Assessing the Impact of Information Channels on the Understanding of Ground Truth

Human Systems Integration ReportIt is important to understand the impact that the proliferation of information displays has on the warfighters ability to reason about, or make sense of, battlefield information. This research investigates how information sources at a tactical operations center (TOC) workstation affected a battle captains ability to understand and portray ground truth in a simulated battlefield scenario. Twelve active-duty officers with previous battle-captain experience were randomly assigned to one of four groups. Each group was exposed once to each source condition (two or six sources) and tactical scenario. A replicated prenetwork centric warfare (NCW) TOC workstation and modern digitally networked workstation were used for comparison. During each 40- minute battlefield scenario, participants provided situational reports (SITREPs), placed friendly and enemy unit symbols on the battlefield map, and provided perceived mental workload. The results of this research indicate that there is no difference for situational understanding between the modern battle captain workstation (six sources) and the legacy workstation (two sources), when the amount of information from the sources remains the same. Contrary to expectations, perceived mental workload using the two-source workstation is significantly higher than the six-source workstation. Results of this research could have implications for the design of future information system and networked workstations in TOCs.http://archive.org/details/assessingimpacto109457433Major, United States Arm

Dudley Knox Library Survey of Distance Learning Students

Two files: Report and presentation (with findings and background data).How can the Naval Postgraduate School's (NPS) Dudley Knox Library (DKL) better serve the needs of distance learning students? The Fall 2011 NPS Survey Research Methods class (OA4109) devised, conducted and analyzed results of a survey of distance learning students on behalf of DKL. The study succeeded in meeting three objectives: 1) Evaluate the need for library services; 2) Determine if needs vary among various distance learning curricula; and 3) Solicit feedback on the usability of the DKL website