EQUIPMENT CUSTODIAN MANAGEMENT COURSE

1 ASSESSING THE FEASIBILITY OFCOMPUTER-ASSISTED INSTRUCTION FORTHE STANDARD BASE SUPPLY SYSTEMSEQUIPMENT CUSTODIAN MANAGEMENT COURSETHESISM ichael A. SivleyFirst Lieutenant, USAFAFIT/GLM/LSR/89S-54 DISTPBUTION STATEMENT A ICApproved for public release;Di2tribution Unlimited C 0 DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE BAIR UNIVERSITYAIR FORCE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGYW right-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio8 12 05 156 The contents of the document are technically accurate, and nosensitive items, detrimental ideas, or deleterious information iscontained therein. Furthermore, the views expressed in thedocument are those of the author and do not necessarily reflectthe views of the School of Systems and Logistics, the AirUniversity, the United States Air Force, or the Department ForSNrTT ( rA&I!)

2 DTT!C T,"'I ..F .1 -I-Av- . , , I I II IAFIT/GLM/LSR/89S-54 ASSESSING THE FEASIBILITY OF COMPUTER-ASSISTED INSTRUCTIONFOR THE STANDARD BASE SUPPLY SYSTEMSEQUIPMENT CUSTODIAN MANAGEMENT COURSETHESISP resented to the Faculty of the School of Logisticsof the Air Force Institute of TechnologyAir UniversityIn Partial Fulfillment of theRequirements for the Degree ofMaster of Science in Logistics ManagementMichael A. Sivley, Lieutenant, USAFS eptember 1989 Approved for public release; distribution unlimitedAcknowledgementsI am grateful to a number of people for theirassistance in getting me through this most difficult , I must thank my thesis advisor.

3 Dr. CharlesFenno was involved and enthusiastic about &he topic of CAIfrom the beginning. I will never forget his advice onresearch, programming, and his review of this document. Hisability to lift my spirits while writing the CAI program forthe ECMC COURSE was , I want to thank the people at WPAFB Base Supply,who were helpful in this research project. A special thanksis due to Ms. Jody Taylor because this research could nothave been accomplished without her..Next, I want to thank my fellow GIM's for beinq able tomaintain a sense of humor throughout the last few , I thank the two men who highly suggestedAFIT to me, Col. Maxie Allen and retired Lt Col.

4 , and most importantly, I want to thank my wifeVicki and my daughters Jennifer and Rene' for not divorcingand disowning me. Girls, I promise that you can use thecomputer now. Daddy promises to be home more over the nextthree ..List of of 2 Research and Literature and Practice .. Order Languages .. 22 Authoring Methodology .. 28 Introduction .. 28 Investigative Question 1 .. 28 Investigative Question 2 .. 29 Investigative Question 3 .. 30 Investigative Question 4 .. 31 Investigative Question 5 .. 32 Summary .. 33IV. Development of the CAI COURSE .. 34 Introduction .. 34 Description of Current Training COURSE .

5 4 Development of CAI COURSE Content .. 36 Development of CAI COURSE Structure ..41 Planning for Verification and Validationof the CAI Program .. 46 Summary .. 46V. Verification and Validation of the Program .48 Introduction .. 48 Method of Verification .. 48 Method of Validation .. 49 Observation of the ConventionalCourse .. 49 Validation of the CAI COURSE .. 50 Comparison of CAI vs. ConventionalInstruction .. 53 Summary .. 55VI. Conclusions and Reccmmendations .. 57 Introduction .. 57 Conclusions .. 57 Recommendations .. 60 Supply Training Unit .. 60 CAI Development .. 61 Summary .. 62 Appendix A: Instructor's Prioritization of Emphasison Major COURSE Topics.

6 63 Appendix B: Project Flowchart of ECMC Design ..65 Appendix C: The EQUIPMENT CUSTODIAN ManagementCourse Program in BASIC Code .. 67ivPageAppendix D: Results of Screen Design Survey ..180 Appendix E: Data from Conventional COURSE * F: Data from CAI COURSE Offering.. is t9U Ejpe sFigure Page1. Relationship of Main Areas to The Instructional Systems A Typical Instructional of TablecTabl1e Page1. Comparison of Coventional COURSE vs. purpose of this research ?as tr) investigate thefeasibility of developing and testing a Computer-AssistedInstruction (CAI) program for the EQUIPMENT CustodianManagement Block III COURSE administered by theWright-Patterson AFB Base Supply Customer Training Unit(2750th LS/DMSPTT).

7 The study had five major categories of investigativequestions: 1) the training requirements of supply, 2) thecircumstances in supply that could affect CAI development,3) the Air Force (AF) guidance on development of training, 4)the development of CAI, and 5) the effective ways to test andevaluate a CAI COURSE . To answer the above questionsinterviews were conducted with key supply personnel, theliterature on CAI theory was reviewed, and AF andmanuals were the first four investigative questions wereanswered, a CAI COURSE could be dpveloped. To develop theCAI program, decisions had to be made in three major three areas are the CAI COURSE content, the CAI coursestructure, and the implementation of the CAI COURSE .

8 Afterthese decisions were made, a CAI COURSE was *..I COURSE was implemented into a classroom settingand cvaluated against the conventional instruction. Theevaluation compared student achievement, instructional time,exam time, and overall COURSE time. For this experiment, CAIwas found to be a feasible method of instruction for theWPAFB Base Supply Training Unit. A considerable reduction inoverall COURSE time was observed. The average overallcourse time for the CAI COURSE was 2 hours 23 minutes, areduction of 62 percent from the overall conventionalcourse length. Also student exam scores showed an increaseover the conventional COURSE observed.

9 The exam scores forthe CAI COURSE averaged 92 percent, a seven percent increaseover the scores obtained by the lecture/discussion method THE FEASIBILITY OF COMPUTER-ASSISTED INSTRUCTIONFOR THE STANDARD BASE SUPPLY SYSTEMSEQUIPMENT CUSTODIAN MANAGEMENT IntroductionGeneral IssueAir Force Regulation (AFR) 50-10 (Base-LevelSupply Customer Training) states that the Wright-PattersonAFB (WPAFB) supply customer training unit (2750thLS/DMSPTT) will offer five major blocks of instruction toits customers (7:1-2). The supply training unit alsoprovides internal classes for supply personnel. All ofthese courses--whether mandatory, internal, or customerrequested--must be developed, taught, and updated by thepeople in the training instruction is currently presented using theconventional methods of teaching: classroom lecture anddiscussion (31).

10 This training puts a considerable workloadon the limited number of people in the base supply WPAFB base supply training unit has theresponsibility of keeping trained over 2,000 equipmentcustodians and their alternates. Annually, the base supplytraining unit trains over 600 new EQUIPMENT EQUIPMENT CUSTODIAN MANAGEMENT COURSE (ECMC) is offered1tvice a month and accommodates 30 to 35 pcople per classClasses are held at the WPAFB supply branch training roomane are scheduled to last six hours. Custodians of accountslocated away from WPAFB but serviced by the base supplybranch receive an ECMC package and take the COURSE throughcorrespondence (31).