Collaborative & Mobile Learning in the US Military

The US Military has always striven to enhance training with technology, and pioneered e-learning when the Army Signal School stared to experiment with using television for training in the 1950s, and when the Air Force Institute of Technology began using commercial phone networks to deliver instructional content in the 1970s. In 1996, the Army created a distance learning program for troops to access college degree programs over a combination of Internet and satellite teleconferencing. Recently, the US military has been embracing the training potential of collaborative and mobile learning.

Determining the Benefits of Online Learning

In my previous post, I explored how to determine the costs of an online learning program by modeling and comparing the projected costs of a classroom-based training program to those of an online training program. However, modeling the costs is relatively easier than determining the financial and educational benefits of an online learning program.

Modeling the Costs of Online Learning Programs

In determining whether to implement an online learning program, any organization, whether it is a company implementing a new training program or a school implementing an learning management system, costs and benefits need to be scrutinized. Often organizations will forgo the benefits of an online or blended approach to learning in favor of traditional classroom based instruction, as they only consider the higher upfront costs of online learning. However, online learning programs can result in substantial cost savings over several years due to their lower recurring costs.