CAE Perspective: New Tools and Innovative Approaches to Learning Transformation

Dr. Regan Patrick, Ed.D., PMP, Chief Learning Officer, CAE Defense & Security and Mr. Philippe Perey, Head of Technology, CAE Defense & Security

Achieving lasting improvements in learning efficiency, effectiveness, and affordability requires a clear understanding of requirements to successfully blend advanced instructional methodology with leading edge educational technology. Terms such as “innovation”, “adaptive education”, “Virtual Reality (VR)”, and “Big Data” are used frequently, and often indiscriminately, but it is essential to clearly define and understand these concepts and capabilities when planning future learning ecosystems.

Tomorrow’s learners will demand new approaches and accessible tools to create an optimized environment in which they can flourish and grow. True innovation requires instructional providers and their customers to work collaboratively in the design and integration of improved approaches to learning. This shared ‘Learning Journey’ partnership is the foundation of success in building end-to-end digital training ecosystems. 

Adaptive learning structures are a key element of training innovation. Building flexible training systems centered on individual competencies, rather than on prescribed syllabi or production quotas is not new, but the tools and technology backbone to support this approach have only recently gained general acceptance in defense organizations. Competency-based education builds on a comprehensive understanding of human learning constructs and limitations.  Developed to quickly adjust to an individual learner’s needs and improve the speed with which they progress through a given course, these programs help increase knowledge and retention levels for the given content. Overall, the result is an increased capacity for greater student throughput and an improved evaluation process for continuous improvement in content and delivery.   

It is essential to engage the individual student. Learners face unprecedented challenges, and training providers must respond with new tools and updated approaches to learning. Instructional designers must create new learning environments for students to conceptualize and safely experiment within, as individuals and as part of a team. Learners will also insist on working within distributed, mobile learning structures tailored to their needs, where methods to strengthen neuro-connections in deep, meaningful ways are incorporated. These are radical changes, and CAE has challenged its training solutions teams to find innovative ways to develop, implement, and evaluate outcomes. 

Recent studies demonstrate low retention rates following traditional slide-based computer-aided instruction. This passive approach is giving way to experiential learning programs, enabled by VR, low cost/high fidelity simulation systems, and data analytics capabilities.

Adaptive training also relies on the targeted application of the latest developments in educational technology. To support learner-centric instructional methodologies, CAE has developed and integrated new tools designed to close the gap between student and content. One example is CAE Trax Academy, which combines these elements in an immersive, digitally connected training environment, enabling students to learn, practice, and perform in innovative new ways. Most importantly, these training environments are designed from the ground up with the student’s learning journey in mind. Individuals can learn and review content at their own pace while using built-in assessment tools to validate how effectively they have acquired essential knowledge. Once ready, students use their own Immersive Training Device (ITD) to practice a maneuver and are coached and guided through skills development to achieve the requisite level of proficiency. Throughout their learning journey, progression is tracked and logged for both the individual student and the entire class. By analyzing this performance dataset, instructors are best able to tailor their one-on-one time with the student and use the data as part of their overall competency-based assessment.

For maintenance training, CAE’s Immersive Maintenance Guide (IMG) utilizes a similar immersive VR approach to deliver content. Such highly immersive environments and flexible learning methodologies enable quantifiably accelerated skills acquisition. The CAE Trax Academy and CAE IMG both rely on comprehensive data analytics strategies to evaluate performance, modify content, and ensure that individual student needs are understood and met. They represent but two examples of a global revolution in training and education. 

As change continues to accelerate across battlespace domains, the need to create adaptive training systems has never been greater. To help reconcile expanding requirements with constrained resources, armed forces must establish partnerships with industry that span the continuum of the learning process. This ‘Learning Journey’ collaboration will jointly define problem sets, examine solutions and options, integrate and manage the chosen solution, evaluate outcomes, and adjust processes to deliver value and capability at the point and time of need. Industry is eager to bring forth innovation centering on the science of learning and actively harnessing increasingly ubiquitous Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality (VR) capabilities.

Success in integrating instructional design and technological solutions will rely on tight partnerships, aligned visions, and a mutual commitment to excellence. This, to assure victory on the battlefields of tomorrow. 

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