The Defense Acquisition University has leveraged the capabilities of the DAU Acquisition Community Connection (ACC) to host what we call key Performance Learning Tools (PLTs) in the form of hyperlinked web-enabled guidebooks.  Web-enabled guidebooks are online versions of traditional hardcopy and PDF-based guidebooks and allow the guidebook owners the capability to edit, update, and maintain the content online.  The guidebooks are maintained by the content owners (subject matter experts) themselves in real time, allowing for up-to-date content and efficient maintenance, particularly important as the cycle time between development and required revision very often continues to decrease.

The content of guidebooks are imported into the ACC using XML or other technologies, and include internal navigation features such as next/back buttons, table of contents, breadcrumbs, and tagging,  to allow users to easily access and find pertinent information within the guidebooks.  Online guidebooks afford the ability to hyperlink text, which point users to an in depth set of resources and tools both internal and external to the guidebook.  ACC account users can also favorite and tag content within the guidebook which serves as a bookmark for future reference.  As an added note the online guidebooks/tools allow for user feedback directly to guidebook owners if that is desired. Examples of web-enabled guidebooks include the Defense Acquisition Guidebook, the DoD Product Support Manager (PSM) Guidebook, the DoD Product Support Business Case Analysis (BCA) Guidebook, and the Logistics Assessment (LA) Guidebook, among many others.

The Guidance Section of the Product Support Policy, Guidance, Tools & Training website that we launched this past fall is home to many of these new performance learning tools, with more planned in the coming months!