Replacing Powerpoint with Extended Reality for Marine Corps Planning, Concepts of Operations, and After Action Reports
Abstract
Marines in the combat arms are severely limited in the planning phase of operations due to outdated briefing methods and limited technology. For that reason, this research investigates alternative methods for modernizing operational briefs in the Marine Corps combat arms community. The author surveyed Marines in the combat arms on the desirability of current PowerPoint and sand-table briefing methods versus briefings in a digital 3-dimensional environment with extended reality (XR). The alternatives presented in the survey were based on extensive market research conducted for this project in the different fields of the XR environment, including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) in order to assess the practicality and costs of introducing XR. The findings suggest that XR may increase attention, learning, and retention when compared to the lecture-based model used in PowerPoint. Moreover, the Marines surveyed are ready and willing to replace PowerPoint, so long as the solution supports joint interoperability and does not simply supplement the status quo. Lastly, it was determined a strong preference for any particular type of XR does not exist as the current generation is not fully aware of briefing technologies external to the 2-dimensional model of PowerPoint.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1126953
Entities
People
- Daniel G. Jagears
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School