Of course, it goes without saying that in each one of the simulations and training scenarios we create, these basic principles are applied.

Changing Attitudes with the Hero’s Journey

Download this as a .pdf

Great Ormond Street Hospital

Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) is a world-renowned international centre of excellence in child healthcare and together with their research partner, the UCL Institute of Child Health, they form the UK’s only academic biomedical research centre specialising in paediatrics.

Since its formation in 1852, the hospital has been dedicated to children’s healthcare and to finding new and better ways to treat childhood illnesses.

As part of their ongoing commitment to innovate and improve childcare within the hospital, they have now introduced the first in a series of serious games to their training program. The game’s objective is to improve operator performance and awareness and thereby reduce the number of accidents involving state-of-the-art child hoists.

Project Background

Mechanical hoists are used to lift injured, disabled or large children out of cars, beds and bathtubs in the daily operations of personnel at GOSH. There is a risk of injury to the child or to the operator of the hoist. GOSH engaged the services of Caspian Learning to create a 30 minute simulation to train operators using a machine hoist in a practical setting.

The simulation uses interactive 3D models of the hoist and 3D human avatars to enable operators to practice hoist operation in realistic scenarios.

The scenarios include many chances for “catastrophic failure”, providing the learner with opportunities for safe failure and reflection.

Throughout the simulation, the learner’s performance is recorded via GOSH’s Learning Management System (LMS) for feedback and evaluation afterwards.

Project Requirements

The finished simulation needed to encompass several key gameplay elements that were introduced to increase the level of enjoyment and excitement for players.

The total gameplay time needed to be at least 30 minutes long, with many opportunities for challenging problems to arise.

The primary objective of the training intervention was to improve operator performance and awareness; and so reduce the number of accidents involving hoists.

An Engaging Training Solution

GOSH commissioned the award-winning serious games and technology company, Caspian Learning, to build the high-impact, engaging simulation. By using their proprietary Thinking Worlds 3D engine and visual authoring tool, Caspian Learning were able to complete the project to a set budget, within tight deadlines.
The simulation allows the operator to be fully immersed in various hoist scenarios and each one has its own [safe] consequences for failure, but grants the user the opportunity to retry if necessary.
Operator Engagement (need better title)

Prior to bringing games into the training schedule, GOSH used a combination of traditional elearning and on the job training to help personnel operating hoists understand the full implications of how they worked.

This method was considered un-engaging and with the addition of on-the-job training for live examples, could also prove to be costly.

The introduction of serious games into the program instantly increased the engagement levels of personnel and motivation to participate in the training also increased.

The ultimate pay-off was that new operators were able to try out state-of-the-art hoists in a number of scenarios that would previously only be possible via live, on the job training.

Due to this, potential risks and subsequent costs related to ‘live’ training were completely removed. Operators now had a good understanding of the hoists prior to ever actually using one in real life.

Final Deployment

Caspian Learning were able to bring the project to successful completion on time and within budget. The final SCORM 1.2 compliant serious game was incorporated seamlessly into GOSH’s LMS and is now playing a pivotal role in the effective training of new personnel.

During that time, we have worked with a wide range of clients from all kinds of industries.

Our virtual training simulations and serious games have helped clients train all manner of engaging course; from financial modeling to customer services to logistics as well as many others.

We are Europe’s Leading provider of immersive simulations for training and we have a long list of awards to back up this claim.

We have both the history and track record to support our position as one of the world’s foremost virtual, immersive training providers.

Serious Games Case Studies

Military Training
A military training simulation for NATO Maritime Interdiction Operations

Read Now

Safety Certification
A gas safety simulation that allows users to take a certification exam in the game

Read Now

Safety Training
A training simulation that teaches staff how to safely use mechanical hoist machinery

Read Now

Financial Awareness
Become manager of a band to take them from obscurity to the world stage!

Logistics & Supply
Can you keep your customers happy – no matter where they are in the world?

Read Now

Without having expert logistics trainers in every part of the world to service this requirement, delivering a consistent training experience was proving both difficult and resource-intensive

Could serious games be a more effective solution?

Download the Case Study as a .pdf

The Logistics Problem

Managing a global supply chain is a complex activity to perform. For personnel to acquire the key knowledge and expert skills required presents a demanding training challenge. Traditional training solutions have utilized ‘war gaming’ methods to enable trainees to practice supply chain scenarios within an expert mentored environment.

The war game is a role-played simulation of a supply chain scenario. Trainees will usually perform in teams representing different actors in the scenario, such as customers, suppliers, manufacturers and distributors. The training is conducted face to face involving flip charts, reports, breakout rooms, etc.

