By Joyce Conant and Sara Preto
The U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California recently launched new training applications to support the U.S. Army’s sexual harassment/assault response and prevention, or SHARP program.
The Emergent Leader Immersive Training Environment Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention Command Team Trainer, or ELITE SHARP CTT is a laptop training application that gives Army command teams the knowledge, skills, confidence and ability to successfully execute the SHARP program.
These applications are a part of the ELITE platform and will be used by the Army SHARP Academy-the proponent for this type of training throughout the Army.
ELITE SHARP Bystander Resource Assessment Virtual Exercise, or BRAVE is the new laptop-based training application. It was developed under the guidance of the SHARP Program Management Office and in collaboration with the Army SHARP Academy and the Army Forces Command.
The application targets junior leaders and Soldiers by providing instruction and strategies on how to successfully intervene when observing behavior that could lead to potential incidents of sexual harassment or sexual assault. It employs techniques that have been used successfully in earlier versions of the ELITE suite of training applications. The techniques include a virtual human instructor to deliver up-front instruction on new key concepts, animated vignettes to provide visual examples of “good” and “bad” responses to SHARP incidents and practice exercises where students can apply their new knowledge in realistic training scenarios.
“We are excited to begin leveraging the additional CTT content and the new BRAVE application in our SHARP education and training efforts,” said Col. Christopher H. Engen, director of the Army SHARP Academy. “These latest innovations enable us to continually improve the breadth and rigor of available learning products for use and benefit Army-wide.”
The new version provides more training content than was available in previous ones. Its content includes specific strategies and recommended actions for commanders dealing with situations of retaliation prevention and response. It also includes several additional practice exercises providing command teams with more opportunities to advance their knowledge and hone their skills in dealing with SHARP-related situations within their units.
The new ELITE SHARP functions continue to build on the robust research and development conducted by ARL and the Army’s ICT. Both applications and associated supporting documentation to include training support packages, user guides and software installation instructions are now available on the Army MilGaming web portal at https://milgaming.army.mil/.
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