SOURCES SOUGHT
D -- Leadership Development Simulator (LDS)
- Notice Date
- 6/24/2005
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541511
— Custom Computer Programming Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Air Force, Air Education and Training Command, Specialized Contracting Squadron, 2021 First Street West, Randolph AFB, TX, 78150-4302
- ZIP Code
- 78150-4302
- Solicitation Number
- Reference-Number-XPTT0624
- Response Due
- 7/6/2005
- Archive Date
- 7/21/2005
- Description
- Air Education and Training Command Contracting Squadron at Randolph AFB, TX, seeks potential sources for a government acquisition for a comprehensive instructional methodology to teach enduring leadership competencies as defined in AF Doctrine Document 1-1 (AFDD1-1) to Squadron Officer School (SOS) students to include lesson plans and an accompanying Leadership Development Simulator (LDS) to provide ?hands-on? training to reinforce and apply the lessons. The anticipated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 541511. This is a Sources Sought Synopsis. There is no solicitation available at this time. Requests for a solicitation will not receive a response. No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this announcement or any follow-up requests. The instructional process will be as follows: 1. The students are taught a leadership competency from the lesson plan 2. The students play an LDS scenario designed to focus on that competency 3. The instructor replays and analyzes the game. 4. The instructor leads the class in a guided discussion pointing out their successes, failures, and lessons learned The instructional methodology must support leadership theories and models which have been validated by independent, industry leading organizations. Leadership instruction must be based on academically credibly, peer-critiqued leadership theory. This extends, but is not limited to leadership, information technology, and communications theories and models used to generate the design. To ensure the ultimate efficacy of the simulation to produce predictable, behavioral responses, the LDS design must use documented lessons learned from previous IT-based team leadership development simulators. Leadership Competencies Each lesson must support a tactical competency of leadership, or associated concepts, as defined by AFDD1-1. Each lesson must contain both a written lesson script and an LDS programmed scenario that supports it. Potential concepts and leadership competencies, include, but are not limited to: - Exercising Sound Judgment -- Attribution Bias -- Decision Theory -- Problems in Perception -- Escalation of Commitment - Promote Teamwork and Collaboration -- Collective Traps -- Competition vs Collaboration -- Social loafing -- Role conflict and role expectations -- Conformity vs dissent -- Group polarization - Adapt and Perform Under Pressure -- Risk Seeking/Aversion -- Cheating - Lead Courageously -- Taking responsibility for your actions -- Holding others responsible for their actions Leadership Development Simulator (LDS) The LDS is a game-based IT application for the purpose of teaching and practicing specific leadership techniques and competencies. It will act as a problem solving presentation platform from which different scenarios will be presented to a team. It will also function as a documentation agent recording all user input and system output. This feature will allow the scenario to be recreated at a later time for analysis purposes. The game should be designed such that a team can only accomplish their mission by working together. The contractor will provide scenarios designed to focus on each of the leadership competencies taught in the lesson plan, but the application design should allow the AF is create their own scenarios. The LDS situations should be designed to expose the students to situations where most people would make mistakes leading to ?teachable moments? when students are suddenly more open to learning about alternative ways of handling team-related problems. Although success should be possible, the students should be provided an opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them in the classroom environment. The purpose of the LDS is to allow students to develop and practice their leadership competencies. Its interface should be user friendly and easy to learn, but realistic graphical representations of air battle are discouraged since it may distract from the purpose of teaching leadership competencies. The contractor shall design and develop a simulation that elicits and targets behavioral responses found in AFDD 1-1. The LDS design shall be based on a team command and control context. The application must have the ability for at least 12 users, working as a team, to employ a variety of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to avoid threats and accomplish specific missions. Each UAV must have specific capabilities and weaknesses. These attributes, along with the rules and speed of play, must be modifiable to provide an example of, or reinforce, the desired leadership behaviors or concepts. The object of the game should be to eliminate enemy targets while minimizing losses to enemy defenses. The game should be configured such that a team can only accomplish their mission by working together. The team will have a leader, who will coordinate the actions of each of the other members. The students, in the role of Air Battle Mangers, will develop an Air Tasking Order (ATO) that will provide orders to UAVs. Each student will be responsible for a number of different UAVs that they can task to accomplish the overall mission of the team. The object of the task is to monitor restricted airspace and prevent enemy aircraft from entering forbidden locations by detecting them, identifying them, and attacking them if necessary. The object of the game should be to eliminate enemy targets while minimizing losses to enemy defenses. The game should proceed based on an ATO cycle and use the relevant verbiage associated with air operations employment. In accordance with the ATO cycle, players must have an opportunity to assess the situation, discuss the potential options, select the best alternative, and build a tasking order that will be inputted into the simulator. The students will not interact with the simulator while the scenario is running. The simulator must provide rolling output that will show the results of their decisions in both text and graphical formats. At the beginning of the game, users will have control of a variety of UAVs with different capabilities such as attack, close air support, refueling, and intelligence collection. The exact mixture of assets will be configurable and based on the specific learning objectives. The game shall also include a mixture of enemy threats and targets which all originate in the 12 x 12 enemy territory area (see Appendix A). Fixed threats and targets stay in the same place throughout the game, but mobile threats and targets can move from one space to an adjacent space each round. Four different (instructor configurable) sources of computer delivered intelligence shall be made available to the team during the game. Each source shall have different levels of reliability and validity. These levels shall also have the ability to be modified and dependent upon specific regions of the territory map. The LDS must have the ability to host any number of teams and be played on most any existing Microsoft Windows network environment. The LDS must easily allow different scenarios to be inputted for play to accommodate the application of several concepts or leader behaviors. It must record and output in a readable format, all user input and system output. The design must allow students to be trained on the simulator in less than one hour. The LDS must operate in a Microsoft Windows networked environment. It needs to perform all functions and satisfy all requirements on a sub GHz machine with 256K RAM and a 30 GB hard drive. The operating system shall be any variant of Microsoft Windows NT such as Windows XP. It cannot be stressed enough that the scope of this project goes well beyond the development of a software application. The vendor will be required to develop instructional methodology and lesson plans to ensure instructors and students can explore their leadership experiences. Leadership instruction must be based on academically credibly, peer-critiqued leadership theory that is congruent with the LDS?s effect. In essence, we want a computer game that a team can play, experience common leadership dilemmas, then discuss this experience in a guided discussion in class. These requirements hinge on the prevailing need for expertise in the field of leadership. This expertise is the ultimate deliverable which will manifest itself through new curriculum, lesson plans, a validated experiential simulation, and faculty training. SOS has experimented heavily with computer games and simulations to facilitate leadership development, the school?s primary mission. On all accounts, these simulations have failed toward that end. This failure can be attributed to their original design. None of these simulations were designed to teach leadership and, more importantly, elicit leader behaviors with consistency and validity. Understanding leader and team behavior and translating this into predictable code is a critical attribute. This is why the dual expertise of leadership theory/behavior and application development is so critical in this ambitious and compelling venture. Please include the name and address of your firm, whether you are a large or small business, and a point of contact with name, title, phone and email. Please submit your responses to this sources sought synopsis no later than 6 July 2005 to Mr. Kevin Shackleford or Ms. Dora Mata, Randolph AFB, TX. Email responses to kevin.shackleford@randolph.af.mil or dora.mata@randolph.af.mil.
- Place of Performance
- Address: Contractor's facility; Maxwell AFB, AL; and other locations as deemed necessary.
- Record
- SN00836103-W 20050626/050624211929 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
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