The teams are presented with different problems to solve. The game involves a series of rounds representing a specific period of time. They submit the actions that they would like to take. The expert observers then decide what happens and feed it back into the scenario.

To date, this has been the only way for trainees to experience the complex interactions involved in a global supply chain and to simulate the effects of their actions in this.

However, there are a number of problems to this approach:

• It is very expensive
• It is resource and time intensive
• There are only a limited number of scenarios that can be experienced
• Success depends upon the consistent quality of the mentors
• It is difficult to measure individual trainee performance

The Requirement

A global management consultancy partnered with Caspian Learning to solve this training problem. The client has long experience in providing supply chain management training. They have developed a proprietary performance model and algorithms to simulate supply chain management performance in war gaming scenarios.

The goal was to develop an interactive training simulation to improve supply chain management skills for employees in global companies:

• The clients proprietary performance model and algorithms would be embedded into the core mechanics of the training simulation
• The key actors in the supply chain would be visually represented in a graphical game like environment
• Trainees would visually manipulate a wide range of key inputs
• Sophisticated performance measurement would track trainee actions throughout the simulation
• Rebranded for use with different customers
• To be delivered flexibly either online via an internet browser, or stand alone on a classroom PC, or via mobile tablet devices

Solution

Using a mix of 2D and 3D methods, Caspian Learning developed a resource management type simulation that was based upon the core supply chain model developed by the client. Students using the simulation play a ‘God’ type role in which they can view all actors and interactions within a global supply chain – customers, suppliers, distributors and manufacturers.

The main control interface takes the form of a 3D world map. The student is able to navigate to different locations across the globe to visit suppliers, distributors and manufacturers.

The training simulation begins with a customer order for finished goods entering the scenario, for example, a customer in the USA may require 50,000 flat screen TV’s to be delivered within 28 days.

3D models at different locations represent other actors within the scenario, such as distribution centers. By clicking on a distribution center object for example, students are able to view stock levels for finished goods available. They will be able to order a quantity, arrange delivery by either sea, air or express, view lead times and specify warehouses to distribute the goods to.

No one supplier has enough finished stock to complete the customer order. The scenario now becomes more complicated for the student as they must coordinate the different resources across distributors, manufacturers and suppliers to complete finished goods and then to fulfill the order. There is no single path to success or failure.

Time is another factor in the simulation – as the student takes actions, time moves on. They must work within the time constraints demanded by the customer to succeed.

As the student gains confidence and works through the first order then the scenario increases the difficulty.

• Multiple customer orders can arrive to be run concurrently.
• Random events can then occur that will impact the scenario.

These are drawn from a database to reflect real life contingencies that the student must face, such as a fire at a manufacturer or a run of different components due to competition.

Transformational Training

Learning by performing – the student is able to monitor their progress by calling up their performance dashboard. The dashboard provides a wide range of continually updated information on Transportation; Financials; and Delivered Goods.

The dashboard tool enables the student to centrally monitor the impact of the decisions that they take and react to changes in the simulated scenario.
Learning through mentoring and reflecting – A sophisticated performance monitoring system is able to track each action and decision that the student takes as they work through the supply chain problem. The student actions can be directly linked to the precise conditions of the simulation at any point in time.

This allows the performance system to examine the cognitive journey that they took in solving the problem; to prompt specific questions about why they took actions under certain conditions at specific times and the consequences of these further down the line.

Flexibility, Speed and Cost

A range of key information can be used to calibrate the simulation for different students. This enables the simulation to deliver different scenarios focused on specific problems in supply chain management, such as overstocking, supplier issues, tight deadlines, etc.

The level of difficulty can also be adjusted using this method. This calibration data is held in a text file on a webserver. As the simulation starts up it reads this information from the text file and then calibrates the scenario for the student.

The course tutor can easily adjust this to suit their students.

The customer received full training Flexibility in the use of the Thinking Worlds™ authoring tool. This enabled them to continually update and change and the scenarios themselves.

The full development took 12 weeks to build and deploy. The total cost for the development was in line with a mid range eLearning budget for an hour of learning. For the cost of a mid-range page turner, the customer received a sophisticated performance enhancement tool that could be endlessly reused.

The original course was a two day face to face meeting with flip charts, break out rooms, board games and PowerPoint. This was expensive to run and difficult to measure.

Students now can learn and apply the skills of supply chain management from anywhere at a time that suits.

