Interactive Courseware (ICW) and the Cost of Individual Training.

Abstract : This paper examines the potential cost and personnel savings from wider use of Interactive Courseware (ICW) relative to current instructional delivery methods. Such potential savings are important because 6.7% of the total DoD budget is devoted to instruction and one in every seven military personnel are involved in individual instruction as a student, instructor, or in instructional support. The hypotheses are that wider use of ICW would (1) decrease the cost of training personnel to a given level of skills and knowledge and (2) decrease the number of students in training at any given time. The data support these hypotheses. Using conservative estimates of training costs and ICW savings, we estimate annual savings from wider ICW use to be $130 million to $160 million. The primary source of these savings is less student time under instruction, which should result in a lower training load and allow for less of the overall military personnel ceiling being used on those receiving, giving, or supporting individual training. The student time savings would mean 9-11 thousand fewer students with no loss of training throughput. The paper also discusses the institutional conditions that impede wider ICW use, and recommends ways to overcome these impediments and foster wider use of cost-effective ICW technology.