The Use of Microworld Simulations to Train Theater-level CSS Staffs: Training Development Considerations
- ISBN-10
- 0833027123
- ISBN-13
- 9780833027122
- Pages
- 33
- Language
- English
- Published
- 1999
- Publisher
- RAND
- Authors
- Emile Ettedgui, John Bondanella, David M. Oaks
Description
This documented briefing provides some guidelines for the development of a promising new method for teaching the complex skills required of high-level combat service support (CSS) staff members. The goal of training for theater-level CSS staffs is to master complex skills. These individuals will need to find important trends in streams of data, determine their likely impacts on the ongoing operation, and finally influence CSS operations to achieve the desired support. Today's training methods and tools-narrow in scope, cumbersome, and resource-intensively train these skills poorly. The Army's Combined Arms Support Command (CASCOM) asked the Arroyo Center to develop a better way to train these staffs. At the heart of the new methodology for CSS staff training is the development of a skills matrix, supported by microworld training tools. The skills matrix departs from current checklists of staff tasks found in mission training plans (MTPs) by laying out skills at a greater level of detail and by providing flexibility in the groupings of skills used to train particular staff sections or members. Microworld models, or "management flight simulators," are an excellent training tool. Created using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software, these models can be quickly developed and modified to meet specific training needs, can be disseminated widely for individual training or used in group training sessions, and can be acquired at a cost much lower than those of traditional training simulations (such as CSSTSS or CBS). Two prototype models a hypothetical theater distribution system and the POL distribution network in the early phases of Operation Joint Endeavor (Bosnia)-demonstrate the promise of the microworld as a training tool. Several lessons for CASCOM, as the training developer of the microworld models, became apparent in this research project.
