Blended learning in military training

Robert A. Wisher

he U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) represents a massive training and education enterprise. Beyond instruction for the 1.4 million active-duty per­sonnel, training and educational services are provided to 870, 000 ready reservists, more than 750, 000 civilian personnel, and 110, 000 military dependents in K-12 schooling. Each year approximately $ 17 billion is spent to train and educate ser­vice members, with thousands of courses for hundreds of specialized occupational areas. These courses are taught at training centers, military academies, staff colleges, armories, reserve centers, and training ranges around the world.

The DoD uses nearly every instructional delivery method imaginable. Examples are conventional classroom instruction, correspondence courses, graphic training aids, videotapes, audio teletraining, CDs, intelligent tutoring systems, satellite delivery of distance learning classes, online instruction, simula­tors, training that is embedded in equipment, hands-on laboratories, and field training. Additional resources are allocated to unit-level training, field exercises, distributed simulations, and immense training exercises engaging tens of thou­sands of learners in multifaceted, interconnected physical and virtual learning environments. Clearly, military training blends many forms of instruction.

Note: The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Defense.

The Handbook of Blended Learning

The core competency of the military involves violence and the credible threat of violence—to safeguard, coerce, deter, or defeat others in support of national interests. Military training must prepare individuals to enter into harm's way and perform physically and mentally demanding tasks at the highest possible levels of proficiency (Fletcher & Ghatelier, 2000).

With modern challenges of unconventional threats as well as the integration of information systems for netcentric operations, it is not surprising that the DoD is undergoing a transformation in the way it trains. The global war on terrorism challenges training to prepare the force to learn, improvise, and adapt to constandy changing threats and do so in a more integrated manner across the military services as well with intergovernmental, interagency, and multinational partners (Department of Defense, 2004).

Along with its research investments in future weapons and other systems, the military sponsors substantial research and development in forward-looking learning and job-aiding technologies. These include intelligent tutors, distributed simulations, learning objects, content repositories, embedded training, and multiplayer online games, to name just a few. It is worthwhile to note that tech­nologies developed by the military can find their way into public and commercial use; a relevant example of technology transfer is the transition of the restricted ARPAnet to the ubiquitous Internet.

Explaining how learning environments are blended across the military requires some background. Readers are probably more familiar with learning in educational settings or industry, so the pathways of military training need fram­ing. A brief description of how training requirements are established is followed by a description of how military training is structured. Examples of blending various methods of instructional delivery are illustrated with real examples, beginning with individuals' learning specialized skills and ending with large-scale, multinational training exercises for masses of units. Note that the focus here is on training to enhance skills for staffs and other military units rather than professional military education, although there are plenty of examples of the latter. The orientation is to the U.S. military, though many nations follow a similar pattern.

Creating Training Requirements

The national military strategy responds to the National Security Strategy of the United States, which is issued annually by the president (White House, 2004). The military strategy imposes security requirements to five regional combatant commands. The commands span every corner of the globe with the exception of Antarctica, which by treaty prohibits any military measures. The Pacific

Blended Learning in Military Training

Command, headquartered in Hawaii, for instance, is responsible for military operations in the forty-one-nation Pacific Rim region. The commands issue what are termed joint mission essential tasks. Subordinate commands respond with their more detailed mission essential tasks. It is the job of the military services to train their units to perform these tasks. Readiness is the key.

The essential tasks are based on an analysis of a military unit's mission: what it is expected to do. Such tasks are considered absolutely necessary, indispensable, and critical to the success of a mission. An example of a mission-essential task is " conduct river crossing operations." Commanders establish supporting conditions for each task, such as whether a bridge is to be constructed in a jungle or a desert terrain. The resulting training objective—a set of conditions and standards that relate to a task—provides a clear statement of expected training performance.

How does the military training enterprise respond to these requirements? It is accomplished through multiple levels of training, from individuals to large units. The learning environments for individuals are partitioned into categories, prepar­ing them for assignments in operational units. At this point, individual tasks are executed in a specific context in a unit while collective skills are developed.

Overview of Military Training

Military training involves the preparation of both individuals and collectives, such as crews, teams, and units. The six categories of individual training listed in Table 37.1 represent formal institutional environments. Individuals continue to refresh and sustain skills long after the schoolhouse. Individual training is intended to provide service members the skills and knowledge that will qualify them to perform effectively as members of military units.

The metric " training load" specifies the number of student-years in formal institutional training and education during a one-year period, so a training load of 1 is equivalent to a full-time, year-round student, attending class for five hours per day, five days per week, fifty-two weeks per year. On this basis, the military training load computes to approximately 184, 000 (Department of Defense, 2002). Stated differently, on any given day, 184, 000 service members are in class.

Blended Learning in Individual Training

There are few opportunities for blended models of learning in recruit training. In­stilling discipline, indoctrination into the rigors of military life, and a regiment of physical conditioning are offered in a face-to-face manner by drill instructors. America's Army, a popular single and multiplayer online game sponsored by the army, offers a preview of recruit training. It is not part of recruit training, but

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