Performance Measurement Considerations for Live, Virtual, and Constructive (LVC) Training
(Room S320A)
29 Nov 17
9:00 AM
-
9:30 AM
Speaker(s):
Sterling Wiggins, Aptima, Inc.; Eric Watz, Aptima, Inc.; Michael Knapp, Aptima, Inc.; Jeffrey Beaubien, Aptima, Inc.; E. Webb Stacy, Aptima, Inc.; Alexander Wade, Aptima, Inc.
Performance measurement is a critical component of training because it can help to diagnose the causes of effective vs. ineffective performance and suggest appropriate remediation strategies. It is particularly important during combined Live, Virtual, and Constructive (LVC) training because such exercises can be extremely resource intensive, thereby limiting the number of training opportunities. Additionally, large computer networks often produce an “online disinhibition effect,” which increases the chances that learners may misbehave during training.
This paper presents four categories of unclassified performance metrics, along with specific examples of each, that were tested during the Operation Blended Warrior (OBW) 2015 and 2016 demonstration events. All of the measures were collected automatically and unobtrusively from the Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) network. The first category concerns measures of learner proficiency, such as force preservation and efficiency of fires. The second category concerns training rule (TR) violations, such as maintaining appropriate physical separation between assets and avoiding supersonic travel over populated areas. The third category concerns rules of engagement (ROE) violations, such as prohibitions against unprovoked attacks. The final category concerns network violations, such as not overloading the network with irrelevant traffic. The software code for these measures is freely available to the LVC community, upon request.
While these four categories of performance metrics provide very different information to different constituencies, collectively they help to make sense of what happened during the training event. As a result, we believe that they will be useful to the LVC community-at-large. Although many of these measures were tailored to the OBW air battle, we believe that they are generalizable to other LVC events and mission types. The paper concludes with lessons learned to help LVC event planners obtai