Transformation Accelerated through Redesign, Guidance, and Enhanced Training (TARGET)

As submarine threats from adversary countries continue to rise, the U.S. Navy must maintain and expand its anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities. Warfighter readiness is the linchpin of the Navy’s ASW strategy, but the complexity of the ASW domain necessitates time-consuming training, and practical experiences to transfer those skills to the operational environment. Innovative training approaches can accelerate mastery and foster skill transfer. The TARGET (Transformation Accelerated through Redesign, Guidance, and Enhanced Training) project uses two key components to address this need: (1) a task-centered instructional design strategy for ASW education, and (2) an electronic learning activity coach (eLAC) assisting faculty in application of this strategy. During Phase I, we developed prototypes designed to improve the STG’s ability to visualize the effects of oceanography on sonar. We also defined a library of other innovative learning methods for application to STG training. During Phase II, TARGET will work with ASW faculty to redesign the curriculum adopting a task-centered learning framework for integrating teaching methods and technologies. As eLAC is integrated into faculty processes, the impact of task-centered instructional design will expand, by allowing instructors to apply the task-centered learning approach to other ASW topics and throughout Navy schoolhouse and ship-board training.