23rd Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning
For more resources: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference
Enabling Joint Military Training through Advanced Distributed Learning
Robert Wisher
Director, Advanced Distributed Learning
US Department of Defense
Joseph Camacho,
Program Manager, Joint Knowledge Development and Distribution
US Joint Forces Command
The Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) initiative was undertaken to make education, training, and
life-long learning available anytime, anywhere. Relying on information and communicative technologies
and many partnerships, ADL has developed a reference model of specifications and techniques that are
being adopted by governments, businesses, and schools globally. Although ADL is presently focused on
government and business applications, it has significant implications for the classroom processes and
activities of K-16 education. Reported here is the status of its underlying specifications and standards.
Also reported is a leading example of its implementation in the military.
ADL Technologies
Since its inception in 1997, ADL has been a story of partnerships and collaboration. Through
collaboration with key specification and standards bodies, the Sharable Content Object Reference Model
(SCORM) has emerged and has become a de facto standard adopted internationally by dozens of leading
vendors of Learning Management Systems, such as Blackboard, Sum Total, and Plateau. The model keys
on the use of learning objects as a way to make instructional materials readily accessible. ADL
instructional objects are digital, sharable, and reusable entities that can be used for learning. They can be
aggregated into full courses or used separately as aids to job performance. Although the specification has
been under development for several years, the serious implementation of the ADL framework is just
beginning.
The current version the reference model is SCORM 2004 3rd Edition, issued in October 2006. The model
consists of a run-time environment, a content aggregation model, and a sequencing and navigation
capability. As of May 1, 2007, 44 learning management systems have been independently certified as
SCORM-conformant. Nearly half are from vendors or organizations outside of the United States, some
are open source. The US Department of Defense is pursuing the transition of the stewardship of SCORM
from itself to a to-be-determined international organization. No specific timeline has been set.
Content Object Repositories
Effective identification and location of instructional objects are managed by the Content Object
Repository, Discovery, and Registration Architecture (CORDRA; Rehak, Dodds, & Lannom, 2005). Both
SCORM and CORDRA rely on metadata to specify and locate objects. Metadata are part of the digital
packaging “wrapped” around the objects. They specify what the object is and what is in the package.
CORDRA is built on existing standards and specifications, orchestrated and combined by ADL to provide
sharability and interoperability of instructional objects along with visibility and access control.
The first instance of CORDRA is the ADL-Registry, now in use by the Department of Defense. The
Registry is the central site where the metadata describing any instructional object developed or acquired
by the Department must be registered. The individual military services and Defense components must
also register their constituent repositories, which contain the full run-time version of the instructional
Copyright 2007 Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
Duplication or redistribution prohibited without written permission of the
author(s) and the Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning
1
23rd Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning
For more resources: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference
object. These groups control access to the full objects through their own business rules and policies. The
ADL-Registry has been operational since late 2006.
Evaluation and Payoff
The ADL initiative, through its Training Evaluation Team, pays close attention to the evaluation literature,
tracking and coding all available empirical studies on the effectiveness of online instruction. The first
installment of a consequent meta-analysis was based on 96 reports (Sitzmann, Kraiger, Stewart, & Wisher,
2006). The results found Web-based instruction to be more effective than classroom instruction for
teaching declarative knowledge when Web-based instruction incorporated synchronous human interaction
and had a high level of learner control. When similar instructional methods were used, Web-based and
classroom instruction were equally effective for teaching declarative knowledge. One purpose of the
analytic strategy is to establish a baseline of results against which to compare the effectiveness of
SCORM-based online delivery, reports on which are just beginning to enter the literature.
An example of payoff with ADL is the work at the Defense Acquisition University (DAU), a corporate
university that trains the acquisition, technology, and logistics workforce of 134,000 people within the
Department of Defense. Faced with the need to provide training as quickly and as cost effectively as
possible, DAU has made strategic decisions that have allowed it to experience both growth and budget
efficiencies simultaneously.
By focusing on content as a strategic asset and implementing SCORM, DAU benefits from the system’s
scalability by identifying opportunities for reuse and sharing of assets across multiple organizations. The
metrics are truly impressive. From 2001 to 2006, total learning hours increased from 2,560,000 to
6,070,000 per year while the average cost per hour dropped from $38.78 to $18.02 per hour. DAU
learning products are available around the clock – more than just a convenience, a necessity with a global,
deployed workforce located across several continents and at sea.
