Stratagems: ShadowBox Training to Augment Game-Based Simulations for Combat Rescue Helicopter Aircrew

Personnel Recovery plays a very critical role in the success of military missions for both humanitarian and strategic reasons. Maintaining highly trained Combat Search and Rescue teams is of critical importance to the Air Force. Cost efficiency considerations demand the development of training solutions that provide high efficacy at lower costs. Game-based trainers have the potential to meet this demand. This proposal addresses the challenge of developing pedagogically effective and modular game-based trainers that can run on desktop or mobile computers. Its objective is to develop a game-based solution called Stratagems for training Combat Rescue Helicopter aircrew. The modular design of Stratagems will enable the rapid customization of the trainer for different roles and skills. The trainer will provide automated feedback and coaching, including an augmented form of ShadowBox, a proven coaching technique that enables trainees to get an insight into and learn the decision-making processes and reasoning of experts. This renders Stratagems suitable for a variety of use cases such as classroom-based training, self-paced training, or just-in-time mission rehearsals. Phase II will result in the development of the trainer, the authoring tools, and training scenarios, as well as a summative evaluation of training effectiveness.