1.Agenda Review

The GMU Immersion team met with 13 DAU staff members for various lengths of time, from 30 minutes to two hours.  With approximately two GMU Immersion team members recording and sharing notes for each person interviewed, over 500 comments were collected, collated, synthesized, and summarized into major themes as provided below.

Summary by Themes

Organizational

• LCIC is developing a course management system that includes a database to map competencies to terminal and enabling learning objectives (by learning asset) to cross-functional areas
• The terms: technologies, delivery modes, and instructional strategies/models are used interchangeably
• A stronger bridge is needed between technology experts (GLTC) and content providers (LCIC and regional campuses)
• “Our relationship does not end at the end of the course” – There is reach back with students
• A well-defined requirements document would support successful course development (Performance of Work Statement)
• Maintaining learning asset currency, relevancy, and accuracy with changing requirements is a challenge
• Sector 852 of the Defense Authorization Act added funding for training, workforce development; the 2nd transformation pulls funding from this source
• Faculty are very bright SMEs but some are still old-school
• "DAU is proactive"
• "We teach things they don’t know they need to know"
• LCIC needs more ISDs
• Performance support is now called mission assistance.

Roles

• FIPT is the governing body, comprised of FLs, DACMs, service and agency reps; they review curriculum and courses as stakeholders; they participate in course pilots (new and revised), conduct competency assessments, review student and faculty course evaluations, and basically determine what needs to be trained. DAU CDs and PLDs attend.
• FIPT and high level stakeholders may recommend content delivery, may follow DAU recommendations for content delivery, or may dictate content delivery method
• Functional leaders (SES level) set the competencies for 13 career fields, review and approve courses, certify courses annually
• DACMs oversee their service area needs such as making sure enough seats are available for their workforce
• LCIC is responsible for all content: courses, knowledge sharing, and performance support
• LCIC develops requirements documents in response to competency, service, FIPT, and / or other stakeholder needs and then decides what needs to go into a course based on the requirements
• LCIC does a ‘cross-walk’ across current competencies and learning objectives to prevent duplication
• Center Directors decide which delivery method to use and are in charge of a portfolio in their functional area(s); PLDs have a portion of the portfolio to oversee
• Center Directors /PLDs are practitioners, content focused, that translate competencies into courses, supported by ISDs, and is aware of adult learning approaches (as through Faculty Professional Development FPD)
• Center Directors work independent of each other, support OSD taskings, vet policy, and support human capital strategy planning.
• Center Directors also support competency re-evaluation and standardizing the level of granularity in the competency model
• GLTC provides the production and implementation for learning assets, advises and helps on delivery decisions, generates ideas on technology integration, and works with the LCIC and regional campuses
• ISDs are used to help develop TLOs and ELOs and participate in Learning Asset IPTs
• Learning Asset IPTs decide the best way to design and deliver courses, consists of the ISD, gaming/simulation rep, a Program Learning Director, and the SME
• Learning Asset Management IPT finds and/or assigns owners to learning assets; the CLMs have owners now, and the knowledge sharing assets are to be done next
• Faculty develops curriculum, sets tags for Acquipedia articles, instructs/facilitates class, serves as learning asset managers, updates existing courses, provides performance support, conducts research, addresses course evaluations, contributes to the knowledge sharing learning assets, familiarizes students with informal learning assets, and supports upper management; almost half their time is targeted for teaching
• the library maintains and updates content and curriculum information to support the faculty

Technology

• Implementing technology is good so long as it is appropriate for the content and learning objectives
• Instructor appraisals account for course evaluations thus creating a disincentive to adopt new technology in a highly-rated course
• DAU has many tools available such as RSS feeds, social bookmarking in DAP, classroom clickers, itunes
• The LMS is not considered user-friendly
• New technologies are presented but not the application (the where, why, and how to integrate)
• Technological challenges exist such as bandwidth, Section 508, and external directives to exclude flash drives
• Gaming and simulation has no place for faculty to practice and test
• Technology is considered during initial course development and revision cycle
• Gaming and simulation supports ‘practice in privacy’
• FPD is currently under revision, one of nine faculty courses addresses technology in the classroom
• Bandwidth issues and alternative multimedia formats need to be addressed earlier in the process

Delivery

• "We’re web 1.2"
• Some courses have both a high bandwidth and low bandwidth version or provided on CD
• Different generations require different instruction and delivery types
• Mobile learning has been tagged as a technology to pursue
• Bloom’s taxonomy drives the delivery mode but not necessarily the technology.
• In general, level I is distance learning, level II is hybrid, level III is classroom (sage on the stage is gone, case-based is in)
• On-line courses provide opportunities to increase student throughput.
• DL is asynchronous; synchronous is limited to 12 students so this only used for limited throughput cases (class has more seats)

Learning Strategies

• Case-based learning used often in Level III courses
• Informal assets could be better leveraged as pre-course learning, research for a problem
• Paradigm shift occurring by integrating scenarios and role-playing activities into courses

