Active learning modules for multi professional emergency management training in virtual reality tale-2017-slides

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Active Learning Modules for Multi-Professional Emergency
Management Training in Virtual Reality
Ekaterina Prasolova-Førland, Judith Molka-Danielsen,
Mikhail Fominykh and Katherine Lamb

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Overview
1. Introduction & Theoretical Models
– Pedagogic: Activity Theory & Active Learning Model
– Decision Making: Recognition-Primed Decision Making
2. Description of the VR-ALM
3. Trials: Methodology and Feedback
4. Discussion: Activity Theory Analysis
5. Concluding Remarks

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Project Objectives
o Design and apply an active learning module (ALM) using
virtual reality technologies (VR) that improves learning in
education for Emergency Management and Health
professional students in training communications in
management during a crisis situation
o The existing pedagogical approaches in EM training focus on
behaviorist and cognitive aspects to such training and often
neglect the social aspects and multi-professional aspects
o Naturalistic Decision Making model and Recognition- Primed
Decision making model (RPD) + Activity Theory (AT) + Virtual
Reality (VR)
Introduction

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Recognition- Primed Decision
making model (RPD) (Klein, 2008)
used the following figure.
Klein, G. A., (2008) "Naturalistic Decision Making,"
Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors
and Ergonomics Society, vol. 50(3), June 1, 2008,
pp. 456-460, doi:10.1518/001872008x288385.
Figure source:
Klein, G.A., Orasanu, J., Calderwood, R. and
Zsambok, C.E., Editors. (1993) "Decision making in
action: Models and methods. Ablex Publishing
Corporation. Norwood, NJ. Reproduced with
permission of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.,
Westport, CT.
Naturalistic Decision Making model:
Recognition- Primed Decision making model (RPD)

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Engeström, Y. (2007).
Activity Theory and
individual and social
transformation. In Y.
Engeström, R Miettinen,
& R. L. Punamäki (Eds),
Perspectices on Activity
Theory 8, pp.19-38).
Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
J. L. Mishra, D. K. Allen,
and A. D. Pearman,
(2011) "Activity theory as
a methodological and
analytical framework for
information practices in
emergency
management," in 8th
International Conference
on Information Systems
for Crisis Response and
Management (ISCRAM),
Lisbon, Portugal, pp 1–9.
Theory of Active Learning: Activity Theory

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Requirements for the VR simulation design
o Students should be faced with dilemma in the VLE that are in
line with what they would face in their normal work.
o The environment should provide realistic, dynamically
changing cues
o The actions that the decision maker takes must also have an
impact of the simulated incident.
o Start conditions for the incident can be variable, e.g., number
of persons injured.
o The simulation should incorporate as degree of randomness,
such that the situation that unfolds (through escalations) will
be different (non-constant) in successive runs of the learning
module.
Initial Design of a VR Training Module
(Molka-Danielsen, et al, NOKOBIT 2015)

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Initial Design of a VR Training Module
(Molka-Danielsen, et al, NOKOBIT 2015)
Experience
the situation
in changing
context
Is the
Situation
Familiar?
Pattern Recognition has 4 aspects:
Plausible
Goals
Relevant
Cues
Expectancies
Actions
1…n
YES
Seek More
Information
Anomaly /
not meet
Expectancies
Mental simulation of Action (n)
Implement
works or change it
No
= relevant
design
consideration
in a VR
simulation
Adapted diagram of the
Recognition-Primed Decision
model (adapted from Klein, 2008)

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VR simulation
Desktop interface
Remote access
Scenario
Communication
Navigation
Tools

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Trial 1 – High School Students (April 2016)
Trial Method: Learning Subjects
Trial 2 – Fire and Health Professionals (March 2017)

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Trial: Description of the Learning Design
Modeling the Communication Learning Task

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Trial: Learning Materials and Tools

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High School students feedback:
1. Liked it, fun, would like to play again
2. Learned about communication, how it works
3. Suggest VR to be a part of a safety course in high
school and in construction workplaces.
Health Professionals feedback:
1. For communication, it is absolutely useful, not so
often we get to train with fire and police
2. We have these ‘table-top’ exercises where we sit in a
room and work on a case…here we could have taken
these table top exercises one step further
3. For medical students and medical personnel there is
value absolutely
4. Suggest improving functionality: triage,
communication modalities, bug fixes
Fire Professionals feedback:
1. Simulated environment did not represent accurately
the real life lines of communication.
2. VR-ALM simulation was not very beneficial to their
understanding about how team members
communicate.
Trial: Results
Communication
Between Teams
Communication
Within Teams

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Operations -> Actions -> Activity
Discussion and Activity Theory Analysis
Action Operation
Context/conditions/
cues
Actors
Evacuating
injured
• Identify injured in the
warehouse
• Choose ‘carry’ from
the inventory
• Lead the injured to
safety
• A worker is sitting
and coughing or
lying inside the
building
• Visible smoke and
fire
Firefighters,
fellow
workers
Performing
triage
• Choose the triage icon
in the inventory
• ‘Click’ on the patient
and access the
provided health
information
• Choose the triage
color for the patient
• Patient sitting or
lying
• Health Information
provided
Medics,
paramedics,
medical
service leader

