3d Simulation Software and Serious Games Authoring Tool, Thinking Worlds, plays its part in facilitating language learning and cultural development in 2 day workshop in Malaysia delivered by the Serious Games Institute.
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PRESS RELEASE:
THE company behind the award-winning Thinking Worlds rapid 3D authoring tool, Caspian Learning, is proud to announce their recent breakthrough in web deployment technology that allows simulations created with their Thinking Worlds technology to be deployed to the web not only in Shockwave, but now in Java too.
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A key performance metric for the UK Military is “Brought Up To Standard”, or BUTS rate for short. The Military rigorously measures human performance and for those recruits that fail to make the required standard, they go on to receive additional BUTS training. This demands a considerable investment in additional training resources, cost and time off the job.
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PRESS RELEASE:
This is the story of how the Royal Navy used Serious Games to transform training effectiveness on a crucial operational area on board ship – Engineering Safety Rounds Inspection. Historically, this was the Maritime Warfare School’s worst performing course. Compared to classroom training, the immersive learning experience of Serious Games improved trainee capability, cut failure rates by 54% and reduced the needs for additional resource requirements.
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On Tuesday 29th June, the Royal School of Military Engineering, in conjunction with Holdfast Training, will be hosting a symposium focussed on looking at ways to ‘Enhance the Military learning experience within and beyond the classroom’. Caspian Learning CEO, Graeme Duncan, will be attending the event as a presenter and will be speaking in a dedicated slot for ‘Interactive Learning’ at 4pm.
If you’re attending the event, please take some time to have a look at the Caspian Learning military simulations and feel free to approach Graeme with any questions you might have.
Defence IQ interviews Graeme Duncan, the CEO of Caspian Learning in an insightful session that opens the discussion on military simulations even further. Caspian Learning’s “Thinking Worlds” technology is the focus of discussion as Graeme applies the application of the tool to developing rapid, browser based simulations for the military. The discussion looks at how open the technology is, who Caspian Learning’s past clients have been, how relationships are built with the military and where the technology is headed.
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As some of you will probably be aware, DefenceIQ are presenting their Joint Simulation and Training conference at Le Méridien Piccadilly, London, 27th and 28th September 2010. As one of the leading providers of performance and training simulations in the UK defence sector, Caspian Learning have been invited to speak at the conference.
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We’ll be continuing our early year momentum of speaking at elearning, training and simulation conferences by attending the eLearnExpo in Moscow. Our CEO, Graeme Duncan begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting will be in attendance and presenting at th Read more »
THE company behind the award-winning 3D authoring tool, Thinking Worlds, today announced the winners of its Serious Games Challenge.
Caspian Learning, the UK-based performance simulation and serious games experts, launched the challenge at the recent Game Based Learning conference in London and opened it up to all users of its Thinking Worlds technology.
The company challenged both novice and expert users alike to create the most innovative serious game in just 30 days.
The entries were whittled down to two finalists whose games were selected based on how well the entrant used Thinking Worlds innovatively to create a game with a good storyline and good use of learning interactions within it.
Lee Rushworth, Marketing Executive for Caspian Learning, announced today that A Planet in Peril: Plagiarism was voted as the winning entry by experienced instructional designers at the company. The game was developed by a small group of Communications Media and Instructional Technology doctoral students (who jokingly refer to themselves as Random Precision Studios) from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP).
Mr Rushworth said: “All of the entries we received were of a very good standard, considering that no training had been given to the entrants, but there were one or two that stood out above the others.”
“A Planet in Peril: Plagiarism was one that really stood out to us as a well-produced serious game built with a great sense of humour and some innovative uses of Thinking Worlds interactions that even we hadn’t thought of.”
The game, which is currently in a beta release, follows the story of a student who uncovers the secret of a group of aliens, disguised as academics, at his university campus. The aliens have prophesied the end of the world, which is set to occur due to a student’s excessive plagiarism, and it’s up to the hero to put the pieces of this puzzle together in order to prevent disaster. While working through the challenges players learn about what is, and what is not plagiarism, including ways to avoid it.
The game is targeted at the college and university level but has application for high school students. The final version of the game will be released in the fall.
The idea was pure serendipity… and a little luck. Ryan L. Sittler, Assistant Professor of Library Services at the California University of Pennsylvania (and one of the lead designers for “Random Precision Studios”) said: “I am working on my PhD at IUP and am an avid game player. My State-System colleague, Dr. Kelly Heider, suggested that I create an information literacy game. I knew I could never do it on my own, so I asked some other doctoral students to help get it off the ground. Fortunately, they were interested! It was in our initial conversations that we settled on one information literacy concept – plagiarism – and developed the ridiculous end-of-the-world scenario.”
