of people.
 This method can be used to stimulate a group of experts
 with the goal of silently expressing their expertise on a
 precise issue (a q uestion ). It enables a group of experts to
 construct a written shared memory. Each person takes a
 sheet of paper and reads the issue to be investigated.
 He/she then adds several viewpoints and puts it back on
 the table, where the set of papers constitutes a shared
 memory of the meeting. The process of choosing a piece
 of paper, reading, writing viewpoints and replacing the
 paper on the table, is continued until each person has seen
 and filled in all the papers. Thus each person is continually
 confronted with the viewpoints of the others and can react
 by offering a critique or new viewpoints. Generally, a considerable
 number of viewpoints can be amassed with this
 procedure. A decision making procedure is implemented
 to express consensus and divergences.
 There are different opinions on whether or not content
 and format of the FCOM and the courseware should differ
 from one another. Distinctions between the FCOM and
 courseware are noted: FCOM is customized, courseware is
 generic; FCOM is a reference, courseware is an introduction;
 FCOM answers a question, courseware is for acquiring
 knowledge; FCOM is exhaustive, courseware not;
 FCOM is becoming one “electronic document”, courseware
 is distributed into several materials; the courseware
 is linear in structure, ensuring that the trainee has seen all
 the necessary information. These differences come from
 the question of whether the objectives of operations and of
 training can converge or not. As one person wrote: "I do
 not operate in the same way as I learn how to operate".
 The results of the GEM session and the interviews led to
 the following attributes for articulation:
 • Customization, i.e., the ability of a document to be
 modified by a customer, e.g., an airline, to adjust corporate
 culture or other specific requirements.
 • Versioning, i.e., the development and maintenance of
 different versions of the same document, or the development
 of different documents on the same topic (e.g.,
 a manufacturer document versus an airline document).
 • Consistency, i.e., the commonality of schematics,
 wording and references among documents and other
 training means such as trainers and simulators.
 • Paper-less cockpit and paper-less courseware, i.e., the
 dependency of training on the way operations are being
 implemented. It is hard to imagine having only electronic
 training means and no paper support, but if
 training takes place using the same means available in
 the cockpit, paper should not be used as it will not be
 available in the cockpit.
 Operational and training documentation should be contextualized.
 Context is used to denote both internal and
 external events related to the use of the FCOM and
 courseware. Internal events are mostly related to the onboard
 ECAM system (Electronic Centralized Aircraft
 Monitoring). External events are related to weather conditions
 and air traffic control (ATC) for example. The main
 question is how pilots will interact with the FCOM taking
 into account the context, either by entering contextual information
 by themselves or by an automated contextsensitive
 FCOM. The FCOM will be improved by the use
 of advanced media which enable the display of intelligent
 graphics showing the actual context experienced in flight
 or manually selected. Contextual access to FCOM in both
 training and operations is seen as an important notion. The
 relation to the context can change the way we learn
 something (“what if” scenarios during basic system
 learning activity).
 The attributes that were found important in our study relate
 to several aspects operators gave a high priority in the
 NASA/FAA Operating Documents project (Seamster &
 Kanki 2000) on the overall organization of documents
 (such as merging and reducing the number of manuals)
 and on standardization of information in different manuals.
 HCI-Aero 2002 31
 Differences and Commonalities
 Differences between Operational and Training
 Documentation
 An easy solution seems to be to have just one FCOM,
 used both in training and in operations. In principle, there
 are no major technical constraints to have a full integration
 of FCOM and courseware. The basic question to be addressed
 is: should there be a fundamental difference between
 the electronic documentation for training and for
 operations? In operations, the most important thing is to
 get quickly the correct answer on the question "What
 should I do in this situation and how?" In operations the
 pilot needs quick access. The content should be concise;
 you do not always need all kinds of animations for example.
 Information may sometimes be more specific for operations
 than for training. For example, trainees do not
 need to know the exact values of all kinds of parameters
 that could be provided in a courseware. However, pilots
 might want to look-up the exact figures in operations.
