TRADOC Pam 525-3-7-01 - TRADOC - U.S. Army

TRADOC Pam 525-3-7-01experiential learning (GEL) is a means of packing more learning into less time. Virtualsimulation is a primary means of providing GEL. Virtual simulation will enrich institutional andoperational training and through wide availability via DL and other means, make a majorcontribution to the Army’s life long learning capabilities.Potential applications of virtual training to provide experiential learning are numerous. Forexample, Scales states:The military spends millions to create sites to train Soldiers how to kill an enemyin cities. But perhaps equally useful might be smaller home station sitesoptimized to teach small units how to cultivate trust and understanding amongpeople inside cities. These more intimate and hands-on facilities would immerseindividual Soldiers in a simulated environment, perhaps replicating a mosque orbusy marketplace, where they would confront various crises precipitated by roleplayers seeking to incite a local mob to violence. 140In the future, advances in S&T will enable realistic, interactive “virtual humans” to take theplace of human role players, and artificially intelligent mentors, coaches, and tutors will guideSoldiers through the training event and provide feedback on performance. Advances in learningscience, and application of principles of learning science to the design of virtual simulations, willalso be essential to ensure the simulated environments are also learning environments.Integrating off-the-shelf game technologies into virtual simulations and authoring tools enableSoldiers to modify scenarios as needed. As technology advances there will be more widespreadapplication of virtual simulation to areas such as language training, combat leaderdecisionmaking, and the augmentation of live training with virtual training. The future outlookincludes a repository of small game-based trainers for Soldiers by demand, providing training formany individual and team level tasks.Virtual training scenarios developed relatively quickly in response to needs from the field,and the fact that Soldiers and units are demanding these types of applications, will be factorsshaping the availability of this type of training in the future. As stated earlier, the future Soldierand leader will be very much like today’s digital natives only more so. Many future Soldiers willbe familiar and comfortable with virtual simulation as both an entertainment and a learningplatform. Soldiers and commanders will seek out virtual training for professional development,reset and pre-deployment training, and mission rehearsal—especially if the simulation scenariotailors to the specific Soldier or unit need. Current unit demands for virtual trainers are indicativeof this growing trend.Future CTCs will continue to employ constructive simulations for the realistic simulation ofdigital battle command systems, however they will expand training capabilities, and both thecenters and the simulations will be increasingly easy to use. Centers will interconnect with oneanother to share simulations and, to approximate more fully an actual training event. Centers willinterconnected to instrumentation systems in the field and to virtual training systems formounted, aerial, and dismounted operations. Furthermore, the centers and the simulations theyprovide will be turnkey operations for commanders and their units. Commanders will simply120