In Summary:

• They can experience an endless range of different supply chain situations and problems that can be tailored to their own skills and competences.
• They receive detailed performance information that is specific to their own actions.
• They can continually utilize the tool for refresher training at any point in time.

An online training solution was required that enabled students to realistically practice skills pre and post classroom work. NATO students would not accept Death by PowerPoint – the training solution must provide immersive training scenarios available online, offline and on mobile devices.

Download as a .PDF

The mission of the NATO Maritime Interdiction Operational Training Centre (NMIOTC) is to conduct the combined training necessary for NATO forces to better execute surface, sub-surface, aerial surveillance, and special operations activities in support of Maritime Interdiction Operations (MIO).

The Center is located in Crete and based the Framework Nation Greece. It falls within the area of NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT). Since 2008 provides theoretical and practical training to NATO and NATO Partner nations within an MIO context. Specifically, the Center:

1. Improves allied naval units’ expertise in Maritime Interdiction Operations through specific theoretical and practical training programs
2. Promotes skills, interoperability and co-operation among naval units through sea training and simulation

In the last several years, the centre has seen its student population grow significantly – with only 60 students in 2008 and well over 1,200 students in 2011.

NMIOTC required a distance learning solution to compliment and enhance their practical classroom training. The solution must prepare students effectively for the classroom training with realistic scenarios. The solution must also provide students with a flexible environment for continued refresher training to maintain their skill levels.

NMIOTC has a reputation for training innovation. Under the guidance of NATO ACT, they were determined to avoid ‘Death by PowerPoint’, PDF’s and Page Turner e-learning. The goal is to find a way to transform existing materials into engaging and effective individual online training. The solution must be robust enough to handle the existing student population and scalable enough to accommodate the likely future growth in student numbers.

Of course, given current economic situations, the solution must also be cost-conscious.

Unlocking Latent Capability

Although a clear requirement existed for new distributed learning, there was still a large library of existing learning material that had been well-written and researched.

As well as increasing the scalability of existing material, a secondary project goal was to find a way to integrate all of the latent capability of existing learning into new, more innovative forms of individual distributed learning.

There were several options available to NMIOTC to achieve this but the method they preferred (that was supported by the largest proportion of the learning cohort) was to introduce virtual training ‘games’ or ‘serious games’, similar to those used in home computer console systems.

The ‘game’ was to be called ‘Boarder’s Ahoy’.

Transformational Training

Given the requirement to bring the online training capabilities up to a higher and more scalable standard, NATO needed to commission the services of an expert serious games design company who already had experience with similar projects.

After the submission of a competitive RF process, a consortium led by Engineering & Computer Simulations (ECS) and including UK-based Caspian Learning and Bohemia Interactive Simulations, was selected to deliver the project.

ECS, Caspian Learning and Bohemia Interactive Simulations had already worked with defense organisations in both the UK and the US individually. Both ECS and Caspian Learning had previously won awards for ‘best simulations’ in category in recent years.

Together, the consortia had some of the world’s leading skills and experience required to deliver high-impact virtual training, immersive simulations and serious games.

For ‘Boarders Ahoy’ project, a solution was required that would allow the subject matter experts to transform their existing training content into online immersive training.

It was a requirement that the eventual solution should allow greater control over the creation of more learning content, reuse existing training materials and be distributable to a wide range of users, no matter where they were located in the world.

This distribution provision included distributing to web and mobile devices – including iPads, iPhones and Android.

Caspian Learning and Bohemia Interactive Simulations’ joint product, VBSWorlds, was the software that was chosen to build the training because it met or exceeded all of the development and distribution requirement capabilities.

The plan was to develop the game in 2 phases.

The planned first phase was to complete the game for individual learning and web and mobile deployment.

The second phase, not yet delivered, is to deploy the same game in a multiplayer format with additional training scenarios.

Boarders Ahoy!

For the first phase, the actual game itself was designed using the existing content from the existing library of e-Learning training materials. These materials included a mixture of power point slides, training manuals and subject matter expertise.

As they were, they were not immersive, engaging or scalable but, perhaps most importantly, they were rich in good subject content.

Using VBSWorlds (and without needing to commission a brand new range of e-learning modules that were more engaging) NATO were able to transform these content rich traditional e-learning materials into an immersive virtual training scenario – an interactive ‘game’.

Boarders Ahoy aimed to capture the highly engaging atmosphere created by a game environment whilst duplicating the behaviour changing objectives of the existing high quality learning.