 In training, knowledge about the system has to be builtup
 step-by-step. A pedagogically sound way of presenting
 information is essential. It is the first time the trainee goes
 through a large part of the FCOM information. Courseware
 is intended to introduce and explain. During learning,
 trainees build a mental image of a certain part of the information;
 they do not need to know the complete picture
 to start with. Only later on, they have to acquire a complete
 view. The objective of the courseware is to give information
 to the trainees to enable them to acquire this
 view. After the training, they have the information in the
 FCOM as a reminder. It is important to learn to refer to the
 FCOM, because a pilot cannot have everything exact and
 directly accessible in his or her head at any time.
 In addition, both in operations and in training, complete
 detailed information should be available for reference purposes.
 The courseware is currently structured in a linear
 manner. It builds up knowledge very carefully, starting
 with explaining the system in a functional way, going to
 normal operations and next to abnormal operations, aiming
 to explain the working of the systems, giving summaries
 and quizzes. This is a different model than the one of
 the FCOM, which aims at finding the right amount and
 level of information in a specific context.
 In summary: two elements are important to consider, in
 which courseware and operational documentation differ:
 • The interactive didactic element in the courseware: the
 questions asked to the trainee, with different answer
 options, which can be answered correctly or not and the
 feedback on the answer. The trainee can also take actions,
 such as clicking on a button, and get feedback on
 it. This element is important for training but not for operations.
 • The sequential aspect in the courseware: the information
 is presented in a certain sequence in order to let the
 trainee build up knowledge and know-how on the system.
 Conversely, the operational documentation should
 be organized for easy random access at any time and in
 context.
 Commonalities between Training and Operations
 The aim of a training system should be to place the
 trainee in an environment which optimizes the ability to
 learn. An assumption is that a primary learning objective
 of flight training is to build a suitably robust world model
 of the desired environment to enable safe and efficient aircraft
 operation.
 Traditionally, initial type training for pilots has used the
 approach of teaching systems in isolation, (e.g., hydraulics,
 avionics, engine), in order to give detailed background
 knowledge of that system, and then integrate the
 systems at a later date. This assumes the need to know
 technical detail to operate the aircraft. With a low tech aircraft
 this is a sound philosophy, as limitations are only
 controlled or exceeded by the pilot, and the pilot is the direct
 interface between the machine and its performance.
 However modern aircraft are highly complex robotic
 devices and it is not possible to build a valid mental model
 of the aircraft and operation using traditional techniques in
 a reasonable time scale. A different approach is required.
 As a basic minimum, the pilot is required to know how to
 operate the aircraft, how it will respond, and not necessarily
 how it works in detail. Airbus has an advanced program
 for designing training courses which effectively acknowledges
 this. This method facilitates analysis of the
 operating environment into functional tasks, so allowing
 training to be targeted at these functions. They are in effect
 mainly cognitive tasks required to be completed in
 various circumstances by the pilot.
 Current training approaches are more task-based and
 scenario-based. They attempt to bring the trainee in a
 situation which resembles the real operational world and
 to present him or her with training tasks which are closely
 related to the real operational world, training and working
 come closer together. A didactic method of realizing this
 is for example asking the trainee to start a subsystem in
 the aircraft by clicking on buttons on the screen showing
 the control panel.
 While training in complex technical and operational
 domains is moving towards more task-based approaches,
 at the same time, it is more and more acknowledged that
 learning does and should not stop right after a course, but
 should be integrated in the working life of modern operators.
 At present, initial training at Airbus for pilots converting
 to a new type of aircraft consists of 25 or 26 days of
 intensive training. By the end of this training, the pilot
 should have reached a suitable standard to be capable of
 basic aircraft operations. In practice this is the beginning
 of the actual learning process, and the process of becoming
 a proficient operator involves continuous learning
 throughout a career. The learning process is therefore inherently
 a function of operations, and both operations and
 training should be considered as one, and not separate
 functions. Training and learning therefore take place in:
 32 HCI-Aero 2002
 • an initial learning phase, where a basic operation is
 learned to enable the pilot to conduct safe flight, which
 enables:
 • ongoing learning “on the job”, which never ceases.
 Although there is a need for an initial intensive learning
 phase, there is no reason why the same basic learning
 principles should not apply to both phases. Indeed if the
 documentation used in both is the same, “operational
 learning” is facilitated both for the individual and the organizational
 structure required to promote it. Training
 materials are then performance support tools. If this approach
 to operations is taken, then operational material
 should be presented in such a way as to be easy to learn,
 and training material should be as close to operational
 material as possible.
