Adaptive Training for the Basic Geographic Intelligence Specialist (BGIS) Course

The Basic Geographic Intelligence Specialist (BGIS) Course at Marine Corps Intelligence School (MCIS) is an introductory, 7-month course for students in the intelligence community. Significant attrition from this course is impacting the ability of the United States Marine Corps (USMC) to fill intelligence billets that require course completion. Investigations to date show that two different components of the course – basic math and Python as a programming language – are the biggest drivers of student attrition. Marine Corps Training Command (TRNGCMD), Office of Naval Research (ONR), and Cognitive Performance Group (CPG) are currently partnering to conduct a needs assessment and propose potential adaptive learning solutions that would better support student learning and increase course completion rates. The purpose of this Phase II project is to develop and implement adaptive learning techniques, then formally evaluate—via experimental design—the effectiveness of the proposed techniques. The results will be used to modify the design of the adaptive instruction and its implementation and integration into the BGIS course. This effort is in alignment within the broader shift occurring in Training and Education Command’s (TECOM) direction in the Training & Education 2023 (TE2030) report modernize the USMC training and education system to embrace technological advances, contemporary adult learning methodologies and student-centered approaches.