SamePage: Development of a Team Training Tool to Promote Shared Understanding

Abstract

Abstract : This research note describes the work conducted under a Phase II SBIR contract in which an online team training system called SamePage was created. The goal of SamePage is to promote the development of knowledge and skills for enhancing shared understanding within a team. The training begins with individualized online training designed to help trainees learn about shared understanding concepts. Once trainees have been exposed to basic principles of shared understanding, they work together as a five-person team through an online scenario-based exercise to practice the principles learned during individualized instruction. The scenario exercise is periodically halted so that an instructor can bring the group together into roundtable discussions to talk about team processes and shared understanding concepts. Portions of SamePage were tested in a formative evaluation with battalion-level staff, and reactions to the system were generally positive. Six lessons learned about constructing online team-based training are presented in the last section of this note.