DYNAMIC PAGE -- HIGHEST POSSIBLE CLASSIFICATION IS
TOP SECRET // SI / TK // REL TO USA AUS CAN GBR NZL
(U) MESSIAH Web-Based Training Now Available to Analysts
FROM:
Chief, Reporter Toolsuite Services (S12T1)
Run Date: 05/03/2005
New training course available for users of the MESSIAH reporting tool (U//FOUO)
(U//FOUO) Reporter Toolsuite Services (S12T1) is pleased to announce the availability of a webbased training course for users of the MESSIAH reporting tool. The web-based course is the
direct result of numerous requests from users in the Extended Enterprise, primarily Menwith Hill
Station and Darmstadt. The course teaches analysts how to use MESSIAH to prepare serialized
product reports, KLIEGLIGHTS, STRUM and virtually any other kind of text-based reports; it also
provides instruction on logging functions and search and retrieval of report information, including
content details, from the local MESSIAH database. The modular design of the course allows
users to select only those topics that relate to their specific mission functions. The course may
be accessed via a link from the MESSIAH homepage ("go messiah").
(U//FOUO) The courseware is robust and contains 500-plus instructional frames, with full
navigation options within and among the six modules and 27 individual lessons. The developers
chose the Agency-standard VUport program as the software template underlying the
courseware; however, they have modified the design to provide enhanced navigation features.
One such feature allows the user to return directly to any point within a lesson, after having
chosen an external review link. This means that a user who is learning about KLIEGLIGHTs in
Module 3 may select a link to Module 2 to review something else momentarily; the user may
then navigate forwards or backwards at will within Module 2 and, by selecting the RETURN
function on any screen, go directly back to the frame in Module 3 from which the review link was
selected.
(U//FOUO) MESSIAH users at several U.S. and overseas locations (Darmstadt, Menwith Hill
Station, Mildenhall, Elmendorf, Misawa, Okinawa, RAINFALL and the Meade Operations Center)
were invited to use and evaluate the course. To date, nine users (from Darmstadt and Okinawa)
have completed the course and returned the evaluation forms. Preliminary results are
promising; therefore, S12T1 has decided to make the courseware immediately available to all
MESSIAH users, even as suggestions for minor changes are being evaluated for implementation.
(U//FOUO) Reporter Toolsuite Services expects significant cost savings to accrue to the Agency
as a result of the web-based implementation. Also expected is a rise in user confidence and a
concomitant increase in usage of the tool, as analysts take advantage of the "on demand"
availability of web-based training. With over 30 sites currently using MESSIAH to accomplish all
or a part of their reporting mission, the development team anticipates that several hundred
persons per year may avail themselves of the training.
(U//FOUO) To be sure, the team will still have to provide initial training in mask building and
administration functions when new MESSIAH systems are installed; however, classroom training
of large groups of analysts (sometimes several hundred at a single site) may just be a burden,
and an expense, that has disappeared forever!
(U//FOUO) See a previous article in which the author reported on how recent requests from the
field, particularly from Menwith Hill Station, resulted in significant enhancements to the utility of
the MESSIAH reporting tool.
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)."
DYNAMIC PAGE -- HIGHEST POSSIBLE CLASSIFICATION IS
TOP SECRET // SI / TK // REL TO USA AUS CAN GBR NZL
DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108