Assessing the Impact of Military Cultural-Competence Training: Lessons for Creating an Inclusive Campus Environment

Abstract

Abstract Campuses are increasingly offering military cultural-competency professional development training to staff and faculty to support military-connected students. Using four years of program data, we examine outcomes for a custom training, including retention of content knowledge, application of lessons on campus, and comparison of outcomes for in-person and online versions of the training. Results suggest that participants, both in-person and online, developed higher confidence and greater capacity to support student veterans. Evidence for examining training impact included correct response rates on a post-training quiz, scaled perceptions data, and open-ended feedback. Implications for research on the effectiveness of military cultural competency training are discussed, along with recommendations for creating an inclusive campus culture for military-connected students.