Micro-games for WMD Training for Skilled Support Personnel

描述(由申请人提供)： 技能支持人员(SSP)，如拆除和公用事业工人，在俄克拉荷马城、五角大楼和WTC恐怖事件应对中发挥了关键作用。然而，几份报告(Lippy&Murray，2002；NIEHS WETP 2002)发现，我国的战略专业人员没有得到足够的培训，无法应对涉及大规模毁灭性武器的事件。OSHA的管理标准没有充分处理在涉及大规模毁灭性武器和生物制剂的破坏性恐怖事件中培训和保护我们的基本工作人员。大规模应急行动的广泛性质要求对“应急人员”有更广泛的定义，包括建筑/拆除工人、运输工人和公用事业服务人员等熟练的支助人员。因此，迫切需要OSHA HAZWOPER 40小时的一般现场工人课程来满足SSP的需要，并使其 并辅之以应对恐怖主义行为的贸易专门培训。这项第一阶段的工作旨在解决我国SSP的这一关键培训需求。我们建议开发一种创新、有效和可扩展的解决方案，使用独特设计的基于计算机的微游戏(也称为迷你游戏)来提供意识级别的大规模杀伤性武器培训。这些内容将纳入40小时的HAZWOPER培训，并可在网上提供，作为进修课程的一部分，供培训员和战略规划人员使用。微游戏是沉浸式视频游戏，易于访问，玩5到20分钟，通常专注于少量的学习元素(Aldrich，2007)。。它们通常是使用Adobe Flash开发的，与大型游戏相比，它们很吸引人，开发成本也很低。微游戏的目标是以一种引人入胜和有效的方式，让学员在认知上参与到批判性内容中来。学员可以在无风险的环境中学习、探索和测试各种行动和决策。微游戏也是可扩展的，因为它们可以被设计成可以根据需要修改与特定事件相关的信息，以反映在特定工作地点使用特工的情况。这种专攻内容以支持受训人员有效应对各种大规模毁灭性武器事件的能力至关重要，而且具有成本效益。拟议的工作将集中于两个领域的可行性研究：(1)微游戏方法能否促进对SSP的有效认识水平的大规模杀伤性武器培训，以及(2)我们能否创建一个创新的基于网络的微游戏培训平台，使教师能够快速、轻松地开发和管理直接响应学习者特定需求的微游戏？

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Skilled Support Personnel (SSP), such as demolition and utility workers, played critical roles in the Oklahoma City, Pentagon, and WTC terrorist incidence responses. Yet several reports (Lippy & Murray, 2002; NIEHS WETP 2002) have found that our nation's SSPs are inadequately trained to respond to incidents involving weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The governing OSHA standard does not adequately address the training and protection of our essential workforce in destructive terrorist incidences involving WMD and biological agents. The extensive nature of large-scale emergency response operations calls for a broader definition of "emergency responder" that includes skilled support personnel such as construction/demolition workers, transit workers, and utility service workers. Thus, there is a pressing need for the OSHA HAZWOPER 40-hour general site worker course to be required for SSP's and for it to be supplemented with trade specific training for responding to acts of terrorism. This Phase I effort seeks to address this critical training need of our nation's SSP's. We propose to develop an innovative, effective, and extensible solution that uses uniquely designed computer-based micro-games (also known as mini-games) to provide awareness level WMD training. These would be incorporated into the 40-hour HAZWOPER training for SSPS and could also be made available on the Web for trainers and SSPs to access as part of a refresher course. Micro-games are immersive video games that are easy to access, take 5 to 20 minutes to play, and generally focus on a small number of learning elements (Aldrich, 2007). . Typically developed using Adobe Flash, they are engaging and low in development costs as compared with larger scale games. The goal of a micro-game is to cognitively engage trainees with critical content in an engaging and effective manner. Trainees can learn, explore, and test out various actions and decisions in a no-risk environment. Micro-games are also extensible in that they can be designed so that information relevant to a specific incident can be modified as needed to reflect the use of agents at specific worksites. This ability to specialize in content that supports trainees in effectively responding to a various types of WMD incident is critical and cost effective. The proposed effort will focus on examining feasibility in two areas: (1) can a micro-games approach facilitate effective awareness level WMD training for SSPs, and (2) can we create an innovative web-enabled micro-game training platform that enables instructors to quickly and easily develop and administer micro games that respond directly to their learner's specific needs?