A learner-centered evaluation of the defense acquisition university’s fundamental course: Design, information retention, & learning styles

Online training has become increasingly popular across organizations internationally. In fact, it is now the Department of Defense’s primary method of training personnel. Online training offers flexibility to trainers/trainees and costs savings to the government. Despite its many pros, the effectiveness of online training is often questioned.

This research study, guided by Kirkpatrick’s levels of evaluation, provided an in-depth look at the Defense Acquisition University’s fundamental course from the learners’ perspective. The areas of concentration were instructional design, information retention, and learning styles. A course design analysis was conducted to characterize the current course structure. Additionally, learners participated in a series of three surveys: a post-course survey (conducted by DAU), a follow-up survey (also conducted by DAU), and the researcher’s survey (which was designed to collect learners’ feedback from an outside source). The results of this research study highlighted the value of learners’ inputs and revealed strengths and weaknesses of the online course.