Distributed HAZMAT Training Using Adapted Gaming Technology

描述（由申请人提供） 现代职业安全和健康条例要求危险废物现场工人和应急人员在废物现场和应急工作的方法和技术方面保持相当的能力，以及对安全标准、个人防护设备、现场评估、仪器仪表和相关技能的深入了解。由于缺乏交付系统或培训人员，工人和企业往往难以完成任何培训。这些障碍往往是由地理因素或成本因素造成的，因为商业实体无法承受长途旅行造成的宝贵工作人员的损失，或者无法得到培训人员到工作地点。传统的培训材料，如视频和PowerPoint，缺乏交互性的心理限制，导致用户不受欢迎，无聊的体验。一个建议的解决方案是利用商业游戏行业的发展，通过调整游戏技术来产生一个分布式的，多玩家的，在线虚拟环境，以培训个人和团队的关键HAZMAT技能。 Forterra Systems建议通过使用游戏技术开发典型的培训场景和环境，执行教学设计，与目标受众进行用户测试并分析结果来研究这一命题。将讨论对成本效益和远程学习的影响。这些努力将为一个路线图奠定基础，该路线图定义了一个系统的未来发展，该系统将使用户处于一个引人入胜的现实虚拟环境中，在那里他们可以与其他真实的人进行协作互动，而不是被网页和PowerPoint幻灯片淹没。这样的系统将激发竞争精神，促进重复练习的愿望，并作为个人和响应团队的一部分实现上级结果。由此产生的系统将提供一个具有成本效益的解决方案，最大限度地减少用户的旅行需求，利用教员和专题专家，提供一个丰富的环境，以促进培训的快速转移，并依靠商品计算机硬件作为主机。它还利用了Forterra本身、其他政府机构的投资以及商业游戏行业的一般技术开发。最后，基于游戏的技术与今天工人成长的文化环境是一致的，所以如果开发成功，这将是他们想要使用的系统。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant) Contemporary Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) regulation requires that hazardous waste site workers and emergency responders maintain considerable competency in methods and techniques of waste site and emergency response work, as well as a depth of knowledge concerning safety criteria, personal protective equipment, site assessment, instrumentation, and related skills. Workers and businesses are often challenged to accomplish any training due to lack of delivery systems or availability of trainers. The obstacles are often geographic or cost driven, where a business entity cannot afford to lose valuable staff to travel long distance or trainers are not available to come to job sites. Psychological limitations of traditional training materials such as video and PowerPoint, where interactivity is missing, result in undesirable, boring experiences for users. A proposed solution is to exploit developments in the commercial gaming industry by adapting game technology to produce a distributed, multi-player, online virtual environment to train individuals and teams in critical HAZMAT skills. Forterra Systems proposes to study this proposition by developing a typical training scenario and environment using gaming technology, performing an instructional design, conducting user tests with the target audiences, and analyzing the results. The impact on cost effectiveness and distance learning will be addressed. These efforts will lay the foundation for a roadmap that defines future developments for a system that will put users in an engaging and realistic virtual environment where they can collaboratively interact with other real people rather than being inundated with web pages and PowerPoint slides. Such a system will spark the competitive spirit and promote the desire to repeat exercises and achieve superior outcomes as an individual and as part of a response team. The resulting system will provide a cost effective solution that minimizes travel requirements for users, leverages instructors and subject matter experts, provides a rich environment to facilitate rapid transfer of training, and relies on commodity computer hardware as a host. It also leverages investments by Forterra itself, other government agencies, and general technology developments in the commercial gaming industry. Finally, the game-based technology is consistent with the cultural milieu that workers are growing up with today so if the development is successful, it will be a system they want to use.