How do you identify objectives?
Identifying objectives is a critical step in establishing a successful training program. Since training in simulators may be at a basic or advanced level, different goals will ensue. Ideally, the process of identifying training objectives should take place before the development and implementation of a training program. However, training objectives can be identified at any time in the training process by interviewing instructors or managers and reviewing documentation concerning the simulator. For example, the Army Research Laboratory recently identified the training objectives of an existing battlefield simulation. For example, the training objectives that were defined in the study included increasing students’ confidence in fire support, increasing students’ knowledge of fire support techniques, and successfully performing battle tracking (Dzindolet, Gleason, Hernandez, Hill, Jaquint, Jette, Larsen, Oxley, & Pierce, 1998). After the identification of objectives, specific measures need to be developed to quantify elements learned by the trainees during the simulation. At the conclusion of training, these measures can be analyzed to determine if the training objectives were met.
See
also Training Needs Assessment
See
also Cognitive Task Analysis
