Time critical team training in virtual worlds

In the modern age, where teams consist of people from disparate locations, remote team training is highly desired. Moreover, team members' overlapping schedules force their mentors to focus on individual training instead of team training. Team training is an integral part of collaborative team work. With the advent of modern technologies such as Web 2.0, cloud computing, etc. it is possible to revolutionize the delivery of time-critical team training in varied domains of healthcare military and education. Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs), also known as virtual worlds, and the existing worldwide footprint of high speed internet, would make remote team training ubiquitous. Such an integrated system would potentially help in assisting actual mentors to overcome the challenges in team training. ACLS is a time-critical activity which requires a high performance team effort. This thesis proposes a system that leverages a virtual world (VW) and provides an integrated learning platform for Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) case scenarios. The system integrates feedback devices such as haptic device so that real time feedback can be provided. Participants can log in remotely and work in a team to diagnose the given scenario. They can be trained and tested for ACLS within the virtual world. This system is well equipped with persuasive elements which aid in learning. The simulated training in this system was validated to teach novices the procedural aspect of ACLS. Sixteen participants were divided into four groups (two control groups and two experimental groups) of four participants. All four groups went through didactic session where they learned about ACLS and its procedures. A quiz after the didactic session revealed that all four groups had equal knowledge about ACLS. The two experimental groups went through training and testing in the virtual world. Experimental group 2 which was aided by the persuasive elements performed better than the control group. To validate the training capabilities of the virtual world system, final transfer test was conducted in real world setting at Banner Simulation Center on high fidelity mannequins. The test revealed that the experimental groups (average score 65/100) performed better than the control groups (average score 16/100). The experimental group 2 which was aided by the persuasive elements (average score 70/100) performed better than the experimental group 1 (average score 55/100). This shows that the persuasive technology can be useful for training purposes.