This team included Chad Sherman and David P. Keppel as the other lead designers (handling the majority of game production) and Dana Covitz Hackley, Chrissy Schaeffer, and Laurie A. Grosik assisting with pre-production and documenting the process for a potential future publication.
After developing the initial concept, David worked on creating custom objects and environments for the game. “Objects can be scaled in size, but environments cannot be. I had to spend a little time tweaking and resizing the original models until I got the scale right. Luckily, this was easy to do using Caspian tools.” After this, it was up to the designers to find a way to make all of the ideas actually work. Chad took the unusual story and turned it into a playable game. He found that, while there were minor problems related to learning the program, Thinking Worlds allowed for just about anything to be developed. “We had some small issues with characters not following a spline properly. Fixing it really just required us to change the starting or ending points. Most of our difficulties came from inexperience with the software and not knowing if it had any limitations; we basically had to teach ourselves how to use it but it also freed us to be creative and think outside of the box.”
Caspian Learning is committed to making the creation of 3D performance simulations and serious games more accessible to traditional learning and development providers.
Using Thinking Worlds technology, the winning game was uploaded to the Internet and is available for anyone to play at http://www.coe.iup.edu/thinkingworldsgame
If you would like to contact any of the IUP Communications Media and Instructional Technology doctoral students that worked on this project, or have feedback about the game (including bugs!), please email Ryan L. Sittler at rlsittler@aol.com
More information about Thinking Worlds can be found at http://www.thinkingworlds.com
About Caspian Learning
Founded in 2002 , Caspian Learning is the developer of the award-winning 3D authoring tool Thinking Worlds. Caspian Learning’s Thinking Worlds uses globally unique technology that allows instructional designers to create fully immersive 3D simulations at costs previously restricted to 2D development. By utilising Thinking Worlds, Caspian has positioned itself as the global leader in the use of 3D games and simulations technology within learning, having developed over 50 applications for clients such as IBM, BBC, QinetiQ, Volvo, the Ministry for Defence and the European Union.
PRESS RELEASE:
Bohemia Interactive and Caspian Learning announce a formal partnership which will help shape the future of the military simulation and serious games market.
Bohemia Interactive, the foremost military serious games organisation and Caspian Learning, the leading rapid simulation and serious games company are forging a formal partnership that will bring exciting new offerings to military markets around the world. Given the technology and heritage of both organisations, this strategic venture will herald new offerings to the military sector and help to solve current training and simulation issues experienced by defence customers.
Bohemia Interactive has been serving the military simulation community for almost a decade, and will bring its gold standard and industry leading simulation product “VBS2” to the partnership. VBS2 – Virtual Battlespace 2 – is a fully interactive, three-dimensional, PC-based synthetic environment specifically developed for military training, mission rehearsal and analysis.
Caspian Learning will bring its multi award winning and globally unique 3D simulation authoring software and engine, Thinking Worlds, to the partnership. Thinking Worlds will enable the strategic venture to capitalise on both the true thin client delivery mechanisms of Caspian’s core technology and the rapid simulation and scenario editing capabilities of the authoring interface.
The fusion of the current gold standard military serious games product – VBS2 – with the thin client and rapid development cycle of Thinking Worlds, will be a powerful and compelling proposition to defence clients around the world.
Peter Morrison, CEO of Bohemia Interactive Simulations, said “We are both delighted and hugely excited by the opportunities that this new partnership offers us and our clients. Caspian Learning has delivered a unique simulation capability with Thinking Worlds. Fusing this capability with our own technology and experience will enable us to take new types of 3D simulations out to our customers in locations even closer to theatre through thin-client content delivery.”
Graeme Duncan CEO Caspian learning stated “The many synergies between the organisations including management approach and technological ideas will deliver both short term and long term benefits to the market. Bohemia is the leading serious games organisation within the military sector and we are delighted that we are able to work with the team and the technologies to drive innovation even further.”
The first step results of fusing the two technology platforms together will be showcased at ITEC this year, in booth E120. The benefits of blending high fidelity 3D simulation with rapid scenario generation and thin client delivery will be available for all to see.
Screenshots of VBS2 and Thinking Worlds Integration:
About Caspian Learning
Founded in 2002 , Caspian Learning is the developer of the multi award-winning 3D authoring tool Thinking Worlds. Caspian Learning’s Thinking Worlds uses globally unique technology that allows instructional designers to create fully immersive 3D simulations at costs previously restricted to 2D development. By utilising Thinking Worlds, Caspian has positioned itself as the global leader in the use of 3D games and simulations technology within learning, having developed over 50 applications for clients such as IBM, BBC, QinetiQ, Volvo, The Ministry of Defence and the European Union.