 Architecture of Articulation
 The main question is: how to develop an architecture for
 articulated operational and training material which serves
 both the advantages of efficient development while serving
 also the different goals of operations and training most
 effectively?
 The underlying structure of the proposed architecture
 starts with a database of documentary units (Payeur 2001).
 Documentary units are small, consistent elements of information.
 They may consist of texts, pictures, schematics,
 animations, interactive elements, and so on. Documentary
 units can be hierarchically organised, allowing having
 several versions of one unit. This might for example be the
 case when there are different variations in aircraft systems.
 This means that each airline can have an FCOM, which
 consists of documentary units, which are geared towards
 their own fleet. Documentary units enable easy and quick
 modification. As information in the FCOM is complex,
 many modifications will be made during the lifetime of an
 aircraft type. Modifying the FCOM will mean modifying
 the relevant documentary unit and installing a continuous
 web-based mechanism for publicizing the new version.
 The airlines can download the units and thus modify their
 FCOMs. The documentary units have tags, meta-data, attached
 to them. These meta-data concern administrative
 aspects, such as for which specific type of aircraft they are
 meant, and which sub-system they concern, and so on..
 The system should provide capabilities for adding contextual
 information that would enable appropriate search,
 retrieval and understanding. Examples of contexts are
 phase of flight, weather conditions, failures, and so on.
 Documentary units contain various kinds of information
 that may be superficial, e.g., telling how to turn off a subsystem,
 or very detailed, e.g., giving exact data about the
 performance limits of a subsystem.
 The information of the FCOM is categorized on three
 levels (Blomberg, Boy, and Speyer 2000). These levels are
 becoming a standard for the FCOM. Level 1 contains
 "what/how" information, to use immediately in the cockpit,
 on level 2 "why" information is given, the system rationale
 providing more details to understand level 1 information,
 and on level 3 more detailed and expert information
 is given, to understand and to study the other two levels.
 Normally in operations in the cockpit, only information
 on level 1 is needed to be able to perform a task.
 Level 2 information can be required by the pilot to get an
 explanation about why the action had to be performed.
 This information might be read afterwards. Level 3 information
 will usually be too detailed and will be read for
 reference purposes or if the pilot wants to have a better
 understanding of the aircraft and its functioning. For
 training level 1 and 2 are equally important, but also some
 parts of the level 3 information might be of interest.
 To provide the pilot with the right information, and the
 right level of information at the right time, the information
 should be linked to the task he or she is performing or
 should perform. Tasks are for example strongly related to
 the phases of flight and the state of the aircraft (Ramu
 2001). In training one has to make sure that a representative
 set of tasks is addressed in the training material. By
 linking the documentary units to tasks, suitable information
 for operations and for training can be provided from
 the database. If both training and operational documentation
 is to be task-oriented, how could the database of
 documentary units be developed from this perspective?
 1. Define the operator's tasks and the training goals. The
 development of training usually starts with a detailed
 task analysis and definition of training goals. Several
 methods and tools are available to this. For example Instructional
 Design methods (Gagné, Briggs, and Wager
 1992; Merrill 1994) and tools like Designer's Edge
 (Allen Communication) support this analysis. Airbus
 had its own method, ADOPT, which is also based on
 ideas from Instructional Design.
 2. Define the training necessary to be able to perform the
 tasks, up to the level of training items. Training items
 are the smallest elements in training for example a
 module in the courseware.
 3. Break down the training items into information that can
 be defined as documentary units.
 4. Define documentary units at all the three levels, maybe
 with an option to skip level 3.
 5. Choose the right kind of medium or modality of each
 documentary unit.
 6. Check whether there already exists a documentary unit
 which provides the information (some tasks need the
 same information).
 7. Create the documentary unit in such a way that it is as
 understandable as possible for a not-experienced operator.
 8. Tag the documentary units with the task to which it
 belongs and the context in which it is to be performed,
 and by doing this automatically create a link to the
 knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to perform the
 task.
