University of Southern California

AXL—Army Excellence in Leadership

The AXL project focuses on accelerating leadership development. AXL provides an engaging and memorable way to transfer tacit knowledge and develop critical thinking through case-method teaching, filmed storytelling and interactive training. The primary products of the project are an easily modifiable website AXLnet and custom fictional filmed cases created in collaboration with Hollywood talent to address specific leadership issues. This project is a collaboration with the U.S. Army's Leader Development Research Unit.

AXLnet

AXLnet provides a dynamic and interactive experience for the students and provides easy-to-use tools for instructors to easily author customized lessons. Students can log on to view and analyze cases, including but not limited to the AXL films that ICT has developed, and even ask questions of the characters from the films. The system draws on the ICT's research in natural language processing to allow the student to interview characters from the cases through free-text questions. The system can also provide feedback to students and tailor the learning experience to students based on their responses.

Filmed cases

ICT has developed three filmed leadership cases for the U.S. Army. The first case, "Power Hungry," is a thirteen-minute film about a food distribution operation in Afghanistan. "Trip Wire," considers the leadership challenges posed by the threat of IEDs in Iraq and "Red Tight" deals with local security threats in a Patriot battery operation. The three films, all based on real-life situations, were brought to life by experienced Hollywood screenwriters, professional Hollywood actors and guidance from military personnel subject-matter experts. ICT has also completed work with the U.S. Army Corps of Chaplains to develop two fictional filmed cases focused on ethical decision-making on the battlefield, titled “Fallen Eagle”.

Additional Uses

ICT has an on-going collaboration with USC's Marshall School of Business, including their Experiential Learning Center, where AXL is being used for business-oriented leadership issues.

This project differs from others in the following ways:

  • It combines case studies with interactive training technologies to enable trainees to acquire leadership skills. (Other training applications usually focus on the acquisition of knowledge that can be communicated through books or field manuals.)
  • It develops technology solutions that support both self-development and classroom teaching.

Tags: case-study, engaging, immersive, knowledge, leadership, story

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Goals

  • Accelerate the development of US Army leaders who need critical thinking skills, strong team and interpersonal skills, cultural awareness, and adaptability in unfamiliar situations
  • Focus on the acquisition of leadership skills
  • Create "blended learning" applications for use in self-directed leader development and classroom instruction