| The Night Vision Goggle (NVG) Training Course is the initial training course for U.S. Navy (USN), U.S. Marine Corps (USMC), and U.S. Air Force (USAF) aircrew who fly with NVGs. The course is taught by certified instructors at training facilities known as Night Imaging and Threat Evaluation (NITE) Labs. These NITE Labs are located throughout the United States and abroad. This presents, to course developers, the challenge of administering the course over distance. The purpose of this pilot study was to analyze, compare, and describe the effects of telecommunications support NVG Training Course administration in both the USN/USMC and the USAF communities.;A review of the literature, looking specifically at distance education theoretical constructs, administration issues, and telecommunications technologies, summarizes research applicable to the study.;Quantitative data was gathered by survey from 40 participants. The survey was administered twice, before and after the participants were assigned to treatment and control groups. The treatment group had access to enhanced telecommunications support for administrative purposes. Analysis of the variance (ANOVA) was the primary statistical procedure applied to the data in order to identify any causal effects of the enhanced telecommunications support on perceptions of interaction and control.;Qualitative data was collected from open-ended answers on the surveys, semi-structured interviews, and electronic mail messages. Grounded theory was used as a lens to guide the overall analysis of the qualitative data. Interview and observation techniques with a microethnographic approach were also used as a primary method to analyze the qualitative data.;There was no statistical significance for the relationships of three factors in the measures of interaction, instructor to instructor interaction, and interaction between administrators and instructors. The ANOVA results for the measure of control did show a significant relationship between occasion and branch of service. The qualitative results represent issues identified through a coding process and include communication, interaction, and training standardization.;Discussion is included covering the findings as they relate to distance education theory, NVG Training Course administration, current telecommunications technologies (that are used for course administration), potential problems, recommendations, emerging research trends, and further research on this subject. |
