Military training doctrine encourages the use of performance assessment for evaluating students. The use of simulations for distributed learning can fill a desire for performance assessment that is not being met by Interactive Media Instruction (IMI) and multiple-choice tests. Simulations can collect an enormous amount of data about student actions, but that data needs to be processed to get meaningful information about specific student skills.

This paper describes the design of After Action Review (AAR) reports for web-delivered simulations. Like the instructor score sheets used for practical exercises during live training, these AAR reports provide GO/NOGO on the performance measures defined by TRADOC schools for the critical tasks that soldiers must be able to perform. The AAR reports also provide feedback to the student, showing in the history of a session exactly which actions completed required tasks or caused the student to fail a performance measure. The combination of simulations and AAR reports is an essential element of Lifelong Learning Centers like the University of Information Technology (UIT) at the US Army Signal Center. The UIT web site allows students to download simulations, and to report back on a completed simulation by filing an AAR. This paper also describes how aggregating AAR data across students is supporting the ISD evaluation process.