Targeted at both senior and junior tri-service officers the new programme steps-in and steps-out of e-learning from an immersive 3D VBSWorlds environment to deliver highly interactive and engaging intelligence gathering training.

The method of stepping in and out of 3D immersive worlds to take part in specific task training via elearning is a new concept that has been envisaged by Major Jill Pease on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Caspian Learning and LINE Communications, along with partners at the MOD believe the new Step-in Step-out (SISO) methodology will maximise the re-use of existing learning materials and assets in a new, more engaging and effective way.

By reusing so-called ‘good’ assets in this way, the project team will reduce the need to purchase new materials for new systems.

In addition, the new ISTAR project will be the first of its kind to be fully SCORM conformant and available on the Defence Learning Portal (DLP), as well as other network infrastructures and mobile devices including iPhones and iPads.

Keith Downes, LINE Director is a strong support of the new SISO concept and the amalgamation of expertise and technologies to achieve it, “We are great supporters of the Step-In, Step-Out methodology and have applied it in projects with VBS2 and Virtual Task Trainers (VTTs). To be extending our experience to Caspian Learning’s VBSWorlds is really exciting and will be the first of its kind on the DLP.”

Our CEO, Chris Brannigan, will be on hand with several other members of the Caspian Learning team at the Bohemia Interactive Simulations Stand (Booth 1040).

We’ll be demoing the latest version of VBSWorlds and showing off some of the simulations we’ve created for iOS and Android devices.

To arrange a 1 – 1 appointment, send me an email at lee.rushworth at caspianlearning.co.uk and we’ll make sure we fit you in!

The awards ceremony, held at the London Marriot in Grosvenor Square last Thursday, showcased the elearning industry’s brightest stars as they pitted their products against one another for industry acclaim.

Interplay Energy’s ‘InterCaz’ Combustion Safety Analysis simulation, developed in partnership with award-winning serious games company, Caspian Learning, was one of the simulations shortlisted for the ‘Best Learning Game, Simulation or Virtual Environment’ award amongst tough competition.

Interplay Energy’s innovative ‘Intercaz’ is a comprehensive Combustion Appliance Safety training simulation program with the following highlights:

• Delivered over web; accessed through Internet Explorer and Google Chrome
• Scenario engine with numerous scenarios and endless variability
• Matched to Building Performance Institute (BPI) standards
• 3-D equipment and appliances make the simulation feel like a real world environment
• Built on principles of effective game-based learning

As well as these unique features and benefits that have never before been seen in a Combustion Safety Analysis simulation, successful completion of the Intercaz course qualifies trainees for Continuing Education Units (CEUs). This makes Intercaz the first simulation that can actually certify performance.

Lee Rushworth, a spokesman for Caspian Learning said of Intercaz, “what Intercaz offers is truly unique. To gain actual qualifications, learners do not need to sit an exam. Their score in the simulation will determine whether they get the certification or not.

In terms of simulation and certification, this is a major breakthrough and is absolutely deserving of industry recognition.”

In an awards shortlist made up of some heavy-hitting elearning companies, Caspian Learning & Interplay Energy managed to win the Bronze Award for Best Learning Game, Simulation or Virtual Environment.

It is Caspian Learning’s 11th industry award for excellence in serious games and simulations for learning, performance improvement and engagement.

Instead of reverting back to traditional forms of training, similar to those used in the past, the company have introduced an entirely innovative, new and cutting edge type of training. The new training relies on the same highly immersive concept used by the world’s best selling console games.

By transforming traditional training material from presentation slides, written documents and experience into a highly immersive 3D game, the company have successfully managed to create a more engaging form of training where positive results are already being recorded.

The serious game was designed by Caspian Learning, who are one of Europe’s leading, recognised serious games and simulation designers with numerous games design awards to their name. Their solutions are being used in some of Europe’s largest companies.

Caspian Learning took a bite-sized chunk of the production line process and transformed it into a fully interactive 3D environment. In the simulation, trainees are free to walk about, look at and interact with anything in the environment. The environment is a working production line and the role of the trainee is that of the Team Leader.

As the line progresses, random events occur that the Team Leader has to respond to and deal with appropriately. Scores are recorded as the trainee progresses through the shift and responds to situations.

Due to the digital nature of the training, a huge range of faults and events are possible that would not be cost effective to perform on a live production line.

As well as enabling trainees to experience extremely rare faults in the simulation, turning the traditional training material into an immersive serious game has also improved the level of engagement from its users and therefore improved the overall impact of the training.

Chris Brannigan, CEO of Caspian Learning, said that “it was extremely exciting to create this kind of serious game or simulation where real performance benefits for our client can be achieved. It is even more exciting when the client is one of the world’s largest in its industry!”

The simulation (or serious game, as some will call it) has already been scheduled for a wider roll-out throughout the company.

