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Imagine being able to walk across the hall, instead of travelling across the country, to take a class or attend training. If Lieutenant Colonel Steve Jones, head of the Marine Corps Distance Learning Branch, achieves his goal, Marines will be able to do just that. They will spend less time travelling to and from schools for traditional classroom training, and will reap the benefits of increased time engaged in productive work. Just-in-time, network-based learning is being enabled through the rapid rise of network connectivity, proliferation of multimedia workstations, and upgrades to the Base Telecommunications Infrastructure (BTI). Collectively, these trends will help propel the Marine Corps Distance Learning Network (MarineNet) towards realization. Distance Learning has been a part of Marine Corps training and education programs for more than 75 years. Until recently, programs from skills training to Professional Military Education have been available to remote sites through paper-based media. The transition to interactive multimedia instruction (IMI) has wide-reaching implications across the Marine Corps. The increasing reliance on Distance Learning to meet broad training requirements will address critical problem areas including the limited capacity of schools, outdated paper-based training materials, and the expense of sending active-duty Marines to formal schools for specialized and Professional Military Education training. Furthermore, other branches of the Department of Defense (DoD) are investing in Distance Learning infrastructure development. Of increasing interest will be the ability of these systems to interoperate and share resources across internal and external DoD organizations with a diverse range of training needs. For this reason, the Marine Corps has placed heavy emphasis on standards-based training products. Adherence to standards will result in a consistent presentation of IMI training materials across a large, distributed population. As a key component of the Marine Corps Training Modernization Initiative, MarineNet will help transform the way training and education are delivered to active and reserve Marines around the world. The MarineNet program establishes both a distributed learning network infrastructure and a program for development of IMI. To build this distributed learning infrastructure, the Marine Corps is rapidly investing significant resources towards upgrading telecommunications and instructional facilities. In turn, these investments leverage planned enhancements to the Marine Corps Enterprise Network (MCEN) and ongoing BTI upgrades. The Marine Corps Institute in Washington, D.C., has established a Distance Learning Center with staff and facilities for developing and distributing courseware (software-based course materials) and managing student records. Learning Resource Centers (LRCs) with networked multimedia computers are being established at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and Camp Pendleton, CA, and are planned for many other bases and stations. Regionally located MarineNet courseware servers will establish a distributed multimedia database and deliver IMI content to LRCs in both garrison and deployed situations. MarineNet IMI will include multimedia computer-based training (CBT) distributed on CD-ROM, as well as interactive Web-based courseware accessible via the Marine Corps Intranet. Through MarineNet, IMI will become available to Marines in their offices, in their homes, in LRCs, aboard ship, and through mobile networks to forward-deployed locations. Figure 1 illustrates the MarineNet infrastructure for distributed learning. Developing MarineNet poses several difficult communications infrastructure problems. Thorny issues about courseware security and privacy of student records must be addressed. Bandwidth requirements for multimedia communications between bases and forward-deployed forces must be met. Network redundancy and fail-safe servers must be configured to meet potential mobilization and force surges. Dial-up access must be made available to enable Marines to learn from their barracks or homes. Synchrony must be maintained among training modernization programs and ongoing BTI upgrades. Telecommunication services that are provided to MCEN through the Defense Information System Network (DISN) must support the bandwidth requirements for IMI distribution. The Distance Learning Branch is also addressing a range of instructional
design, development, and management issues. IMI courseware is currently
under development at the Marine Corps Institute and at Marine Corps Formal
Schools. To ensure that training results meet requirements, sound courseware
development processes and instructional design principles are being established
among the training staffs. The Marine Corps Institute and other Formal
Schools now offer training in IMI design and development. These courses
address the principles and processes of instructional design, style guidelines
for IMI content and interaction, and management processes for courseware
development and evaluation. Advanced topics address techniques for cognitive
assessment, interactive interface design, and instructional multimedia
production.
The Distance Learning Branch is also addressing a host of issues to modernize the management of distributed training. The traditional way to take courses from the Marine Corps Institute has been to register and correspond with the institute through the postal services. From initial registration to delivery of course materials, that process can take two to three months or longer, depending on student location and potential errors in paper work. MarineNet will transform course registration and student tracking processes by giving all organizations access to the MarineNet training management system. Furthermore, online courseware management will make it easier for instructors and developers to track courseware changes across the system and provide updated courses to all courseware servers virtually overnight. Resource guidelines will enable developers to redesign courses and curricula flexibly to meet performance competencies associated with task and occupational training requirements. Development and maintenance of training courses and curricula, ensuring student access to training and instructors, and improving the return on investment in training resources are key distance learning challenges throughout defense and commercial enterprises. By devising MarineNet as a system-of-systems for online training, and by engineering new training management solutions, the Marine Corps is helping to resolve these challenges. The emerging capabilities for Web-based simulation, collaborative learning environments, and intelligent training systems are also being actively studied, as they hold significant promise to increase the instructional power of distance learning. With support from the Marine Corps Programs site at Camp Lejeune, N.C., MITRE has been supporting the Quantico, VA, Distance Learning Branch in several ways: by guiding development of MarineNet operational requirements, by running simulation analyses of MarineNet telecommunications activity, and by consulting on courseware design. MITRE is also conducting a comprehensive analysis of alternatives for the MarineNet infrastructure. These efforts will continue to evaluate options for telecommunications support and standards for training management systems. Existing and emerging technologies will help to provide flexible and adaptable training to the globally distributed Marine Corps. Lieutenant Colonel Jones points out that"The transition to a distributed online learning environment in the Marine Corps is as much a challenge to our conventional thinking on training and education as it is a technical challenge to implement. Therefore, my objectives during the early phase of the Distance Learning program are to deliver training solutions that add value, that our Marines can relate to, and that are easily adaptable. The capabilities of instructional and information technologies today will enable us to meet those objectives." Moving forward, Lieutenant Colonel Jones and the Distance Learning Branch staff will focus on delivering high-quality, interactive, online training to all Marines. For more information, please contact John Tyler using the employee directory. |
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