Process

• LCIC conducts a curriculum review twice a year
• CD’s work with GLTC for technology integration
• All decisions are passed through the FIPT, from ‘training need identified’ through update review cycles
• Identified training needs are ‘cross-walked’ across competency models and learning objectives to prevent duplication of efforts and promote re-use of assets
• The decision to make a course core or not takes into account the time away from the job, faculty, seats available, faculty loading per course (1 or 2 instructors per number of seats), and available funding.
• The decision to make a course online or not takes into account content, logistics, throughput, and scheduling/resource availability; large demand classes are usually DL
• A CLM is typically requested by the CD or PLD via a requirements document.
• Some CLMs are created to provide more in depth content to topics that cannot be fully addressed in core certification courses.
• The SME creates the requirements and does the design.
• At the design stage, the ISD helps with the TLO/ELOs development. 
• Once the content is stable, it goes to GLTC for contracting.
• The amount of course richness (multimedia) is determined by the contractor based on the assigned ‘gold standard’ (12, 18, or 24-karat; 12 karat was a page-turner, 24-karot was interactive)
• Instructor and student pilots are conducted
• Courses are scheduled 18 months out
• Course/CLM development time is 4-6 months but depends on other variables
• Courses are often created before technology and multimedia are included in the course.

Knowledge Sharing

• “It’s about the content, not the ownership”
• One occurrence of content but multiple users with multiple entry points to the same content
• Need a digital management system to manage all learning assets.
• There is redundant information between all knowledge sharing. 
• Change media from a repository to usable assets
• The informal learning assets are not creating a repeatable event
• Every class is required to spend at least 15 minutes on the DAU knowledge sharing resources
• DAG is proven practices and updated policies
• Vision: put the DAG in a collaborative workspace where the workforce can add commentary on what works, what’s missing, etc to support future updates
• Nexus: an advantage is that by replacing humans with personas means updates don’t require that same person, or having to re-do a lot if a particular person leaves
• Since 2003 BPCh has 70 identified practices and 103 approved evidences
• DAP is a gateway to career field information, not just DAU
• 99% of people accessing the ACC do not login – they are consumers, find it thru google, etc.
• CoP is really LCIC entries, not really faculty; people don’t really have the time or the inclination; so folks default as being ‘takers’
• CoP has a cultural challenge: military chain of command does not support speaking out
• CoPs could be enhanced with a "learning guide" which would help a first-time users with navigation upon first-time login. CoPs need some help with usability. 
• Tagging taxonomy: Debate on whether contributors should tag or there should be a taxonomy built in to system
• Integration of best practices is not being incorporated into course content.
• Acquipedia articles are reviewed before posting
• AAP-data manager assign to gatekeeper at registration locations. Gatekeeper gives it to SME (panel) all look at the questions. The answer goes back to data manager for posting.

Vetting Process

• Vetting must balance subject matter validation against timeliness to content release
• A community of practice is a collaborative environment, reality-driven not teacher-driven, not vetted
• Best Practices are proven practices validated by re-use, making timeliness a challenge

Library

• Residential faculty from all five campuses can borrow books. Media is only available to residential students and faculty.
• Having accurate library data affects their credibility
• The most requested resources online is mil search, ebscohost (journals)
• DAU library is trying to digitize things, but copyright and lack of personnel slows process

Maintenance

• Requirements change so quickly that maintenance becomes an issue 
• DAU has launched many assets, how do they manage the maintenance and sustainment tail

Speed

• LCIC is interested in process improvement to increase speed to market
• Rapid deployment supports speed to workforce while content is being integrated into learning assets
• Course speed to market is influenced by external stakeholders and course complexity

Student

• DAU students now extend into DHS and the State Department
• Now seeing an influx of younger students
• Courses need to be cognizant of the learning styles of the younger versus older students
• Different career fields may have different learning styles
• Students spend the first 4 weeks at a computer learning the FAR.
• Students want courses to answer the question: what’s in it for me
• Student and supervisor decides what core plus courses to take

Workforce

• Workforce is more than 128,000 as so many more touch acquisition
• Courses topics outside career field are required such as Earned Value Management and Ethics
• Workforce requirements now to include cross-functional area training
• DAU Performance Support reaches anyone in DOD but also State Department and other departments
• Workforce are baby-boomers

Evaluation

• A mantra: If a course is working well, don’t change it.
• Learning asset feedback is collected on the course, CLM, and faculty.
• Portfolio managers are rewarded for integrating technology.
• Instructors may not want to change a course that is highly rated since their appraisals account for course ratings
• Metrics that Matter (post-course evaluations) and FCAR are evaluation systems

Courses noted during interviews:
ACQ 201A (online) and  ACQ 201B (resident) required for all career fields
LOG 236 (resident)  integrated product team
PQM 201B (resident) example simulation

PQM 301 (resident) example game