This is an investigation into the feasibility and cost/benefit trade-off of an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) embedded in an Aerial Refueling Operator (ARO) station in an aerial refueling Tanker. The domain has been investigated, knowledge has been elicited, the design developed, and costs estimated. This instructional and software design and the process used to create it are described in this paper.

The training process designed into the ARO ITS is an adaptation of the current training process described by instructors and documents and observed at Travis Air Force Base. The four main types of ARO skills are: flying the boom, breakaway decisions, checklists, and communications. We looked at on-board and off-board training, initial qualification and refresher training, various types of students with various types of backgrounds, and the full range of Boom Operator tasks, skills, and required knowledge related to the ARO station and aerial refueling. Initial qualification training should follow a building block approach with training broken into a number of training stages which are Introduction and Initial Assessment, Communications Training, Checklist Training, Combined Checklist and Communications Training, Boom Flying Training, and Total Task Training.

The primary goal of the Software Design was to design a set of training systems that implemented the Instructional Design while trying to reduce costs and allow for a system that could be expanded and enhanced in a spiral development methodology. Existing software was reused where cost effective. Components developed for any given trainer are reused in the development of others where possible. The core components of each trainer are: simulated scenario-based evaluation, feedback, and debrief capability. To this could be added a student modeling and instructional planning system.