Hand-Held Readiness Assessment Tool

Vignettes and scenarios have come into widespread use as one basis for instruction. They have met with success, especially for training decision-making skills and the cognitive aspects of task performance. One challenge with using training vignettes is intheir development-what skill or support is required in order for the trainer to produce a high-quality vignette that will result in positive learning? Another challenge is to utilize vignettes in distance learning applications-what is the best way to buildvignettes that meet the unique requirements of the distance learning environment? The proposed effort seeks to make headway on each of these two challenges. Klein Associates proposes to interview individuals who create or otherwise participate in distancelearning programs to identify the unique requirements of the training environment. We will also draw on our extensive experience developing and refining a program of vignette-based decision skills training, of which vignette development is a primaryfeature. We will design and demonstrate an online intelligent vignette development prototype that lends trainers the personalized support necessary to create high quality vignettes for distance learning applications. The prototype will feature an on-goingassessment and feedback function to help the trainer improve each vignette. The envisioned vignette development tool will be applicable to any domain that employs vignette-based training, including firefighting, law enforcement, emergency response, andpower generation. It will be directly applicable to distance learning programs within these domains. We anticipate that it could also be used, if tailored appropriately, for vignette-based training in more traditional (e.g., classroom) settings.