REPLACING POWERPOINT WITH EXTENDED REALITY FOR MARINE CORPS PLANNING, CONCEPTS OF OPERATIONS, AND AFTER ACTION REPORTS

Marines in the combat arms are severely limited in the planning phase of operations due to outdated briefing methods and limited technology. For that reason, this research investigates alternative methods for modernizing operational briefs in the Marine Corps combat arms community. The author surveyed Marines in the combat arms on the desirability of current PowerPoint and sand-table briefing methods versus briefings in a digital 3-dimensional environment with extended reality (XR). The alternatives presented in the survey were based on extensive market research conducted for this project in the different fields of the XR environment, including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) in order to assess the practicality and costs of introducing XR. The findings suggest that XR may increase attention, learning, and retention when compared to the lecture-based model used in PowerPoint. Moreover, the Marines surveyed are ready and willing to replace PowerPoint, so long as the solution supports joint interoperability and does not simply supplement the status quo. Lastly, it was determined a strong preference for any particular type of XR does not exist as the current generation is not fully aware of briefing technologies external to the 2-dimensional model of PowerPoint.

Grantor dc:publisher

Monterey, CA; Naval Postgraduate School

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Jagears, Daniel G.

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Tick, Simona L.
• Giles, Kathleen B.

Statement dc:rights

• This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10945/66661

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:calhoun.nps.edu:10945/66661