About Bohemia Interactive
Bohemia Interactive Simulations is a world leader in providing simulation and integrated training solutions for military organisations. With origins in the gaming industry, Bohemia successfully exploits game-based technology and applies this to breakthrough, military-specific simulation products. Our primary focus is the development of the Virtual Battlespace (VBS) series, which is used in daily training and mission rehearsal by premier military organisations worldwide including the ADF, Canadian Forces, UK MoD, US Army and USMC.
Graeme Duncan, CEO of Caspian Learning was yesterday interviewed by Defence IQ on BlogTalk Radio in a session on 3D Simulation for Military Training. Caspian Learning was invited to the interview because the company, which has been around since 2002, is considered as one of the leading developers of serious games and military simulations in Europe, with over 50 individual simulations being created. Caspian Learning’s immersive simulations for military training have already been deployed into a number of defence and military organisations including the UK MoD and the US DoD.
The interview attempted to probe Mr Duncan on the challenges presented by building this type of simulation and how he envisioned the advance of the technology in the years ahead. The entire interview is available to listen to at this page or, if you want to, download it from this location.
Defence IQ is hosting the Joint Simulation and Training Conference at Le Méridien Piccadilly, London, 27th – 28th September this year. Visit www.jointsimulationandtraining.com for more information.
PRESS RELEASE:
3D immersive simulation technology firm Caspian Learning wins two more elearning accolades for its innovative Thinking Worlds rapid authoring software.
THE company behind the groundbreaking 3D authoring tool, Thinking Worlds, is celebrating after scooping two prestigious technology awards.
Caspian Learning, the UK-based 3D simulation and serious games experts, won the pair of gold medals in Brandon Hall Research’s 2009 Excellence In Learning Technology Awards.
Both accolades were for its pioneering Thinking Worlds rapid 3D authoring tool. The company struck gold in two categories: the Best Advance in 3-D or Immersive Learning Technology, and Best Advance in Technology for Game or Simulation Authoring.
Lee Rushworth, Marketing Executive for Caspian Learning, said: “We are absolutely thrilled. These are very significant awards.
“Brandon Hall Research is a highly respected and globally renowned authority in the elearning market and winning these awards is a glowing testament to all of the hard work and research that has gone into the development of Thinking Worlds.”
The Thinking Worlds technology is a commercially-available software platform that allows instructional designers to rapidly create cost-effective 3D immersive learning simulations and browser-based serious games.
Thinking Worlds was launched in April 2009 and by the end of last year had already won two major awards for being the most innovative learning simulation authoring tool available. The latest accolades mean Thinking Worlds has now won four prestigious awards in its very first 12 months.
Earlier this month Caspian Learning, which has offices in the UK and the USA, announced the release of Thinking Worlds 3.3, the latest version of the 3D authoring tool.
Thinking Worlds 3.3 contains new features, including the ability to seamlessly integrate files created in Adobe Flash into 3D environments and publish them directly to the internet. This allows faster development and a cheaper way for designers to develop immersive simulations.
US-based company Brandon Hall Research has been recognising the best in learning content and training innovations for 15 years through its annual Excellence In Learning Awards. But this was the inaugural year of the Brandon Hall Research Excellence in Learning Technology Awards, which aimed to highlight and reward the best in commercial learning technology.
Mr Rushworth added: “It’s rare to have an award-winning product. But it’s amazing to be a part of a company whose product wins four major awards in the first year it is released. We are confident we have created a category-leading product and set the bar really high for our competitors.”
Caspian Learning is committed to making the creation of 3D performance simulations and serious games more accessible to traditional learning and development providers.
A comprehensive overview of the benefits associated with Thinking Worlds 3.3 is available at www.thinkingworlds.com.
PRESS RELEASE:
Award winning simulation technology company, Caspian Learning, continue to reduce the development costs of 3d simulations for training, performance and engagement with the release of a new version of their Thinking Worlds rapid 3d authoring tool.
Caspian Learning, the UK based 3d simulation technology company, today announced the release of the latest version of their award winning rapid 3d authoring tool Thinking Worlds. Thinking Worlds is a proprietary software technology that allows designers to create 3d performance simulations and serious games – rapidly.
The ability to integrate files created in Adobe’s Flash effortlessly into 3d environments and publish them directly to the internet is just one of the new additions within the tool that enables faster development and subsequently lowers the development costs of immersive simulations for designers. The new additions make the creation of immersive 3d learning and performance simulations even more cost effective than previous versions of the software.
