Daniel+Oprish

**Problem Summary **
====In 2010, the Commanding General of the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command mandated a radical shift in the way Soldiers are educated and trained. The mandate, entitled The Army Learning Model for 2015, challenges all teaching and learning organizations in the command to convert most classroom experiences into collaborative problem-solving events led by facilitators (vice instructors); tailor learning to the individual learner’s experience and competence level based on the results of a pre-test and/or assessment; and dramatically reduce or eliminate instructor-led slide presentation lectures and begin using a blended learning approach that incorporates virtual and constructive simulations, gaming technology, or other technology-delivered instruction. ==== ====Two subsets of the requirement to convert classroom experiences into collaborative problem-solving events are that of feedback and the use of technology to enhance learning. Many classroom experiences offer very little in the way of meaningful feedback to the learner. An initiative in DOTD is to address this weakness with the use of clickers. The clickers will be used throughout the instruction to aid the facilitator is assessing learning. ====

**Background of the Organization **
====The Directorate of Training and Development has been a key directorate at the Armor School for 20 years. It has been named many things and has taken a place in different commands, but its mission has remained constant. That mission is to develop and sustain doctrine and training products and services to enhance the combat effectiveness of the current and future Maneuver Force. ====

====The Directorate of Training and Development is located at Fort Benning, GA. Its command and staff are physically located on the second floor of McGinnis-Wickam Hall. The organization’s clientele include Soldiers attending school at Fort Benning, training and education organizations at Fort Benning, and the operational army. ====

====Pass and fail statistics would be useful in determining what interventions to pursue. At present, the organization does not have an updated web site. However, there is some public relations material for the organization that can be obtained from the Maneuver Center of Excellence website: https://www.benning.army.mil/ ====

**Stakeholders and Decision-Makers **
====The people most likely to be affected by my intervention will be students and facilitators. The proponent for the course, with guidance from the training developer, team chief and facilitator would make the decisions to implement the plan once it is developed. The key personnel in the organization that can provide me with insights into the performance problem for which I will propose an intervention are the facilitators of the instruction. They are the ones that best know which lessons need to be revised in regards to student feedback and checks on learning. The names of possible interviewees will be listed later in the project. ====

**Performance Gap: Cause Analysis **
====Actual Current Performance. At present, many teaching organizations are stuck in the old model teaching model of presenting information to learners. The ALM 2015 initiative challenges teaching organizations to go beyond simply presenting information and engage learners. The deployment of clickers will serve two purposes: to introduce technology in the classroom and engage learners. ====

====**Desired Performance.** If the goals of ALM 2015 are met, learning organizations would convert most classroom experiences into collaborative problem-solving events led by facilitators (vice instructors); tailor learning to the individual learner’s experience and competence level based on the results of a pre-test and/or assessment; and dramatically reduce or eliminate instructor-led slide presentation lectures and begin using a blended learning approach that incorporates virtual and constructive simulations, gaming technology, or other technology-delivered instruction. ==== ====Performance Gap. At present, there is very little technology used in many classrooms. Learners are sometimes just simply recipients of knowledge. There is very little room for engagement with the facilitator or the instructional content. Ideally, learners will be allowed to interact with the instruction and the facilitator will assess learning throughout the instructional unit. ====

====**Cause Analysis.** The US Army has been stuck in the past for many years. The problem goes back to the Second World War. There was a great need for a huge number of well trained soldiers to support the war efforts overseas. The most economical method to accomplish this was the behaviorist-based tell-show-do teaching methodology. Soldiers were presented instruction and tested using a checklist. If the soldier could do what was evaluated on the checklist, the teaching was accomplished. Why did the people you interviewed think this problem developed in their company? Why does this gap exist? ====

====Mission - Develop and sustain Doctrine and Training Products and Services to enhance the combat effectiveness of the current and future Maneuver Force ====

====Mission - Develop and provide training strategies, programs, products, and systems to enhance the combat effectiveness of the current and future Armor, Reconnaissance / Cavalry, and Infantry Force. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Key Functions: ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Individual task analysis, development, and management (CMF 11 & 19). ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Develop new system training strategies. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Develop and coordinate training system support concepts. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Manage course Programs of Instruction (POIs) & assist in developing lesson plans and POIs. ====

====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__Assumption 1:__ The average cost of a 32 unit pack student response system is $1,999 USD (approx $62 per unit) and a 24 unit pack at $1599 (approx $66 per unit). The units also come in packs of 5 clickers. ==== ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__Assumption 2:__ They are very few, if any, training developers, course managers or classroom facilitators in the organization that are familiar with using clickers in the classroom to facilitate engagement and improve the learning outcomes. ==== ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__Assumption 3:__ The organization has a wide training base that comprises a varied audience. From the new Soldier with a GED or high school diploma to the experienced Soldier with a college background. ====

