Military, civilian, and contractor personnel who handle, store, and transport munitions, explosives, and hazardous materials are subject to a myriad of regulations from the U.S. government, the Department of Defense, and the Army. To keep their jobs, these workers must complete initial and refresher training to maintain certification as prescribed by Federal law. On-demand distance learning exists to meet the wide demand for this certification training. Following 21 certification courses in 2022, over 145,000 learners completed distance learning regulatory courses and were certified to handle, transport, package, secure, and store the world’s most dangerous items. The designers and developers of these distance learning certification courses must meet the challenge to apply effective learning strategies that ensure learners can retain and apply the necessary information to keep warfighters and other personnel safe.
In this paper, we explore failure as an effective way to learn using branching scenarios that allow learners to fail safely and repeatedly in a variety of ways. Learners can make a mistake and then correct it. They can fail miserably, resulting in horrific and potentially real outcomes, such as imprisonment, death, or severe harm to others. They can make smart choices where nothing happens—no explosion, no medal or promotion, just going home at the end of their shift. The learners make decisions and “experience” the outcomes. They can always start over and replay the scenario, making different choices.
This paper surveys the existing literature regarding the affect of safe failure on adult learning, discusses how safe failure motivates student receptiveness to learning, presents the key characteristics of safe failing in branching scenarios, and analyzes several years of pass rate data and qualitative data from student surveys from certification courses with high student throughput.
Keywords
DISTANCE LEARNING, DISTRIBUTED, ELEARNING, FEEDBACK, SCENARIOS
Additional Keywords
FAILURE, MOTIVATION, CERTIFICATION, REGULATIONS