RE-USABLE INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY SEGMENT TEMPLATES FOR HIGHLY-EFFICIENT COMPUTER BASED TRAINING DEVELOPMENT AND DELIVERY

THE AIR FORCE HAS BEEN USING COMPUTER-BASED TRAINING FOR MORE THAN 20 YEARS, YET IT STILL CONFRONTS MANY OF THE SAME BASIC PROBLEMS: SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS ARE USUALLY NOT INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNERS, INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNERS ARE USUALLY NOT PROGRAMMERS, CBT COURSEWARE IS EXPENSIVE TO DEVELOP (TYPICALLY 400 HOURS PER HOUR OF DELIVERABLE TRAINING), AND COURSEWARE DESIGN IS RARELY SUPPORTED BY VALIDATED INSTRUCTIONAL THEORY. GLOBAL PROPOSES TO DEVELOP REUSABLE AND MODIFIABLE INSTRUCTIONAL-STRATEGY TEMPLATES FOR EFFICIENT CREATION OF EFFECTIVE CBT COURSEWARE. UNLIKE EXISTING EFFORTS IN THIS AREA, WHICH EMPLOY A TOP-DOWN APPROACH (E.G., A STRATEGY FOR TEACHING A "PROBLEM SOLVING" TASK), GLOBAL WILL USE A BOTTOM-UP METHODOLOGY FOR SELECTING, VALIDATING, AND IMPLEMENT ING INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY SEGMENTS. THE BOTTOM-UP APPROACH INVOLVES STUDYING EXISTING COURSEWARE THAT ALREADY WORKS WELL, SELECTING LESSON SEGMENTS THAT WOULD BE USEFUL ACROSS MANY DOMAINS AND THAT WOULD BE LABOR-INTENSIVE TO CODE, ENSURING THAT THE STRATEGIES ARE INSTRUCTIONALLY SOUND, GENERALIZING THE STRATEGIES, AND CREATING STRATEGY SEGMENT TEMPLATES EACH WITH A CUSTOMIZED AUTHORING INTERFACE. WE EXPECT USE OF THESE TEMPLATES TO REDUCE CBT DESIGN/DEVELOPMENT TIME TO 100 HOURS PER HOUR OF DELIVERABLE TRAINING.