About Caspian Learning
Caspian Learning are an award-winning serious games technology and design company. Formed in 2002, they are the developer of the acclaimed Thinking Worlds, whose globally unique technology allows instructional designers to create fully immersive 3D sims & games at costs previously restricted to 2D development. They are the global leader in the use of 3D games and simulations technology for performance improvement, having developed over 100 sims or games for clients all over the world including IBM, BBC, QinetiQ, Accenture, Volvo, the Ministry of Defence and the European Union among others.

Caspian Learning, the serious game design company based in Sunderland, in the North East of England, has managed to achieve major recognition for another of its serious games in the latest round of E-Learning Age Awards announced this week.

The awards shortlist for ‘best serious game or simulation’ was announced on Monday and once again, for the fourth time in the company’s history, they were billed as a potential winner for their groundbreaking combustion safety analysis game, developed in partnership with energy efficiency simulation specialists, Interplay Energy.

The shortlisted game, InterCaz, is a groundbreaking serious game that successfully merges industry approved combustion safety certification tests with effective, immersive 3D gaming practices. It was designed to make the safe practice of combustion safety affordable and ubiquitous, whilst still delivering on key learning objectives that were fully aligned with Building Performance Institute (BPI) and the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) standards.

In a globally unique development for serious games training, the InterCaz game is the first of its kind that is eligible for up to 10 Continuing Education Units (CEU). To qualify for CEUs, learners must score 85% or higher on each of the three levels: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced. The simulation is suitable for training organisations, weatherisation organisations, utility program providers and individuals preparing for certification tests or audits.

Lee Rushworth, Marketing Manager for Caspian Learning, said “InterCaz really is a groundbreaking simulation that could help to change the shape of an entire industry. Never before have we worked on a simulation that had such far-reaching and realistic possibilities to drastically improve efficiency whilst drastically reducing costs. It is a credit to the team over at Interplay Energy.”

Using a fresh, unique approach to serious games design which results in a faster turnaround of high quality simulations, Caspian Learning and Interplay Energy were able to deliver the game ahead of market expectations. Intercaz is available to buy or try now from the Interplay Energy website.

Packed with Huge New Enhancements:

• Rapid web deployment in java.
• Rapid mobile deployment for iOS (iPhone/iPad).
• Better support for asset imports.
• More content to freely download and use

Try it at Your Own Pace, In Your Own Time

Don’t worry, even if you were a past customer who used a 30 day trial and didn’t quite get to grips with it, version 3.5 wipes the slate clean and allows you to try it all over again except this time, there are no time limits attached.

Create. Build. Share.

It really is as easy as that. Try it again and see for yourself but before you do, make sure that all of your existing work is backed up and that you install Thinking Worlds 3.5 to a NEW directory just in case of compatibility issues during the early stages of launch.

So, what are you waiting for?

• Learn More About Thinking Worlds 3.5
• Download Thinking Worlds 3.5 Now

Don’t forget, as always, please send me your questions and I’ll try my best to respond to you as soon as I can (but please try and be patient for the next few days at least!).

Enjoy!

By using Caspian Learning’s Thinking Worlds 3D visual authoring technology; Interplay Energy was able to develop a more efficient, cost-effective and scalable combustion safety certification solution.

The Problem

Home energy efficiency is a relatively new industry. This means that many of the standards and guidelines that organisations who operate in the industry are following are still relatively new too.

Energy efficiency certification requires an understanding of a complex safety issue, Combustion Analysis, which is challenging to teach and test because of the wide number of variables that could affect an outcome in each scenario. To try and ‘simulate’ this amount of complexity with real field training is vastly
expensive and prohibitive; but the training is essential and must be carried out. As the industry moves to scale, this skill set will become the cornerstone of safety standards and a longer term solution is vital.

Though a written test for combustion safety is fairly standard to administer, the field test is challenging for a number of reasons. It is expensive due to the fact that an experienced field proctor must administer the test in a ‘volunteer’ home. The field proctor usually charges approximately $100/hour and the test
can take up to 2-3 hours. In addition, the volunteer home is often logistically difficult to manage and some of the training companies that offer the testing have resorted to buying homes and setting them up as test homes.

As you can imagine, the number of scenarios becomes limited with such prohibitive costs and the consistency of field testing standards is inadequate across different training companies that exist in different states and regions in the US.

Clearly, this is not a cost-effective, sustainable or scalable solution if the industry wants to move forward.

Wanted:
Cost Effective Rapid Solution

A solution needed to be identified that would ensure training costs remained low, certification standards remained high and consistent, and the safety of home owners would never be compromised. Interplay Energy, in partnership with the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) decided to investigate what other options were available that could deliver the same high level of training for Combustion Analysis that ‘test homes’ could deliver.

After researching the idea of elearning, virtual worlds, serious games and simulations, it was decided that the best fit for the problem would be to try and create a simulation that could be setup by an administrator to portray any amount of possible combustion analysis scenarios.

Interplay Energy/RESNET saw that could mimic the goal of applied knowledge and understanding at the heart of the field test, whilst also ensuring consistency and testing control across the numerous training/testing companies. Additionally, a simulation would substantially reduce costs because an expensive field proctor
would no longer be required.

