A modified version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is being used to help Marines practice leadership, communication and decision-making under pressure.
Researchers from Virginia Tech’s Center for Human-Computer Interaction and the University of Memphis developed the video game-based education module for Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia. The project was created for the Sergeants School and uses tailored scenarios to help students turn classroom lessons into practical skills, according to Virginia Tech.
The program uses a modified version of the 2007 video game and includes 14 scenarios specific to the school. During the exercises, Marines work through situations that test leadership, critical thinking, teamwork and communication in real time.
The project is funded by the Office of Naval Research and is known as Research into Competency Acquisition with Novel E-gaming. The first group of Marines began using the system in January.
Brig. Gen. Matthew Tracy, commanding general of Marine Corps Education Command and president of Marine Corps University, said the training connects directly to real-world situations by helping Marines practice making sound decisions under pressure.
Lt. Cmdr. Mike Natali, an Office of Naval Research program manager, said classroom instruction gives Marines the knowledge they need, while video gaming gives them a way to practice, review and improve those skills through real-time decisions.
Unlike a normal game session, the modified platform also collects player data. Researchers can review information such as player positions, movement, enemy locations and shots fired. That data will be used in the project’s second phase to help a large language model improve after-action reviews.
Louis Hickman, the Virginia Tech professor leading the project, said the training does not end when the simulation stops. Marines use the follow-up review to break down their decisions, team communication and mission results so they can make better choices in the next scenario.
The Virginia Tech-led team included Ryan P. McMahan, director of the Center for Human-Computer Interaction, and Brandon Booth, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Memphis. The team had to build the software carefully because it cannot be updated once deployed.
Because the system runs several pieces of software at once, Booth said the team had to make sure the training module was stable, reliable and ready to work before Marines began using it.
Marine Corps University is already planning to install the software at the Marine Corps base in Twentynine Palms, California. Hickman said the response from students has been strong, with some Marines asking if the training could be made available at their own units after completing the program.
Tracy described the project as a two-way collaboration between the Marine Corps and academic researchers. He said the partnership shows how military education can test new tools while working with researchers in fields such as cognitive science and human-computer interaction.
Source: Virginia Tech
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