History

In the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) of 1996, the Department of Defense (DoD) identified several factors that highlighted the need for DoD to provide on-demand training for individuals and units worldwide. In response to the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), DoD developed a Department-wide strategy to harness the power of learning and information technologies to standardize and modernize education and training in 1997. The strategy was called the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative.

DoD directed the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (OUSD P&R) to create the Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative in November 1998. Executive Order 13111, signed on January 12, 1999 by President William J. Clinton, tasked the DoD with leading Federal participation with business and university groups and activities and charged them with developing consensus standards for training software and associated services.

The specific goals were to:

• Identify and recommend standards for training software and associated services purchased by Federal agencies and contractors.
• Facilitate and accelerate the development of key technical training standards in industry and in standards-development organizations.
• Establish guidelines on the use of standards and provide a mechanism to assist DoD and other Federal agencies in the large-scale development, implementation, and assessment of interoperable and reusable learning systems.

In 1999, DoD established an ADL Co-Laboratory in Alexandria, Virginia to provide an open forum for collaborative development and assessment of technical standards, prototypes, and associated tools in support of DoD needs. Since that time, it has fostered the development, dissemination, and maintenance of guidelines, tools, methodologies, and policies for the cost-effective use of advanced distributed learning resource sharing across DoD, other Federal agencies, and the private sector. It has also supported research and documentation of the capabilities, limitations, costs, benefits, and effectiveness of advanced distributed learning.

In May 2000, ADL participated in the development of the Department of Defense Implementation Plan for Advanced Distributed Learning. The Implementation Plan “describes the DoD Defense’s approach to carrying out the Department of Defense Strategic Plan for Advanced Distributed Learning (a report submitted to the 106th Congress on April 30, 1999), and includes information about specific ADL prototypes, program milestones, and associated resources.” To read the complete plan, visit http://www.defenselink.mil/prhome/docs/adl_implementplan.pdf

In January 2009, the Deputy Director of ADL submitted a new proposal for an ADL Strategic Plan to the Office of the Under-Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. Approval of that plan is pending.

Strategy

The Deputy Secretary of Defense directed the development of a department-wide strategy to harness the power of learning and information technologies to standardize and modernize education and training.

Although there was ample evidence that significant savings were possible with current technology, the ever-quickening pace of technological change, with its continuous evolution of proprietary platforms, makes it difficult to implement technologies on a large-scale. Conversely, these newer technologies have the potential to provide a more efficient and effective means of improving military readiness, achieving significant savings, reducing travel, and improving quality of life. The ADL Initiative’s strategy is to leverage the power of newer technologies by:

• Exploiting existing network-based technologies.
• Creating platform-neutral, reusable courseware and content to lower costs.
• Promoting widespread collaboration to satisfy common needs.
• Enhancing performance with emerging and next-generation learning technologies.
• Developing a common framework that drives COTS product cycles.
• Establishing a coordinated implementation process.
• Developing common standards and guidelines.
• Releasing ADL specifications (e.g. SCORM).

The ADL Initiative can only fulfill its mission by partnering with the Services, Defense agencies, and Federal agencies in collaboration with the private sector and academia.

The ADL Initiative provides leadership to the learning community by:

• Implementing guidance for designing and developing efficient, cost-effective, and global distributed learning.
• Encouraging collaboration by demonstrating the practical application and success of learning technologies and methodologies.
• Advancing the state-of-the-art in the science and technology associated with individual and collective education, training, performance-support, and assessment.
• Promoting a coordinated implementation process with incentives for organizational and cultural change.