Case Study
Army Defense Finance Accounting Service (DFAS)
Past Performance: Contract W9124D20P0095
Performance Role: Prime Period: 6/11/20202 – 7/11/2020
Contract Type: Firm fixed price
Introduction
The U.S. Army’s Defense Finance Accounting Service is charged with providing live training opportunities to its personnel in order to complete yearly mandatory accreditation. OVS shall provide inventive ways to deliver synchronous financial education, awareness, training, and online web conferencing services. DFAS requested the ability to manage and execute three consecutive live streams over a period of five
days of virtual classroom instruction. Elements also requested closed caption ADA section 508 requirement, registration, live chat function and tracking of participants’ attendance.
DFAS has held a long time in person conference dating back at least a decade with an event located in a rotating city in the Ohio Valley for a multi-day training and in person conference. Covid 19 prohibited all travel of participants to the conference therefore making all participation virtual and on-line. Numerous stakeholders would be logging on through Department of Defense firewalls as well as working from home. Participants estimated to be approximately 2000. Department requirement that instruction be live, not recorded in order to obtain credit and completed by July 1 deadline which was in two weeks. Set up of participant registration, instructor training before event, platform build out and classroom links developed. Worldwide participation in multiple time zones.
DFAS has held a long time in person conference dating back at least a decade with an event located in a rotating city in the Ohio Valley for a multi-day training and in person conference. Covid 19 prohibited all travel of participants to the conference therefore making all participation virtual and on-line. Numerous stakeholders would be logging on through Department of Defense firewalls as well as working from home. Participants estimated to be approximately 2000. Department requirement that instruction be live, not recorded in order to obtain credit and completed by July 1 deadline which was in two weeks. Set up of participant registration, instructor training before event, platform build out and classroom links developed. Worldwide participation in multiple time zones.
Registration of all participants and obtaining pertinent information, name, email addresses, department of service. Army, Air Force etc…
Training of seventy classroom instructors the week before with run through of slides, microphones and video checks.
Setup of three “Always-On” webcast feeds for live classroom instruction.
Testing and monitoring the start of each webcast to confirm audio/video signals
Provision of live instructor support via a toll-free number.
Tracking of per-event analytics of participants, identifying number of viewers and geographic location (city, state, country) page views, chat participation.
Comprehensive archived recordings of each classroom instruction.
OVS provided five days of three consecutive live streams for ten hours a day. There were over 2500 people who registered to view at least one session. Tracking analytics had over 2300 participants logged on simultaneously each day with a weekly average viewing time of 25 hours for each participant. The chat function also provided seamless interaction between participants interacting with each other. Training the week before was successful in limiting any problems with the instructors logging on to teach.
OVS was directly recognized by Commanding General; Brig. General Mark S. Bennett as producing a truly historic interactive training program for the Army. The large increase in participation from over 20 countries as well as throughout the U.S. makes economic sense that will be used more frequently in the future by the Army. Surveys sent to viewers gave high scores for quality and access and professionalism.