====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__Low end intervention.__ Because of the organizational lack of experience in using clickers, the clickers will be implemented in on a limited trial basis. A 32 unit pack system will be used in one class of advanced students. Feedback will be gathered from the students and facilitators on what learning outcome improvements were made during the implementation. ==== ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__Middle end intervention.__ Ideally, training would be made available to the training developers, course managers and classroom facilitators in the proper implementation of the clickers. This training would incur potential costs in travel and boarding to the training site, the training itself, and lost work hours while attending training. This course of action would include the low end intervention. ==== ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__High end intervention.__ Considering the varied training audience, a best practice approach would be to implement the use of clickers in a wide variety of courses, addressing a wide variety of learners and their exclusive needs. This would provide a more inclusive data set to make better decisions on the value and potential of clickers. A total of nine 32 unit packs would be deployed across a broad spectrum of the training base. ====

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Justification for Intervention Strategy **
====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I selected the middle end intervention to propose to my chain of command. While all three courses of action have merit, this one seems to have the least amount of risk involved. ====

====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The low end intervention – a limited implementation of clickers – is not the best choice because it would simply be a haphazard attempt to use the new technology. The facilitators might possibly be perceived as inept by the students and learning outcome improvement would be limited. ====

====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The middle end intervention - a limited implementation of clickers along with training for those that will use them – is a better choice because those that would design the learning events and use the system in the classroom would be formally trained in their use. ====

====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The high end intervention - a full-blown implementation of clickers along with training for those that will use them – carries some risk in that the outcome of the new technology implementation is not yet known. This could end up being a very risky undertaking. The expense of nine systems and the training could end up being wasted. By using the middle end intervention, less risk would be incurred, and as the staff became more proficient in the use of the system, adjustments to its implementation could be made. ====

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Manager’s Many Roles **
====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My role as the project manager makes me overall responsible for the successful completion of the project. I will work with the stakeholders to determine the requirements of the project and the timelines for completion. There will be many tasks and subtasks to attend to, so I will delegate most of these to other team members. The tasks include the purchase of the student response systems, development of instructional material, development of a project completion timeline, selection and development of the instructional staff, development of instructional staff training, and development of an implementation plan. ====

====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Resources used in this project include classrooms, student response systems, personnel, and computers. The classrooms, student response systems, personnel, and computers are distributed throughout the command, and will be managed by the tenant organization. What I will be able to do is suggest how to use these resources. We have a somewhat bulky and cumbersome system of requesting additions to our table of distributions and authorizations, our funding and resourcing vehicle. The required classrooms, personnel, and computers are already in place. The student response systems will have to be purchased. The SRS will be hand receipted to the gaining unit, as any piece of accountable property is. ====

====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The medium used for the delivery of the intervention strategy will be the classroom. The SRS will be used throughout the instruction to aid the facilitator in assessing learning and encouraging collaboration. An implementation plan has not been developed, as this a project task with a deliverable due date. ====

====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The organization has a portal where the project documentation will be stored and accessed by other team members. Since there will be others making changes to this documentation, a version control system will have to put in place. The last person to modify a document will save the document with the original title, but add his/her initials and date in parens. For example, ‘Clickers in the Classroom (dao, 28April12). ====

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Manager as Change Agent **
====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Implementing the use of clickers in the classrooms of the MCoE is a combination of directive change and participative change. Therefore, there is a need for change agents at both levels. The directive change agents are those that are in leadership positions that are following the strict mandates of ALM 2015. The participative change agents are those that will make the implementation happen. These include the classroom instructors, the course managers and the lesson writers. ====

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The approximate cost of implementing intervention strategy 2 will be $4500.00.
====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The initial implementation will consist of 100 clickers and the associated instructor hardware such as base receivers, instructor remotes, and flash drives. Each i clicker 2 costs $43.99. The associated instructor hardware costs approximately $ 1000.00 ([] ) (see attachment E1). ==== ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The managers will sign up for an online overview of how to use the student response system. It is intended to give potential adopters a basic understanding of clicker features and functionality. The managers, instructors, course managers and lesson developers will sign up for training in how to use the SRS. Each training session lasts an hour (see attachment E2) ([] ). ====

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> There is no cost associated with this training. However, each participant must be away from there other duties to attend training.
====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Once the managers, instructors, course managers and lesson developers have completed the online training, they will come together for an initial four hour period to discuss what they learned and how to implement in the classroom. ====

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The project will be evaluated using a combination of formative and summative evaluations.
====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The formative evaluation will involve the instructors, course managers, lesson developers and students during the three planned pilot classes. The new lessons using the clickers will go through the standard internal design and development checks done with the instructional systems specialists and training technician. They will look for the readability of the lesson from an educational soundness standpoint. After each iteration of pilot class, corrections and improvements will be made during the pilots, students will be asked for their input using level 1 evaluations (see attachment A1). ==== ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The summative evaluation will be conducted after the three pilot classes. Student test scores will be compared to assess the effectiveness of the clicker implementation. Test scores prior to the pilot as well as the scores from the three pilot classes will be compared to see if there has been an improvement in learning (see attachment A2). ====