Training evaluation approach of a new ATC tool

Within the scope of the last experiments of the ERATO project (decision aid tool for ATC), the training accompanying the tool was one of the main concerns. The contents of this cycle of experts’ transfer-training rest on a modelization of the cognitive activity of the controllers and are structured around objectives that are of various levels and are used as a basis for the pedagogical approach. We wanted the formation to be part of the global approach of the system validation as a specific variable, because it represents one of the key conditions to an efficient and valuable transition. Indeed, it allows to clarify interpretations of the activity data in the electronic environment and contributes to define the conditions of its operational transposability. Therefore, we submitted this training program to an evaluation by building a specific approach : this is derived from the experimental one that consists in isolating the factors and to make the general assumptions concrete. The data obtained are bulky: they are related to actions as well as knowledge and opinions. Thus, they are treated using an approach that encompasses several disciplines. The example presented is related to the results obtained in studying the learning of the activity-type “integrating a flight” in an electronic environment. It illustrates an application of this approach to the evaluation of the degree of integration of the acquired knowledge in the activity. It shows how knowledge tests, trainers’ assessments and the automatic archiving of trainees’ interface actions cannot be separated in the understanding of the different strategies of transfer-training process.