Lee Rushworth, Marketing Executive for Caspian Learning, described the new release as ‘another round of exciting benefits that give instructional designers even more rapid authoring capability at their disposal. It’s our hope that with each new release, we make it easier for content developers to create simulations more efficiently and more cost effectively and that is exactly what we believe Thinking Worlds 3.3 has achieved.’
After using Thinking Worlds to create a quick 10 minute fully immersive simulation, Eng. Gustavo Sanabria, Managing Director of innovative simulation design company, IGS, said that ‘it was very fast to develop indeed. If we had to build it again, it would take us no more than 15/20 hours.’
As part of Caspian Learning’s drive to make the creation of 3d performance simulations and serious games more accessible to traditional learning and development providers, they have made a free trial of the software available to download directly from their website and you can get your copy by clicking on ‘Try Now’ over at www.thinkingworlds.com.
A full overview of benefits associated with the new Thinking Worlds 3.3 release is also available from the Thinking Worlds website.
Brandon Hall Research has been recognising the best in learning content and training initiatives for 15 years through their Excellence in Learning Awards. This year, Brandon Hall Research announced the launch of the ‘Excellence in Learning Technology Awards’ which will be showcasing some of the most innovative Learning Technology available for workplace learning. The Awards Ceremony will be taking place online on April 29th and if you are available to attend, it will be well worth the time to see first hand the kind of innovative tools that are available to put together comprehensive learning scenarios within your workplace.
For more information about the Excellence in Learning Technology Awards, please visit the Brandon Hall Research website.
Caspian Learning CEO, Graeme Duncan and Lt Cdr Steve Clark of the Royal Navy demonstrate the use of games and virtual world technology within the Royal Navy at the recent Game Based Learning conference at The Brewery in London. The presentation garnered quite a bit of interest that culminated into a healthy dose of questions towards the end of the session which we would advise anyone interested in using serious games for simulation, training or performance to take the time to view.
The presentation largely focused on the real benefits that the simulation provided to the UK Navy and showcased how the project improved learner/trainee immersion by transferring traditional elearning via Power Point slides into a fully immersive 3d realistic environment that was, in this case, a Type 23 Navy Frigate.
Caspian Learning is pleased to inform you we have been named as a sponsor of Bersin & Associates IMPACT Conference. Caspian Learning will be providing demonstrations of Thinking Worlds at the IMPACT conference April 6-10, 2010. IMPACT will be held at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort & Golf Club, St. Petersburg, Florida. Thinking Worlds is Caspian Learning’s award winning and industry leading rapid 3D Immersive Simulation development environment for learning & development professionals.
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Caspian Learning today announced their plans to launch a Serious Games Challenge worth £3000 to the winner. The competition will be completely free to enter and open to all aspiring instructional designers. Caspian Learning will also be providing designers with free trial copies of their proprietary 3d engine and authoring tool, Thinking Worlds, to allow them to take part in the challenge.
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Caspian Learning were one of a small handful of immersive learning simulations providers exhibiting at this year’s Learning Technologies exhibition at the Olympia, London. Learning Technologies is Europe’s largest showcase and exhibition for ‘technology supported workplace learning’. The event was a huge success for Caspian Learning, whose Thinking Worlds 3d Engine and Authoring Tool was the key protaganist. Serious games created purely in Thinking Worlds were being demonstrated by Caspian Learning and the game-like 3d avatars and environments drummed up huge interest from all corners of the exhibition. Graeme Duncan, CEO of Caspian Learning, managed to find 10 minutes out of a hectic schedule to show off Thinking Worlds: Read more »
London UK, 11th January 2010:
Caspian Learning, award winning developer of Thinking Worlds, a commercially available software platform that enables the rapid development of highly engaging 3D immersive learning simulations and games announced the appointment of John Higgins as President of US Operations today. Prior to joining Caspian Learning, John served as the global Senior Director of Innovation Deployment for Accenture HR & Learning BPO Services. John has also held senior leadership positions with BearingPoint, KPMG, and IBM.
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The second Corporate Learning and Innovations Conference (or LearnTrends for short) came to a close on 20th November 2009 and it was Caspian Learning’s Thinking Worlds authoring tool that took home the award for Innovation in Learning. The Conference took place over 4 days in a series of online sessions as part of an effort to bring together people who look at different aspects of learning and knowledge work from around the world. The theme for the conference was Convergence in Workplace Learning and as part of the conference; an awards ceremony was held which highlighted some of this year’s most innovative tools for corporate learning.
Copyright 2010 Caspian Learning Ltd. All rights reserved.