 Of course these steps will have to be iterated many times
 before completeness of documentation can be reached. It
 might be the case that not all information is inserted in the
 documentation that is needed for legal, standards or com-
 HCI-Aero 2002 33
 pleteness reasons, or that information is needed for other
 purposes and other personnel next to operators. This information
 could be added using other methods. However,
 the meta-data should make clear that these documentary
 units are there for other purposes than training and operations.
 In this way a database can be build which contains
 all the necessary information for operations and for training.
 Examples of Documentary Units
 If we look at the pieces of information currently used in
 the courseware and in the FCOM, it is clear that it is not
 just a matter of taking the current FCOM, to cut it into
 fragments and to re-use them for training purposes. For
 example the graphics and pictures of (sub)systems used in
 both documents are different. In the FCOM they are black
 and white and give all the technical details. In the courseware,
 they are colored, leaving away non-functional details,
 showing them as a pilot would see them, and sometimes
 even animated.
 In figure 1, an example is given of the same system (thrust
 lever) from the FCOM on the left, and from the courseware
 on the right (Gillett, Barnard, and Boy 2002). Note
 that in the picture from the FCOM more details are given
 like the holes in which the screws can be placed to fix the
 lever and the component underneath the operation area.
 These details might be very interesting for the engineer
 who has to install or maintain it, but for the pilot it is completely
 irrelevant. Also the view in the courseware is presented
 as the pilot would see it, in the FCOM it is shown
 from the side, a view you will not get in the cockpit.
 .
 Figure 1: Graphic from FCOM and courseware.
 This is not to say that one picture is better than the other, it
 just depends on the purpose for which the information
 needs to be used. In training and for operations, the picture
 on the right hand side might be easier to explain how to
 use this device, but for level 3 information, a more technical
 picture might be needed to explain all the details.
 Also for text, documentary units will have to be written
 in a style, which is directly related to tasks. For example,
 sometimes texts in a certain part of the FCOM describe
 both standard operation procedures and procedures for
 emergency situations at the same time. To be able to provide
 the pilot and the trainee with the suitable information,
 parts should be presented one at a time. In the cockpit the
 aircraft systems “know” whether normal or abnormal operations
 have to be performed. In new generation aircraft,
 the pilot is warned by the ECAM. In the courseware, abnormal
 situations are only treated after the trainees have
 understood the normal procedures. In figure 2 an example
 is given of such a mixed text.
 FCOM Thrust lever Graphic
 Shows detail irrelevant to the operator,
 otherwise clear and annotated
 Training Thrust Lever Graphic
 Shows user detail. Could be annotated
 and displayed from a better angle
 34 HCI-Aero 2002
 FCOM 3.06.10 P1
 The diversion strategy (descent and cruise speed schedules) shall be selected, and specified in the operator's routes specifications,
 as a function of the prevailing operational factors (e.g. obstacles clearance requirements).
 If the standard strategy does not allow the aircraft to clear obstacles, the pilot must use a drift down procedure. If an engine
 failure occurs at any point on the route, the net flight path must clear the obstacles on the drift down part by 2000
 feet and on the climb part by 1000 feet.
 Figure 2: Mixing operational policies with standard procedures in the FCOM
 Conclusion
 There is a strong need to articulate operational and training
 documentation for several reasons. First, technology is
 evolving very fast and documentation should be modified
 accordingly. Thus, an integrated mechanism that relates
 operational and training documents will improve productivity
 and consistency, and consequently safety. Second,
 articulation makes emerge the need for new media configurations
 for on-the-job training and performance support
 that are already necessary concepts and tools in practice.
 In addition, operational documentation provides realism
 both in initial and recurrent training. Third, articulation
 allows for easy customization of both operational and
 training materials to a specific aircraft configuration or an
 airline culture. Fourth, articulation provides a very interesting
 capability of knowledge reuse.
 Ideas developed in this paper could be useful for the design
 of current and future aircraft documentation articulated
 around operations and training. There are two issues
 that need to be further investigated: context-sensitive indexing
 and the training of documentation authors.
 Acknowledgements
 We would like to thank the whole Airbus personnel who
 participated in this research effort. At EURISCO, Jean
 Pinet, Jean-Philippe Ramu and Andrew Gillett provided
 great help in the development of the ideas presented in this
 paper.
 References
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 HCI-Aero 2002 35
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