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March 17, 2008
Virtual World Training Effectiveness Studies
We often get asked for studies on effectiveness of virtual worlds based training.
Two studies we are aware of were done at SUMMIT (Stanford University Medical Media & Information Technologies) recently.
One was completed last year and shows that using virtual world (Forterra Systems OLIVE **Disclosure: Ambient is Forterra Systems' partner in Europe**) based training to teach high school students to perform CPR increased their confidence and ability to remember the correct procedures and found that 'While manikin-based training continues to be the most appropriate method for learning the basic psychomotor skills of CPR, this study demonstrates the potential added value of MMOS for situated learning in which laypersons are able to practice the sequence of actions necessary to respond appropriately to different medical emergencies.' Link to buy article ($20.00).
Link to SUMMIT page with videos and more information on the project is here.
The other big study at SUMMIT was published last month in the World Journal of Surgery. The abstract is below. They found that virtual world based training was effective in 'providing repeated practice opportnities in dispersed locations', and that it was adequately realistic to 'suspend belief', and easy to use.
The article can be purchased online here ($32.00).
A video clip showing the OLIVE platform in action is below.
Dr. LeRoy Heinrich presented this research at the Serious Virtual Worlds Conference in September 2007.
You can view an archive of his presentation (and the others) here.
The dates for Serious Virtual Worlds 2008 are September 11,12, again to be held in Coventry in partnership with the Serious Games Institute.
Abstract Individuals in clinical training programs concerned with critical medical care must learn to manage clinical cases effectively as a member of a team. However, practice on live patients is often unpredictable and frequently repetitive. The widely substituted alternative for real patients—high-fidelity, manikin-based simulators (human patient simulator)—are expensive and require trainees to be in the same place at the same time, whereas online computer-based simulations, or virtual worlds, allow simultaneous participation from different locations. Here we present three virtual world studies for team training and assessment in acute-care medicine: (1) training emergency department (ED) teams to manage individual trauma cases; (2) prehospital and in-hospital disaster preparedness training; (3) training ED and hospital staff to manage mass casualties after chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or explosive incidents. The research team created realistic virtual victims of trauma (6 cases), nerve toxin exposure (10 cases), and blast trauma (10 cases); the latter two groups were supported by rules-based, pathophysiologic models of asphyxia and hypovolemia. Evaluation of these virtual world simulation exercises shows that trainees find them to be adequately realistic to “suspend disbelief,” and they quickly learn to use Internet voice communication and user interface to navigate their online character/avatar to work effectively in a critical care team. Our findings demonstrate that these virtual ED environments fulfill their promise of providing repeated practice opportunities in dispersed locations with uncommon, life-threatening trauma cases in a safe, reproducible, flexible setting.
Posted by Ron Edwards at March 17, 2008 02:34 PM
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