Enablement Example
In 2002, the Department of Defense initiated a Training Transformation program, with the goal to provide
a global training and education capability dedicated to improving joint training and education for the total
force of active forces, reservists, Defense civilians, and contractors. The program will achieve its
objectives and missions through three capabilities, employing processes, networks, systems, policies,
plans, and technology enablers. From the beginning, the ADL initiative was identified as a technology
enabler for individual training and education through the Joint Knowledge Development and Distribution
Capability (JKDDC).
JKDDC is aligned under the US Joint Forces Command, Joint Warfighting Center in Suffolk, Virginia.
It was chartered to develop, facilitate access to, and distribute joint knowledge and information assets via
existing and emerging networks in support of combatant commands, military services, combat support
agencies, multinational, intergovernmental and interagency community partners.
As a significant milestone, Joint Knowledge Online (JKO) was launched in April 2007 as the
foundational structure for the Training Transformation capability. JKO is an enterprise portal system
delivered through the Internet and special sensitive and secret protocol router networks. The JKO
provides access to a learning management system of joint courseware and web-based learning tools and
services. The spectrum of users includes military, interagency, and intergovernmental individuals
involved in integrated joint operations.
Copyright 2007 Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
Duplication or redistribution prohibited without written permission of the
author(s) and the Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning
2
23rd Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning
For more resources: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference
Enhanced JKDDC capabilities making the JKO enterprise portal unique and particularly convenient
include:
• Learning Management System using ADL SCORM 2004 3rd edition
• Certified Joint Courseware – more than 100 courses all SCORM conformant
• Capability to Track Defense-wide Training
• Common Access Card / Single Sign On
• Joint Individual Augmentee Training
• Provincial Reconstruction Team Training
• Universal Joint Task List Based Search Capability
• Lessons Learned / Subject Matter Expert Reach Back
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Intergovernmental and Interagency Accessibility
Closing Comments
ADL will continue to devise technologies and architectures to integrate learning environments with the
SCORM model and the registered learning content. Under review are technical publications using the
S1000D standard, simulations, online games with an eye toward common data models and service
oriented architectures. The technologies will maintain the ADL functional requirements of accessibility,
reusability, and interoperability, all working in an open environment.
Working closely with the ADL initiative, the JKDDC focus for the future is on taking a leadership role in
state of the art content development capabilities, expanding reach to the broadest spectrum of users
possible, interactive instruction and immersive training environments to enhance performance of our joint
operators in integrated operations based assignments, and emphasis on defining measures of effectiveness
with meaningful metrics and assessment tools and methods.
With modern day challenges of unconventional threats as well as the integration of information systems
for net-centric operations, it is not surprising that the military is undergoing a transformation in the way it
trains. The ADL initiative and the JKDDC enablement are leading examples of this transformation.
References
Fletcher, J. D., Tobias, S., Wisher, R. L. (2007). Learning anytime, anywhere: advanced distributed
learning and the changing face of education. Educational Researcher, 36(2), 96-102.
Rehak, D., Dodds, P., & Lannom, L. (2005). A model and infrastructure for federated learning content
repositories. In D. Olmedilla, N. Saito, & B. Simon (Eds.), Proceedings of the WWW *2005
workshop on interoperability of Web-based educational systems. Retrieved from http://ceurws.org/Vol-143
Sitzmann, T., Kraiger, K., Stewart, D., & Wisher, R. A. (2006). The comparative effectiveness of Webbased and classroom instruction: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 59, 623–664.
Wisher, R.A., & Graesser, A.C. (2007). Question-asking in advanced distributed learning environments.
In S. M. Fiore & E. Salas (Eds.), Toward a science of distributed learning (pp. 209-234).
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Biographical Sketches
Dr. Robert Wisher is a research psychologist who has been working in the field of training technology
for more than 20 years. He holds a doctorate degree in cognitive psychology from the University of
California, San Diego.
Copyright 2007 Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
Duplication or redistribution prohibited without written permission of the
author(s) and the Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning
3
23rd Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning
Address:
E-mail:
URL:
Phone:
Fax:
For more resources: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference
Office of the Secretary of Defense
4000 Defense Pentagon (Room 1E525),
Washington, DC 20301-4000
Robert.Wisher@osd.mil
www.ADLnet.gov
703-693-3527
703-693-7382,
Mr. Joseph Camacho is the program manager for the Joint Knowledge Development and Distribution
Capability. Mr. Camacho holds a bachelors degree in technology management from the United States
Naval Academy.
Address:
E-mail:
Phone:
Fax:
US Joint Forces Command/JWFC
JKDDC Program Manager
116 Lakeview Parkway
Suffolk VA 23435-2697
Joseph.Camacho@jwfc.jfcom.mil
757-203-7266
757-203-6057
Copyright 2007 Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
Duplication or redistribution prohibited without written permission of the
author(s) and the Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning
4