The Aviation Industry Computer-Based Training Committee (AICC) is an international association of technology-based training professionals. The AICC develops guidelines for aviation industry in the development, delivery, and evaluation of CBT, WBT, and related training technologies.
AICC specifications are usually designed to be general purpose (not necessarily Aviation Specific) so that learning technology vendors can spread their costs across multiple markets and thus provide products (needed by the Aviation Industry) at a lower cost. This strategy has resulted in AICC specifications having broad acceptance and relevance to non-aviation and aviation users alike.
The AICC was formed in 1988 by Aircraft manufacturers (Boeing, Airbus, and McDonnell-Douglas) to address Airline concerns about non-standard computing (cost) issues arising from the proliferation of new multimedia training materials emerging at that time.
In 1989, the AICC published computing platform recommendations for CBT, training media. A PC-platform was established as the primary delivery platform for CBT media.
In 1992, the AICC produced a digital audio interoperability specification for DOS based platforms. This specification allowed multiple CBT vendors to use a single audio card. AICC audio drivers were produced for Elan, SoundBlaster(tm), WICAT, and other audio cards. A large number of older legacy CBT applications still use this specification today.
In 1993, the AICC produced what is widely regarded as the first runtime interoperability specification for Learning Management Systems (LMS) a.k.a. CMI (Computer Managed Instruction) Systems. This AICC specification (CMI001 - AICC/CMI Guidelines For Interoperability) was originally designed for CD-ROM/LAN (local file-based) operation and was updated in January 1998 to add a web-based interface called HACP (HTTP-based AICC/CMI Protocol). In September 1999, the CMI001 specification was updated to add a Javascript API runtime interface. The runtime environment data model and API used in the SCORM specification is a derivative of this work.
The AICC HACP standard for CMI is widely used by Learning Management Systems and other systems to call content and assessments. Although it is pre-XML, it is very robust and unambiguous and many consider it to be more secure and reliable than alternatives such as SCORM, especially for content or assessments hosted on web servers not collocated with the calling system.
An emerging standard is the AICC PENS standard, which lets content creating tools send a manifest to an LMS easily. (See CMI010 - Package Exchange Notification Services). The September 2006 AICC meeting included a Plugfest where vendors demonstrated PENS interoperability.
In November 2010, the AICC announced that it would begin work on a replacement of its existing CMI specification.
The AICC coordinates its efforts with other learning technology specifications organizations engaged in similar work such as IMS Global, OKI, ADL, IEEE/LTSC, LETSI, and ISO/SC36.