Caspian Learning’s Thinking Worlds

After some comprehensive research into 3D authoring tools and serious games designers Interplay decided to use the award-winning Thinking Worlds as their development tool of choice and commissioned Caspian Learning to help design the complex simulation.

Thinking Worlds is a powerful 3D simulation serious games engine with many built-in features to help designers create immersive scenarios but applying the amount of complex combustion analysis variables to the simulation and giving an administrator the ability to dynamically set the test conditions via an administration backend would be something that had never been done before with Thinking Worlds.

In total, the simulation needed to be able to handle 45 x 32 different sets of complex variables and measurements – and be easy for the administration team to set at the beginning of the test.

Specific Learning Objectives of Simulation

Caspian Learning designed the simulation so that it would take approximately 1 hour to complete and would take place in a 2 story home. The test conditions were linked into an administrative control panel and could be set differently prior to each test to keep test takers actively engaged.

Within this framework for learning, it was a requirement that a number of key sub-topics or objectives were included:

1. Gas leak line detection
2. Ambient CO testing
3. Unvented appliance testing (ovens and stove top burners primarily)
4. Proper equipment usage
5. Appliance identification
6. Combustion Appliance Zone (CAZ) understanding
7. Worst Case Depressurization
8. Vented Appliance (furnace, boilers, water heaters) tests: spillage, CO, draft

Each of these sub-topics was transformed into small short ‘lessons’ within the simulation that would be used for training purposes before students applied to take the final RESNET test simulation.

Standardisation and Deployment

Due to the disparate locations of test centres and companies in the US running the certification tests, there was a vital need to bring a consistent, standardised certification test to all states across the US in the most accessible manner possible. Several deployment methods were made available;

1. The finished simulation was downloadable and able to be played on standalone, individual PCs
2. The finished simulation could also be deployed as a web-based simulation that could be played from any PC with an internet connection.

For both methods, results were able to be recorded centrally.

Having this level of standardisation and consistency in combustion safety analysis certification tests will introduce a positive, disruptive new approach for home energy efficiency companies to interact with and train
students.

The pioneering simulation is a change that will benefit everyone involved, from companies looking to train staff in the very latest techniques available with up to date information, to the millions of homeowners who will benefit from a standard, consistent and comprehensive approach to combustion safety analysis.

Delivery Timeframe

On top of the complex variable requirements, the simulation required a relatively quick turnaround time and with Caspian Learning’s help, not including preliminaries and revisions, the simulation took one dedicated game
designer only 12 weeks to complete.

In the end, the high-impact, web-deliverable immersive 3D certification test for Interplay Energy took no longer than it would have done for a traditional piece of 2D elearning.

About Interplay Energy:
Interplay Energy provides a range of consultative and training services in the residential energy efficiency field. This includes developing highly engaging 3-D immersive learning simulations. For more information about Interplay Energy’s solutions, visit http://www.interplayenergy.com.

Click here to download
this case study as .pdf

Learn TPM Ltd have used the Thinking Worlds platform to develop a suite of five Games Based Assessment products for SQA which replace the existing paper NAB examinations.

Award-winning Learn TPM Ltd have long been advocates of Caspian Learning’s Thinking Worlds simulation platform. The educational technology, projects and management company, based in Newcastle, have a growing list of successful projects to their name and one project in particular delivered to the Scottish Qualifications Authority has earned them a much coveted BETT Award.

The BETT Award for ICT Education Partnership was presented to the company at this week’s BETT Awards 2011 in London. The award recognises Learn TPM’s industry-leading approach to managing partnerships in order to develop the best possible solutions that match changing educational needs.

Working with the Scottish Qualifications Authority and utilising Caspian Learning’s Thinking Worlds technology, Learn TPM were able to create an award-winning suite of immersive 3D simulation. Games Based Assessments have been developed for qualifications in the Health, Retail, Energy and Uniformed and Emergency Services sectors.

BETT Awards Judges comments:

“The quality of entries this year has been consistently high, highlighting the tremendous vision of the ICT industry and its commitment to education. The BETT Awards judgements were achieved through lengthy analysis and detailed discussions.”

“These two organizations have been working to produce Games Based Assessment for candidates on Skills for Work courses. They faced huge challenges with such an innovative approach, but have successfully achieved robust and valid games for summative assessment. The judges felt that this partnership and the resources they create bring course-assessment and learning into the twenty-first century.”

“The judges thought this was a clear winner because of its partnership working in achieving creative e-learning solutions. The submission showed collaboration in an exciting environment. They were impressed to see a Qualifications Authority treating gaming seriously.”

Andy MacPherson, Managing Director of Learn TPM Ltd commented that “the impressive and rapid development of the Thinking Worlds engine over the course of our development work for SQA and our excellent relationships with Caspian Learning and the support they have given us have been invaluable in delivering quality products fit for purpose. We now utilise Thinking Worlds to deliver a range of products and projects from our award winning games based assessment materials and learning resources to stereo 3D shows for outreach events.”

To find out more about Learn TPM Ltd and their Learnit3D products and projects visit www.learnit3d.com or contact Andy MacPherson andy@learntpm.com