The 2021 Military Classroom: Relevant and Transformed

Halldale Group Editor Marty Kauchak examines today’s changing military classroom and its future.

We hesitate to use ‘transformation’ to describe contemporary defense developments. Yet, the changes in the purpose of the 2021-era and near-future military classroom, and its underpinning learning technologies and learners’ instructional strategies, transcend a simple ‘pivot’ or other less rigorous evolution – they are truly transformational. As these learning venues evolve, they will remain relevant and important in servicemen and servicewomen’s continua of learning, from occupational and mission training to professional military education.

Insights from two S&T industry representatives, one on each side of the Atlantic, and two US military services, indicate that in the quickening pace of classroom transformation, learning technologies populating these venues, and the courses they enable, will be remarkably different – for starters.

Evolving Frame of Reference

While classrooms are ubiquitous in the military training and education enterprise, trying to obtain the number of these venues in the US DoD, much less in one of the services, is akin to determining the answer to the classic theological query: how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? One insight on the number of classrooms in a learning organization was gained from the US Army’s Enterprise Classroom Program (ECP), a subordinate element of Army University, located at Fort Eustis, Virginia, which recognizes 1,385 brick and mortar classrooms supporting professional military education (PME) throughout the service.

Attention-getting numbers aside, one US military general officer hinted at the broader disruption surrounding classrooms, and in this learning space. Brig. Gen. Donn H. Hill, Deputy Commanding General-Education, US Army Combat Arms Center, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, first noted there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the use of classrooms across PME Army-wide. Hill, who is also the Provost of the Army University and the Deputy Commandant of the US Army Command and General Staff College, added, “What works for a graduate-level instructional program at Fort Leavenworth may not work as well for a basic leader class at an NCO [non-commissioned officer] academy.”

While a confluence of forces, from other service requirements to the ‘pull’ of technology, are combining to step up the pace of change of the legacy-era classroom, let’s not forget how learning enterprise managers continue to respond to the significant forcing and shaping functions of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Covid as Change Agent

BG Hill succinctly noted, when the pandemic began, school commandants and leaders at his service’s centers of excellence worked to develop solutions that best fit their education programs. “Since then, schools and centers of excellence have used a mixture of face-to-face, on-line learning, and blended learning to deliver professional military educations,” he said. While military training and education leaders have heretofore prided themselves on virtually moving content to support learning anytime, anywhere, the pace of supporting learning in and beyond the classroom is the proverbial ‘tip of the iceberg’ of the pandemic’s epoch.

Dr. Mark Conversino, Air University Chief Academic Officer, provided a second perspective on the C-19-generated turbulence to which his and other organizations continue to respond. The senior service academic leader supplied his insights on AU’s diverse and varied course portfolios for officers, enlisted, and civilians, noting at the outset, “that the health and safety of all personnel and their families has been and remains the absolute number one priority for the Air Force while we continue to successfully sustain our mission in support of the nation’s defense.”

AU reacted quickly to the onset and spread of Covid-19 in the early spring of 2020. At the direction of the service’s headquarters and the university’s parent major command, Air Education and Training Command, the AU/CC (commander) directed many in-resident classes with students attending in a temporary duty status terminated, unless they were within just a day or so of completion, and students returned to their home stations. Conversino also recalled, “The 10/11-month long degree-granting officer and enlisted professional military education schools and School of Advanced Air and Space Studies programs, and a handful of mandatory specialty qualification courses at Maxwell Air Force Base, together with several graduate degree programs at AFIT [Air Force Institute of Technology], continued in a modified ‘Covid-contingency’ status. Other, shorter courses that were cancelled in March 2020 took immediate steps to deliver their curricula in a virtual Covid-contingency fashion.”

To reduce confusion in distinguishing between deliberately developed in-resident and deliberately developed distance learning courses, regardless of content or length, that AU delivered via virtual means because of the Covid outbreak, the service university developed these terms: Virtual In-Resident-Local (VIR-L) and Virtual In-Resident-Remote (VIR-R). Both designations reflect that there is a critical difference between courses deliberately developed for distance learning, and the resort to virtual means undertaken as a result of the pandemic.

The Army and Air Force PME communities’ responses to C19, and their impact on in-residence (classroom) instruction, mirror quite well the curriculum adjustments at other training organizations around the globe, widely reported on MS&T’s web pages.

Beyond this pandemic, other developments are compelling other major changes to the role of a classroom in learning.

Survey of Use Cases

The Fisher consortium, led by Capita, Raytheon UK and partner Raytheon Professional Services, have been awarded a critical part of the program to modernize the Royal Navy’s shore-based training across 16 sites in the UK. Raytheon Professional Services’ simulation partner on this contract is Elbit, with a responsibility for the upgrade and build of simulators, as well as providing some of the more complex AR and VR modules. Other unspecified suppliers are part of the consortium.

The Fisher consortium, led by Capita, Raytheon UK and partner Raytheon Professional Services, have been awarded a critical part of the program to modernize Royal Navy’s shore-based training across 16 sites in the UK. Image credit: Royal Navy.

Darrell Peatross, Head of Consulting Services for EMEA, Raytheon Professional Services, outlined several key aspects of his company’s course modernization solutions, two of which include a bottom-up analysis of its customer’s training using his company’s Architect methodology and the provision of business cases for modernization. The industry expert also spoke to a third tenet, the modernization or build of new courses. “A key part of our proposed blended learning model is the reinvigoration of classroom training to use more effective delivery techniques, presentation media, and modern classroom technology,” he explained.

