Bob was recruited to the FSU Center for Performance Technology in 1970. He thought it would be an interim stint but stayed 36 years before retiring in 2006. He had a lifelong passion for transforming teaching, training, and performance using a systems approach and technology. Among his three most memorable accomplishments were redesigning the Army training system program which increased training validity, contracting with the Army to develop computer-based, self-paced, job-skills education, and most dear to his heart was a program called School Year 2000. Initiated in 1988, the goal of this educational reform was a computer managed system, that would shift the educational processes from being teaching-centered to being learning-centered.

That first accomplishment called the Interservice Procedures for Instructional Systems Development (IPISD) was implemented across all branches of the US Armed Forces. IPISD and FSU are widely acknowledged as the origin of the ADDIE Model. ADDIE – used extensively in academia, government, and industry - is described as the most comprehensive training model available.

Along with legendary ISLT professors Robert Gagne, Leslie Briggs, Roger Kaufman, Robert Morgan, Robert Reiser, Walter Dick, John Keller, Walt Wager, and Marcy Driscoll, Bob Branson helped build the reputation for what is today the #1 ranked Instructional Media program in the nation.

The FSU community and the family of Dr. Branson seek to establish a scholarship in Dr. Branson's memory in the Instructional Systems & Learning Technologies program here in the College of Education. Your gift to the College of Education's Scholarship Fund today will be dedicated toward the award in Bob's memory.