Accelerating Development of Expertise: A Digital Tutor for Navy Technical Training
Abstract
Development of the Digital Tutor (DT) was undertaken by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to accelerate theacquisition of expertise in initial technical training courses. DARPA chose Information Systems Technology (IT) as the Tutors subject matterafter extensive analysis revealed its ubiquity and criticality in defense and civilian operations. Five assessments of the Tutor have beencompleted and are documented by this report. The last four of these assessments were performed by the Institute for Defense Analyses(IDA) acting as an impartial, third-party reviewer. These assessments found that after 16 weeks of training with the Tutor, sailors who hadno prior IT experience, scored higher in tests of IT knowledge and job-sample troubleshooting, often with effect sizes well in excess of twostandard deviations, than others who received 35 weeks of classroom instruction and technicians with an average of 9 years of IT experiencein the Fleet. Additional analyses found (a) the Digital Tutor to be significantly more effective than human tutoring in one case and better butnot statistically significant in another, (b) effectiveness of the Tutor was not dependent on reading ability, (c) its effectiveness was moreequitably distributed than that of classroom instruction, and (d) net present value to the Fleet from investment in the fully employed IT Tutorwould exceed $300M annually.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 2014
- Accession Number
- AD1002362
Entities
People
- John Dexter Fletcher
- John E. Morrison
Organizations
- Institute for Defense Analyses