DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 61 



3. Exhibit "A" appended hereto presents some personal observations 

 on the work of Section B of the S. A. T. C. at M. A. C. 

 H. Appreciation. 



I hereby record my appreciation of authorities, colleagues and students 

 for their cooperation in "carrying on" during the past year which we will 

 all remember as an arduous and eventful period in the history of the Col- 

 lege and of the Division of Engineering. 



Respectfully submitted, 

 GEORGE W. BISSELL, 



Dean of Engineering. 

 East Lansing, June 30, 1919. 



EXHIBIT "A". 



"analysis of methods which resulted in the maximum of vocational 



efficiency in short courses." 



By G. W. Bissell, East Lansing, Michigan, at a conference of specialists 

 in Industrial Education, formerly connected with the S. A. T. C, Chicago, 

 May 10, 1919. 



My connection with the great work of vocational training of soldiers 

 under the general direction of the Committee on Education and Special 

 Training of the War Department was that of Supervisor of Vocational 

 Training in the S. A. T. C. at the Michigan Agricultural College. A visit 

 to Purdue University a short time after the work had begun there and 

 before we had begun it, and a visit to the University of Michigan during 

 July comprise the experience which I did not acquire by "doing" the 

 work itself. I may perhaps be pardoned, therefore, if my paper dis- 

 cusses the assigned subject mainly from the standpoint of my own ex- 

 perience which I will relate briefly. 



At the outset, I have no quarrel with the thesis. The work was highly 

 satisfactory in the doing and in the results obtained so far as I know and 

 can judge by what I have heard about it from others connected therewith. 



The discussion divides itself more or less naturally into two parts: 



1. The methods devised in advance of performance. 



2. The methods devised by experience in the performance. 

 1. The Methods Devised in Advance were based upon: 



(a) The general specifications of the committee as to the character 

 of training, the field to be covered, the time allowed, the character of 

 men to be instructed and the preparations of the men to receive the in- 

 struction. 



(b) The creation of an organization, administrative and instructional 

 to start the work and carry it on smoothly, capable of adjustment to the 

 needs as revealed by experience. 



(c) The material equipment available at the institutions or obtainable 

 by the time needed. 



(d) A relative short preparation period. Too much emphasis should 

 not be placed on this, because as a matter of fact schools had bid for 

 specific work several months in advance of contracts and had made tenta- 

 tive plans for doing it. 



(e) Inexperience in vocational training. I believe it is generally true 

 that the college teachers and practical men who were utilized in the 

 training of soldiers had had no experience in vocational training. 