In the first instance of specific technologies for the evolving classroom, Peatross said, “In addition, we are also providing a wide range of modern media such as: digital video, VCT [virtual classroom training], interactive PDF, e-learning, and AR/VR. Some of our customers already have experience with advanced delivery media such as AR and VR and they are only being used where there is a need to practice complex tasks in a safe environment.”

The Royal Navy curriculum modernization has important implications for other classroom purposes and constructs, as there is a focus on individual and collective (unit) team training. Peatross emphasized that collective training in complex simulated environments is also something that customers want. “To accomplish this, many are looking at configurable simulation systems that are capable of being configured to suit a variety of needs. Rather than provide a physical representation of the command center, they are moving to a lower-fidelity solution that can be quickly adapted to suit a different need through software changes.”

In the US, SAIC is primarily involved in the introduction, and proving out the value, of modern digital platform learning environments which enhance the US DoD classrooms. Two activities offer a glimpse of how the company is modernizing the digital learning classroom.

In one, SAIC supports the US Air Force Pilot Training Next (PTN) program via a digital classroom environment which reportedly reduced pilot training time by approximately 50%. Bob Kleinhample, Vice President, Training and Mission Solutions, at SAIC, noted there are several novel aspects to this type of learning environment. “We delivered low-cost simulators to practice tasks which were traditionally only read about in books or through other less experiential means. We employed learning strategies to focus on tasks which result in high performance. Human performance techniques and capabilities were added to the curriculum and systems to further keep students in the ‘zone’. An adaptive learning framework is in the simulator software which allows students to learn at their own pace, bringing each student to the point of achieving competency.”

PTN represents what SAIC terms a “hybrid environment,” where in addition to the classroom, students have shared simulators in their dorm rooms. Another technology thrust, gamification techniques, helps increase the desire of students to want to practice on these simulators during their own time, further increasing their proficiency. VR-based simulators are relatively low cost, and the systems are highly deployable and therefore dispersible for SAIC’s purpose.

Similar to PTN is Aviation Training Next (ATN), which SAIC was supporting for the US Army Aviation Center of Excellence, Fort Rucker, Alabama, to deliver a similar capability, except for Army helicopters. The SAIC executive explained ATN was set up as a design of experiments to measure the efficacy of VR in a classroom setting, using the Initial Entry Rotary Wing curriculum as a use case with control and experiment groups under examination. Kleinhample added, “ATN did not utilize the out-of-classroom approach as described with PTN.”

As learning technologies increasingly populate Royal Navy and US DoD training programs, they will also be ever more prominent in professional military education. Air University’s Conversino provided additional vital lessons learned on the migration to transformed classrooms, focusing on other specific technologies, and called attention to implications throughout a program’s life cycle.

While Conversino noted the sustainment of existing technology and adequate funding for future upgrades, and additions to its existing capabilities, is critical, he also emphasized: “Support to faculty and students throughout the pandemic and beyond, and outside of the classroom, is likewise of vital importance.” Accordingly, the staff of the Air University Library (AUL) and its Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) provided such support across the Maxwell-Gunter campus.

The senior administrator’s ‘deep dive’into the university’s evolving technology portfolio is another important datum point for community practitioners and decision makers. A short list of innovation at AUL and TLC includes increased training on Microsoft Hubs, Teams, Zoom, and other technology to assist virtual classes. The TLC further increased Learning Technology Sessions and Canvas assistance to faculty, moved writing tutor sessions to virtual sessions, and is looking to continue offering this option via Teams.

The senior service academic executive continued, “AUL increased copyright reviews and presentations to assist instructors with transitioning print materials to virtual resources, increased purchasing of online educational resources, where possible, including eBooks & databases. AUL is managing ZoomGov Licenses for all of AU, and ‘checking out’ Zoom reservations. AUL also increased purchases of eBooks and databases as a means of reducing overall reliance on print materials for curriculum. These and other initiatives that helped AU fight through the pandemic will provide greater flexibility for faculty and students alike in the future.”

A small group at Army University’s Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, discusses unit movement during the Advanced Operations Course portion of the Command and General Staff Officers Course in February 2021. The 16-person small group is made up of US Army Officers, one US Air Force Officer, one US sea service officer and one or two international officers. Image credit: US Army/Dan Neal.

Instructional Design as Enabler

SAIC’s Kleinhample noted yet another example of enhancing the legacy or bricks-and-mortar classroom: the addition of microlearning to assist beyond the classroom. For its part, SAIC delivers two- to three-minute microlearning videos which are tailored to discrete learning objectives and delivered in very small bites.

“We are delivering these videos to the Air Force Lifecycle and Management Center Force Protection Division via a platform called in-SITE which allows for rapid search and delivery of these microlearning assets,” the corporate executive explained. “Additionally, many of the videos can be user-curated. Think of these microlearning videos as similar to YouTube videos. Training is available literally in the palm of your hand and when you need it. Our future workforce demands this sort of access to information and learning.”

Eye on the Future

As the role of classrooms evolves in military learning enterprises, program managers and decision-makers will need to carefully balance the competing requirements. While some truly eye-watering technologies are on the cusp of providing additional returns on investment for learning organizations’ on-site, and the cascading number of distance learning programs, there are the realities of other life-cycle requirements, from adequate funding to sustainment.

At the end of the day, it is also about the learner. Much has been written in MS&T about new military accessions and prospective recruits learning more efficiently and effectively with learning technologies, and closely related topics. Yet, there is also the imperative that in-person training remains relevant during the services’ increased use of learning technologies. To point, the Army’s BG Hill observed that in person training is essential throughout all stages of a soldier’s career, concluding: “Learner-centric environments engage students in frequent, context-based, problem-solving exercises and encourage peer-to-peer learning. The skilled instructor will leverage a students’ experience to influence the nature and complexity of classroom learning.”