Advanced Distributed Learning

The Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative is a US government program that conducts research and development on distributed learning and coordinates related efforts broadly across public and private organizations. ADL reports to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Education and Training (DASD(FE&T)) in the US Department of Defense (DoD). Although a DoD program, ADL serves the entire US federal government, operates a global partnership network including international defense ministries and US-based academic partners, and collaborates closely with industry and academia. ADL advises the DoD and US government on emerging learning technologies, best practices for improving learning effectiveness and efficiency, and methods for enhancing interoperability. Notable ADL contributions to distributed learning include the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM), Experience API (xAPI), and the DoD Instruction 1322.26.

The ADL Initiative traces its antecedents to the early 1990s, when Congress authorized and appropriated funds for the National Guard to build prototype electronic classrooms and learning networks to increase personnel’s access to learning opportunities. By the mid-1990s, DoD realized the need for a more coordinated approach, and the 1996 Quadrennial Defense Review formalized this by directing development of a Department-wide strategy for modernizing technology-based education and training. This strategy became the original ADL Initiative, and in 1998, the Deputy Secretary of Defense directed the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (USD(P&R), in collaboration with the Services, Joint Staff, Under Secretaries of Defense for Acquisition and Technology and the Comptroller), to lead ADL. The Deputy Secretary of Defense also directed the USD(P&R) to produce the Department-wide policy for advanced distributed learning, develop a corresponding “master plan” to carry out the policy, and to ensure sufficient programs and resources were available for the associated implementation (see the 1999 ADL Strategic Plan in Appendix 1 for more details).

By 1998, the DoD and other Federal agencies (e.g., the Department of Labor) had each established their own ADL projects, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) moved to consolidate these via the Federal Training Technology Initiative. Thus, following guidance from Congress, OSTP, and the National Partnership for Reinventing Government, the DoD ADL Initiative was grown into a Federal-wide program. Specific direction for this can be found in Section 378 of Public Law 105-261, the Strom Thurmond National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1999, which required the Secretary of Defense to develop a strategic plan for expanding distance learning initiatives, as well as Executive Order 13111 (President William J. Clinton, 12 January 1999). The Executive Order, titled “Using Technology to Improve Training Opportunities for Federal Government Employees,” established a task force and advisory committee to explore how federal training programs, initiatives, and policies can better support lifelong learning through the use of learning technologies and to provide learning standards, specifications, and applications which can be sustained and extended to incorporate new technologies and learning science as they occur.

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