ELITE TRAINING


New game-based simulation expands to teach new leaders ‘soft skills’


by Mr. Timothy G. Wansbury, Dr. Randall W. Hill Jr. and Ms. Orli Belman E


ffective leaders counsel subordinates for a variety of reasons, from providing feedback for exceptional duty performance to giving guidance to those dealing with personal or work-related problems. Army Field Man-


ual (FM) 6-22 (Army Leadership: Competent, Confident, and Agile) aptly states that counseling is one of the most important leadership development responsibilities for Army leaders.


Traditional training for counseling has relied on a mixture of classroom lectures and discussion, role-playing exercises and hands-on practice filling out counseling forms. However, as early as this fall, the Army will begin changing how it trains junior military leaders to counsel subordinates.


Soldiers will soon be able to learn basic principles of counsel- ing and practice their skills using a laptop-based application called the Emergent Leader Immersive Training Environment (ELITE) Lite. Tis new training system uses low-cost, game- based “interpersonal communications


simulation” in which


students conduct interactive counseling sessions with virtual characters in scenarios specifically designed to represent sessions that are challenging for young, inexperienced leaders. Tese include issues of on-the-job personnel conflicts, financial and family stresses, substance abuse, and other personal difficulties and performance concerns.


Te ELITE platform represents a new generation of training simulation—one that employs sound instructional design principles along with game technologies to help junior leaders develop “soft” leadership skills like interpersonal communi- cation and counseling. Te system employs “virtual human” role-players instead of live actors in engaging practice exercises. It uses artificial intelligence technologies to assess student performance and provides embedded coaching and tutoring as students work through instruction and practice exercises. Much of the research and development (R&D) that produced the ELITE experiences takes place at the University of South- ern California Institute for Creative Technologies (USC ICT), a DOD-approved, Army-sponsored, university-affiliated research center.


THE ELITE EXPERIENCE ICT’s interest in developing the original ELITE system was inspired by the Army Learning Concept (ALC) 2015, which describes the Army’s goal to transform institutional train- ing away from traditional classroom lessons in favor of new dynamic learning environments. Although not focused on any one technology, ALC 2015 envisions using a variety of new virtual environments and game-based technologies to meet the learning needs of future generations of Soldiers.


56


Army AL&T Magazine


October–December 2014


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