Utilization of Virtual Battlefield Simulations for Effective Military Team Performance
By Dr. Yulia Tyshchuk
Teams and team work are fundamental to military operations. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how team dynamics, including communications and information exchange, contribute to military team performance. The goal of ongoing research at the United States Military Academy (USMA) is to develop theory and models to evaluate and simulate how teams organize, ex-change information, and build knowledge, using influence, training, and consensus- building.
With an emergence of new educational technologies there is a need to understand how these technologies affect military teams’ training and their subsequent performance during the field training and military operations. Specifically, the researchers are seeking to understand how Virtual Battlefield Simulations (VBS3), which are used during class instruction, contribute to the USMA cadets’ mastering and applying the intended learning objectives during field training and subsequent military operations. Additionally, in order to better understand how to foster leadership and improve communications among the cadets the researchers will study how prior relationships, perceptions, and other cadets’ attributes affect team dynamics and emergence of leadership during VBS3 exercises.
The data collection for this study will enable us to see how cadets utilize Virtual Battlefield Simulations in order to under-stand the educational material presented in class and apply this knowledge during the summer field training. This year we have a unique opportunity to collect data after cadets VBS3 exercises as well as during cadets’ summer field training. Specifically, the data collection was conducted following VBS3 defense exercise during Military Science course ‘Platoon Operations’. Read More
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