Tailoring Multimedia Instruction to Soldier Needs

To address particular learning needs, instruction should be designed to provide the right information to the right learner at the right time. While interactive multimedia instruction can reach a large audience, different learners have different learning needs. In this research, three questions were addressed: (a) how could existing Army interactive multimedia instruction (IMI) be modified to a needs-based format, (b) what types of instructional design techniques could be applied to design IMI for learners specific needs, and (c) what outcomes are associated with different types of needs-focused IMI? Following a survey of existing Combat Arms IMI, it appeared that most would require modification for reuse in a needs-based context. Six IMI exemplars were developed for two topics (i.e., Adjust Indirect Fire and Conduct a Defense by a Squad) targeting the learning needs of new squad or team leaders. The IMI were developed for three needs-focused conditions to test whether learners with differing levels of prior knowledge and experience performed better with different types of IMI. One condition was tailored training, and the other two were not tailored, and were designated as familiarization and core/refresher training. The exemplars were tested with Soldiers attending the Warrior Leader Course at Fort Benning. In all conditions, Soldiers showed higher test scores after training. However, for the less familiar topic, the greatest impact was found for the tailored training condition over non-tailored familiarization and core/refresher training. The familiar topic showed no differences among needs-based conditions. These results indicated that structure is necessary for novel material to mimic what learners naturally do with familiar material. To effectively modify IMI to a needs-based format, one needs to define the learning needs of the specific audience up front and to structure the IMI to support individual choice and flexibility. Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference , 01 Dec 2014, 05 Dec 2014,