ADL Initiative's Principal Investigator's Meeting : A Collaborative Success

The Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative hosted a Principal Investigator’s meeting on 5-6 April at its Alexandria office. The meeting had a number of goals in mind:

• Increase the potential for interagency collaboration
• Share project updates and increase collaboration among ADL performers
• Socialize the ADL Initiative vision, strategy, and goals

ADL Initiative’s conference room was nearing capacity with 57 external participants attending the two-day meeting.  A total of 13 organizations were represented on the performer’s side and 15 organizations on the stakeholder side. Stakeholders included 22 representatives from the armed forces, 3 representatives from the federal government, and 5 representatives from academia/other.

The agenda was organized according to ADL Initiative’s research topics and the corresponding Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) performers were each allotted 30 minutes to present on their projects with Q&A following.  Here is how that breaks down:

• Learning Analytics and Performance Modeling
  • Competency and Skills System (CASS)
  • Open Social Learner Modeling (OSLM)
  • Military Micro-Credentials (MIL-CRED)
• Learning Theory
  • IHATS (Integrated Human and Automated Tutoring)
  • Review and Assessment of Personnel Competencies and Job Description Models and Methods
• Mobile Learning (m-Learning) and Mobile Performance Support
  • Perceptual Adaptive Learning Modules (PALMs)
  • Personal Assistant for Self-Learning (PERLS)
• e-Learning (web-based learning)
  • A Critical Review of the New DoDI on Learning Content Management
  • DoDI Policy Analysis
• Web-based Virtuals Worlds (VWs) and Simulations
  • Mars Game (True Game)
  • Semantically-Enabled (Automated) Assessment in Virtual Environments (SAVE)
  • MathCraft
  • Independent Assessment of MathCraft
  • Virtual World Sandbox- Research in Proliferation and Control for Open Source Software
• Total Learning Architecture (TLA)
  • Fast Learning from Unlabeled Episodes for Next-generation Tailoring (FLUENT)
  • TLA Integration Assessment

Additionally, other stakeholders were invited to provide Ignite-Style Presentations. Representatives from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory , Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division, Office of Naval Research, U.S. Marine Corps College of Distance Education and Training , U.S. Army Distributed Learning Program , Department of Education, and University of Memphis briefed the group on their relevant Learning Science and Technology portfolio.

A poster session was held at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center in the evening on 5 April which was a great opportunity for participants to further explain their projects and portfolios, brainstorm potential collaborative opportunities, and socialize.  Both Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Readiness), Dan Feehan, and Director, Force Training, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness, Frank DiGiovanni, attended the poster session.

Overall, the meeting was a huge success.  A true test to that sentiment is that many of our government stakeholders expressed a desire to get involved with our BAA projects and follow-on meetings are taking place.  Additionally, the momentum has increased towards a FY 2017 TLA demo where each of these individual projects will be integrated together into a larger learning ecosystem.