Leading the charge on the ground and in the classroom
The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is comprised of elite individuals shaped by extensive training and education. Often the first on the ground in combat situations, Marines must be prepared for any crisis across the globe. The same goes for USMC’s tens of thousands of reserves, who live and breathe the same spirit of vigilance and must be ready to act at a moment’s notice.
Fueling the organization’s extensive training and professional military education is the Marine Corps Education Command (EDCOM) and the College of Distance Education and Training (CDET). Together, these organizations deliver, manage, and constantly improve USMC’s educational programs to prepare Marines for their daily operations and support their career and skills development.
“Our mandate is to make critical training and education accessible to every USMC member, and to make sure the way we teach those skills evolves with their needs,” says Larry Smith, Director of Educational Technology at USMC. “Just like in the world of civilian education, Marines increasingly crave digital learning experiences and the option to train remotely.”
The technology USMC CDET uses to create and distribute training content needs to evolve accordingly, which is why the organization is using Adobe’s solutions to standardize its eLearning platform, also known as MarineNet®. The new eLearning ecosystem provides every USMC member with 24/7 access to virtual courses and assessments, rich training videos, and the opportunity to collaborate and develop teamworking skills while learning remotely, from anywhere in the world.
Digital Learning on Demand
USMC has had an eLearning platform in place for over 20 years. Previously, the platform had no way to support the creation, distribution, or tracking of various types of digital content for every user, nor were training materials truly digital. A small amount of rudimentary courses was offered, or educators would upload their course materials as PDFs or Scantron documents for Marines to download or fill out manually.
Prior learning systems restricted educators to limited control over course content and the end-user experience. “Training works best when you empower educators to create their own eLearning materials and they can impart their specific expertise, but until recently we couldn’t make a change to the website without going through an external contractor,” recalls Smith.
The case for USMC to transform its eLearning environment was already clear, and then the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, adding a new layer of urgency to its plans. Along with annual training requirements, Education Command’s formal schools and master’s programs had to shift to teaching remotely. This meant that the USMC needed to keep training and educating its members as well as host group seminars in a virtual environment.
“The goal was digital training on-demand,” says Smith, breaking down the three principles that would go on to govern USMC’s eLearning transformation and new look approach to distance learning:
- To make all training and educational content accessible to every Marine on-demand.
- To ensure members can view training materials on any device while respecting the Department of Defense’s security posture.
- To bring consistency to eLearning across USMC and empower users to create rich media content within that framework.