Feasibility Study: The Application of Duty Modules to a Front-End Analysis of the Command and General Staff College Regular Course

The purpose of this study is to examine the feasibility and usefulness of applying Duty Module methodology in the front-end analysis of the Regular Course, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC). A Duty Module is a cluster of related job tasks that tend to go together organizationally and occupationally in meaningful ways. Duty Modules were designed for use by U.S. Department of the Army, Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel planners in matching personnel with Officer Personnel Management System (OPMS) job requirements. Duty Modules and their associated data of task criticality, level and time of performance can assist the curriculum designer in establishing a need for training and allocating resources to support the curriculum. The study attempts to correlate the application of Duty Module concepts at CGSC with the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) requirements for systems engineering of the CGSC curriculum using the TRADOC Instructional Systems Development (ISD) Model. A front-end analysis model using Duty Modules and the ISD process is developed and applied to structuring the CGSC curriculum. Comparisons of this hypothetical curriculum and the current one are made to include discussion of strengths and weaknesses of both. The study concludes that the application of Duty Module concepts to the CGSC curriculum is both feasible and useful. Their use would significantly increase the ability to identify curriculum needs and define the CGSC output, both critical elements in resource justification. Additional curriculum improvements would result in more efficient resource allocation, reduction of subject matter duplication, and better use of student academic hours to support OPMS specialties; however, Duty Modules do not identify all training needs for course development and are in need of technical refinement. Recommendations include further development of Duty Module methodology with emphasis on the application to curriculum design at CGSC.