Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) has launched a new eLearning initiative to support its Sperry Marine Voyage Management System (VMS) ship navigation software.

Sperry Marine, a business unit of Northrop Grumman, has produced a series of DVDs containing video training lessons covering various aspects of VMS operation and maintenance. The eLearning DVDs condense several days of normal classroom course material into a few hours of concentrated video instruction, which may be used for introductory or refresher training aboard ship.

“At Sperry Marine, we have been creating high-quality training DVDs for internal distribution to our worldwide field offices to ensure that our service personnel are kept current on new product installation and maintenance procedures,” said Michael Hughes, manager of product support and training for Sperry Marine. “The internal success of these DVD-based training videos has led us to expand this eLearning initiative toward customer-focused training packages.”

The eLearning DVDs will supplement Sperry Marine’s traditional VMS courses, which are taught in the company’s state-of-the-art training and simulator facilities in Charlottesville, Va., New Malden, United Kingdom and Hamburg, Germany. “It is often impractical for crew members to attend these formal classes due to distance and schedules,” said Hughes. “The DVDs provide a fast and cost-effective means of distributing VMS training courses over a large and widely dispersed workforce, and ensures that all personnel get the same information in a standardized format.”

“These eLearning courses effectively fill several niches for our customers, including training new-hires who have just reported to the ship and providing refresher training to sailors returning from extended leave,” added Hughes. “The courses also serve as a prerequisite to Sperry’s traditional STCW-95-compliant Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) training, and provide VMS-specific instruction to officers who have completed more generic ECDIS courses.”

Sperry Marine also produces customized eLearning courses based upon specific customer training requirements. Entire customized eLearning modules may be created based upon customer needs in a cost-effective, timely manner.

Sperry Marine’s VMS-based navigation systems are installed on hundreds of commercial and military ships around the world. The VMS integrates inputs from multiple navigation sensors and displays the ship’s location, movement and intended route on an electronic nautical chart. It has been type approved by numerous national authorities and classification societies to meet International Maritime Organization performance standards.