Emergent Leader Immersive Training Environment (ELITE)
2010-present
Project Leader: Matthew Trimmer
The Emergent Leader Immersive Training Environment (ELITE) is a new virtual human-based training prototype that supports the instruction, practice and assessment of interpersonal communication skills for leadership and counseling. ELITE addresses a training gap by introducing junior and non-commissioned officers to situations where they must counsel or support a subordinate through a performance problem or personal issue. Through one-on-one conversations with a life-sized virtual human, along with lessons and an interactive response system that engages the entire class, ELITE prepares students for the challenges ahead by providing skills and interaction practice before they reach their first assignments.
Phase 1: Homework
The instructor introduces students to basic counseling and interpersonal skills. Students receive a handout that identifies the ELITE interpersonal skills and provides a framework for connecting the interpersonal skills with what an Officer might actually say during these interactions. Given real world case studies, students must apply each skill in the framework by providing examples of what they might say to address the performance or personal problems.
Phase 2: Instructor-led exercise (with Animated Vignettes)
Instructors will facilitate a student-led discussion focusing on how students would apply the basic counseling skills to work through the case studies. Instructors will then show demonstrations of the interpersonal skills being used correctly using ICT-created animated vignettes that help illustrate each skill step-by-step.
Phase 3: Blended classroom practice exercise
The ICT has developed a Digitally Immersive Virtual Environment (DIVE) in which one student interacts with a Virtual Human playing the role of a Staff Sergeant. The student must counsel the virtual subordinate through a performance problem or personal problem. During the counseling role-play session, the individuals in the class follow the interaction and select the option they would choose using clickers. All data are captured to facilitate the After-Action Review (AAR).
While only one student is in the DIVE at a time, all students are engaging in the scenario. Multiple scenarios allow several students the opportunity to interact with the Virtual Human in the DIVE during one classroom session.
Phase 4: AAR
After each interaction with the Virtual Human, there is an instructor-led AAR to discuss the skills that were hit or missed. The tracked data will indicate how the class trended for each skill. Furthermore, the interaction will inevitably serve as a case study that can be discussed for however long or short the instructor desires before moving on to the next scenario.
The ELITE project is a partnership with the U.S. Army Simulation and Training Technology Center (STTC), Orlando, FL, and the Maneuver Center of Excellence (MCoE), Fort Benning, GA. The first ELITE prototype was installed at the Maneuver Center of Excellence (MCoE) at Fort Benning, Ga. in late 2011. An ELITE demonstration was part of the Army Exhibit at AUSA.
