Volume 10, Number 12, October 2020

A Game-Based Interactive Training System for Improving the Engagement of Hazard Learning and Training

  Authors

David Hu¹, Jack Gao¹, Yu Sun², Fangyan Zhang³, ¹USA, ²California State Polytechnic University, USA, ³ASML, USA

  Abstract

Natural Disasters, events that are frequently occurring around the world, taking away homes and innocent lives within minutes or even seconds with the only goal of destruction. Only when we see it on the news of fatalities around the globe when we realize how fragile human life is. The most concerning problem is that current disaster training procedures are not sufficient in preparing the general public in the case of natural disasters such as earthquakes which can wipe out thousands of homes and cause massive casualties if not properly prepared for. To address this situation, the first prototype that we came up with was the Safety Lifetime earthquake simulation game. We believe simulation-based learning would be better at covering more information as well as making the lessons more memorable. As a prototype, Safety Lifetime only contains the simulation of a real earthquake, and lessons to guide the user through what to do during an earthquake, what items to collect, what is the safest sheltering location, and more. In order to verify the effectiveness of the training system, we performed a small-scale user study. 10 users are divided into two groups. Group A is given the booklet earthquake educational materials, while Group B is provided with the game system. Each group spends 10 minutes to learn the content, followed by finishing a quiz. The result shows that the average score of the Group A is 8.5/10, while the average score of the Group B is 9.3/10.

  Keywords

Disaster training, earthquake, simulation-based learning, training system.