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Engeström, Y. (2007).
Activity Theory and
individual and social
transformation. In Y.
Engeström, R Miettinen,
& R. L. Punamäki (Eds),
Perspectices on Activity
Theory 8, pp.19-38).
Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
J. L. Mishra, D. K. Allen,
and A. D. Pearman,
(2011) "Activity theory as
a methodological and
analytical framework for
information practices in
emergency
management," in 8th
International Conference
on Information Systems
for Crisis Response and
Management (ISCRAM),
Lisbon, Portugal, pp 1–9.
Activity Theory in EM context

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Subject: Player: commander, team member (medic, firefighter)
o Elements in the simulation and requirements
– The avatars should wear profession-specific clothing, indicating their place in the chain of
command
– The scenario and role cards should include a correct and comprehensive description of the roles
and tasks
o Examples of related user feedbacks
– “Should be able to choose avatars to walk to and communicate with”
– “Need proper avatar vests indicating different roles”
Object: incident site/warehouse/factory
– The actions by the decision maker to have an impact on the simulated incident
– Start conditions for the incident can be variable, for example, the number of persons injured or the
starting location of the incident (fire outbreak)
– Description of the incident cite and context in the role cards and scenario
– “To be realistic, after triage, people go to ambulances and get evacuated, some workers and
medics will be gone, will be less people left [at the incident site]”
AT analysis: subject and object

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Tools: Radio, avatars, inventory items (tools for triage, fire extinguishing, evacuation of
injured), signs, environment cues
– Firefighting equipment, first aid equipment and other objects that are normally present in
the workplace should be in the same location in the virtual space
– Key equipment for different professions should be represented in the inventory, the
affordances of these tools should be easy to understand
– For every player/subject, the role cards and scenario should list the available tools in the
inventory and environment and possible actions/operations on them
– “Keeping focus on ‘radio’, highlighting whether you are talking through the radio”
– “Should be possible to give oxygen to the patient”
AT analysis: tools and rules

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Community: Other commanders, teams members, EM center operator
– The possibility to choose roles/team, appropriate avatar clothing for different groups
– Modes for inter- and cross-team communication (e.g. ‘radio’ and on-site ‘voice)
– The role cards and scenario should contain the description of one’s place in the community
structure and associated communication modes
– “The information that the operative medical leader got from us [ambulance personnel] on
the incident site should be brought further to the EM center”
– “We [medics] can hear the firefighters and the workers on the ground talking… should be
able to ‘zone out’”
Division of labor: Areas of responsibility, chain of command
– Teams arriving to different designated spots in the beginning of the simulation
– Signs that are normally seen in the workplace and indicating commando points
– Different inventory sets for different teams
– Task description for different teams in the role cards, explicit description of responsibility
areas in the exercise (e.g., medics do not go inside the fire)
– “Operative medical leader sits together with incident commander, medical service leader
is in the filed performing triage”
AT: community and division of labour

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Rules: Official protocols for safety, interaction between agencies, routines for performing triage
and fire extinguishing
– The environment should provide realistic, dynamically changing cues (based on certain rules) that
the learners need to extract in order to diagnose the situation/pattern
– Rules and regulations are crystallized in the system functionalities e.g. firefighters clothing
– Description in the exercise, scenarios and role cards reflecting the official protocols
– “At the fire scene, normally there is a control with who is going in and out”
Outcome: Situation awareness, fire under control, triage accomplished, rescue mission
successful, simulation completed, learning goals achieved
– Players should be faced with dilemmas in the VR simulation that are in line with what they would
face in their normal work: time constraints and other stress factors
– The simulation should incorporate a degree of randomness, such that the situation that unfolds
(through escalations) will be different in successive runs
– Possible outcomes and learning goals/roleplay goals are exemplified in the exercise/role cards
– “The training format has to be correct...The team structure and the communication channels have
to be right.”
AT analysis: outcome

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Feedback from the professional participants helped to realise complexities
of the real life environment that were not anticipated (5 radio systems in
use IRL, > 15 simultaneous users)
o In comparison to workplace training, VR simulations offer no training of
physical skills and are therefore less realistic by definition
o The necessary degree of realism and complexity is relative and depends on the
target user group (less realism is adequate for non-professionals)
o Different user groups have different learning goals – it should be possible to
adjust the simulation and exercises to accommodate these differences.
o Social and communication skills, as well as social and community aspects
should be a part of the EM simulation model
o There is a need for a consistent methodological approach to develop
simulations and exercises adapted to different learning goals.
Future AR tools and AR training components could help the learner to
form a “repertoire of patterns” at a much faster rate than traditional
experience building in the field.
Lessons Learned

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