In order to achieve this, the game was set in the most immersive environment suitable; in this case, onboard a cargo ship. The learner (‘player’) plays the part of an investigating officer who is given the task of identifying illicit cargo or suspicious activity during a maritime interdiction operation.

The processes by which the officer attempts to identify illegal activities are taken from the existing learning material and transformed into scenes within the game.

For example, in the screenshot above, the learner is exploring a container full of crates in the 3D environment. He can choose to investigate any of the crates for more information.

If the information presented sounds suspect, then the learner can flag it as suspect for further investigation. This action is then recorded into an LMS so that the learner’s score can be recorded and actionable feedback given at the end of the exercise.

The cargo ship contains many similar investigative scenarios including cargo, crew and rooms as well as several more.

Each different type of investigative scenario was built from the existing training content.

By the time the player completes the ‘game’, he will have completed the entire training course specific to that type of operation.

Whenever and Wherever It’s Required

As well as the key requirement to deliver the project in a more engaging way, it was also necessary to deliver the project so that the finished learning could be consumed on a wide range of devices; including PCs, Web and Mobile – wherever they were required in the world.

Successfully having this capability would make the solution infinitely more scalable.

In the case of Boarders Ahoy, this problem was overcome by VBSWorlds’ built-in capability to deploy simulations and games at the push of a button in formats suitable for a number of different devices.

This meant that the Boarders Ahoy game could be played on PCs and laptops as a standalone application or through an internet browser via Java or, alternatively, on either an iOS (iPad or iPhone) or Android mobile device.

Using any of these delivery methods would allow learners to consume the game whenever or wherever they were required to whilst facilitating individual self-paced learning outside of the classroom.

Having Boarders Ahoy available in the Android Marketplace, for instance, instantly makes it more accessible to the cohort.

Timeframes

The timeframe to deliver Phase One of the Boarders Ahoy project was dramatically reduced by the availability of existing materials and NATO’s willingness to support their use in the new ‘game’.

With a skilled team of instructional designers working on the project, the consortium was able to complete the project in just 3 months.

The time to complete the project includes design, testing and distribution.

In summary; the time it took to develop this highly engaging immersive virtual training ‘game’ was comparative to the time it had previously taken to create the traditional e-learning.

Outcomes

Phase one of the NATO Boarders Ahoy project successfully delivered on several key objectives:

• It enabled students to practice skills outside of the classroom
• It allowed the existing training materials to be easily converted to an immersive training format
• It allowed the new ‘game’ to be distributed whenever and wherever it was required
• It enabled NMIOTC to change and update the immersive training content themselves ongoing

This mini case study examines the game created by Caspian Learning for Aviva that aimed to teach 18-24 year olds better financial planning.

Download the Case Study as a .pdf file.

The Growing Problem of Bad Financial Planning

In a recent study, Rainer, the national charity for under-supported young people, discovered that nearly half of those aged between 18 – 24 owed over £2,000 to creditors.

The study also showed that a staggering one in five people in this age group owed over £10,000 to creditors in loans, credit cards and other debts.

The report concluded that poverty and a lack of financial skills are the two main causes of debt among young people.

Aviva, one of Britain’s largest insurers, saw the results of the study as an opportunity to try and tackle the issue head-on by turning the problem of financial planning into a fun-to-play serious game.

Teaching Unfavourable Subjects

Financial Planning is not always associated with being fun and interesting. The growing trend for elearning developers to shift from traditional 2d elearning to higher impact, immersive 3d environments for learning opened up an opportunity for Aviva.

By using immersive 3D games as the delivery method, Aviva saw this as an opportunity to reach a new audience with new learning.

This kind of learning is suggested as being a requirement to engage the minds of the “disappointed, disillusioned and disappeared learners” in the digitally connected world of today.

It is now a commonly held view that those under-supported young people aged between 18 – 24, who are the target for the Aviva game, are part of the digitally connected, disillusioned group of learners.

This therefore, almost makes it essential that a more engaging, predominantly self-directed learning experience is required to teach the key learning outcomes of potentially uninteresting and difficult to teach lessons – such as financial planning.

How Can You Do It?

After a competitive request for proposals from serious games designers, Aviva selected North-East based Caspian Learning to spearhead the development of an immersive, engaging 3D serious game.

Caspian Learning had been developing simulations and games for learning since 2002.  They were winners of serious games awards in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and have received awards for best elearning technology for their Thinking Worlds software.

Aviva commissioned Caspian Learning to design and develop the game. The headline requirements were as follows:

• The game should be custom and unique
• The game needed to have a fun, quirky and cartoony feel
• The game should be published and playable on Facebook

The game was to be called Rock ‘n’ High Roller.

