Virtual Supplementation of Tactical Decision Making Training
(Room S320E)
27 Nov 18
4:30 PM
-
5:00 PM
A fundamental aspect of training U.S. Army infantry Platoon Leaders (PLs) includes providing junior officers with opportunities to make leadership decisions during realistic scenarios and giving them constructive feedback about the timeliness and effectiveness of their actions. Traditionally, this has been accomplished during live exercises in the Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course (IBOLC). However, live exercises take extensive time and resources to conduct. Given resource constraints and the typical student throughput IBOLC must maintain, any given student may only have one or two opportunities to practice in the role of PL during a live exercise. The current research attempts to increase the number of opportunities for PL decision making practice by examining the effectiveness of virtual tactical decision making exercises (VTDEs) as supplements to live exercises during IBOLC.
Six VTDEs were piloted with IBOLC graduates. Each VTDE provided a brief overview of a scenario in which participants played the role of a PL. Each overview detailed an initial plan of action being conducted by the PL's unit. Following the overview, participants were provided ongoing updates to the unfolding situation via audio and textual "injects.” The participants were asked to monitor the situation and when/if necessary to press an "override" button, indicating they would significantly deviate from the current plan. After overriding, participants would be asked to provide their rationale for overriding as well as to indicate what changes they would make to the plan. Infantry subject matter experts identified a window of time within each VTDE (typically consisting of 3 to 4 consecutive injects) wherein participants should ideally override the plan. After responding to each of the VTDEs, participants were provided with feedback on the timeliness and effectiveness of their actions. Results indicated participants benefitted from the use of the VTDEs and the method holds promise for suppleme