What Did They Plan To Achieve?

The ultimate aim of the game was to raise awareness of the importance of financial responsibility by giving young adults a chance to experience what happens when they spend and save money on the road to rock ‘n’ roll super stardom.
As players progress through the game they will need to balance their books.  They will:

• Practice using loans and credit cards to keep the rock band afloat
• Balance finances to be able to afford purchases without sacrificing the necessary
• Explore the assistance and products that financial services companies offer for managing finances
• Save money and plan for potential eventualities or freak/random occurrences

In other words, the objective of the game that Caspian Learning proposed was to kindle creativity and thought about financial ideas in younger people to help them be better able to manage money in the future.

Who Would Play it and How

Using Caspian Learning’s Thinking Worlds technology, the game could be created more rapidly than other game authoring environments or engines and subsequently deployed via one or all of the following methods:

1. As a standalone application
2. As a web-based application
3. As a mobile application

As previously mentioned, the target would be 18 – 24 year olds and the primary method chosen for delivery of the game would be as a web-based facebook application.
The use of Facebook as the online deployment platform was chosen to facilitate viral growth of the game and help to contribute towards ‘buzz’ and noise.

Facebook Integration

As part of the project, the game was to be playable on facebook. The game was designed to hook into facebook friends and allow players to create their band from their friends.

A leaderboard was also integrated into the facebook app so that players could measure their progress against other players.

The final piece of the facebook puzzle was that users could upload their own music into the game and other bands could play these uploaded tracks at concerts within the game.

Making a Difference as Rapidly As Possible: Game Development Time

3D game development is traditionally a long and sometimes painstaking procedure. Using expertise built from almost 10 years developing immersive learning applications, Caspian Learning have developed a more agile and rapid development process.

Iterative Chaptering (IC) is the company’s ‘rapid prototyping’ and development process that results in happier clients, more interesting sims and games, and – most importantly – improved performance from the learner.

It is achieved by creating a skeleton or ‘placeholder’ simulation that has some of the logic and game functions of the final version included, but uses stock art assets for illustration purposes.

Using this method, Caspian Learning were able to develop the entire Rock n High Roller game within 3 months.

Due to the reduced development time, associated costs were also reduced, creating a better serious game for less money to the client.

Gameplay Concept

The concept of the game was to manage a rockband to fame and fortune. In order to do this, players had to finance everything from the instruments in the very beginning through to the methods of promotion further down the line.

As the game progresses, players are able to earn money by playing gigs, selling CDs and other random events. Every gig they play, advertising promotion they run and CD they sell add to their ‘reputation’.

As their reputation grows within the game world, new, larger venues become available to them which earn the band more money for playing them.

At the same time, players have to spend money on venue hire, practice sessions, new instruments and other random events (instruments breaking, gear stolen, band member illnesses etc.)

The skill in the game is learning to balance these two financial aspects, whilst planning for unforeseen events with the end goal (although players could continue on after this if they wished) was to build up enough ‘reputation’ to play a concert at the massive Count Rockula festival.

Game Outcomes

After launch, the game successfully managed to attract thousands of players from all over the world. This sounds like an excellent take-up however; consider the target for this campaign was UK-based teenagers and young adults aged between 13-24.

So whilst the game got strong global uptake, it never fully managed to captivate its key target market – the UK.

Undoubtedly, the global reach of the game was an interesting side-effect that no one was expecting, and a testament to the wider integration of facebook, but some key learns were taken from the launch which will be applied to future projects.

Learner Outcomes

As for meeting target learning objectives, the game fully delivered as expected. Learners were immersed in the financial troubles of an up and coming rock band and the only way to make any headway in the game was to consult a financial advisor for advice on lines of credit.

If users took out too much credit, they ended up bankrupt and would lose the game. In almost 95% of cases that were questioned, users had to restart the game after going bankrupt first time round.

Upon second play, players’ habits shifted in a number of key ways:

• Players spent more cautiously on advertising and promotion
• Players always kept a reserve amount in their bank for unforeseen events
• Players took up more lines of credit and managed them more efficiently with less players going bankrupt

The evidence suggests that players did improve their spending habits the second time round in order to progress through the game.

Play the Game Online

In the end, the game was successfully deployed to facebook and the web and you can play Rock n High Roller online at either of these locations:

• Play On facebook (must be logged into facebook)
• Play Online at ThinkingWorlds.com

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.