This paper presents the design and the results of a comparative study of multidisciplinary on-scene command teams at work in virtual emergency training exercises. The principal goals of the study were to understand how "on-scene command teams" coordinate on multidisciplinary objectives and tasks, and how the manner in which this is done affects their performance. The study involved 20 on-scene command teams consisting of various individuals, such as police, fire and medical services personnel, municipal officers and infrastructure operators, drawn from a Safety Region in The Netherlands. Integrated video recordings by five synchronized cameras captured the coordination processes during the virtual exercises. The integrated and synchronized video recordings were then transformed into numerical data for analysis. Performance was operationalized by scoring the progress and completion of emergency management tasks for which individual members and/or teams as a whole were responsible. Team coordination was operationalized using network centrality and density measures. The significant findings are the following: (i) emergency management performance and coordination patterns within and among on-scene command teams have considerable variation; and (ii) teams that use less coordination during the intermediate phases of emergency management perform significantly better than teams that do not, moreover, actors who have central positions in a network are better able to achieve their performance goals.
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This paper describes a project to explore the possibilities of virtual worlds in educating Green IT. In the project a virtual world has been created with various assignments which are meant to create awareness on sustainability aspects of IT. The world (and the assignments) will be incorporated in a course for first-year IT students. In order to measure the effects of the course, a questionnaire has been developed which can be used before and after the course to measure the attitude towards green IT.
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Designers are increasingly collaborating with various stakeholders to address complex societal challenges. These challenges often require a codesign approach, where differ-ent actors with diverse perspectives and experiences unite to explore innovative ave-nues for change. Such collaboration requires empathy between the actors to under-stand each other’s perspective better in their interactions. This paper aims to assist so-cial designers in orchestrating such empathic codesign processes by introducing an Em-pathic Journey framework. This conceptual and practical framework is based on em-pathic design theory and three design cases which used Virtual Reality for perspective exchange between actors. The framework addresses the importance of integrating an emotional spark through immersion and the necessity of embedding immersive experiences in a larger journey.
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Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is often framed as an example of a broader practice known as Virtual Exchange (VE). The term Virtual Exchange has increasingly been used as an attempt to unify a fragmented field of Higher Education practice and is often used interchangeably with the term COIL. However, the design of COIL, with its strong focus on collaborative and intercultural learning, is often very different to other VE initiatives. Labelling all VE initiatives, including COIL, generally as VE, can lead to both educators and researchers having difficulty identifying and distinguishing COIL. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of VE and define COIL and its key characteristics. This article also describes how theory can inform practice and explains why continued interchangeable use of the term COIL with the umbrella term Virtual Exchange is unhelpful for future research and practice.
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Virtual care centres (VCCs) are novel wards of hospitals and facilitate the provision of remote monitoring and home-based patient care by virtual care nurses. Whereas since the COVID-19 pandemic VCCs have rapidly emerged, there is a lack of insight in virtual care nurses’ work and the associated work load. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify the nursing activities performed in Virtual Care Centers (VCCs) and assess nurses’ perceived workload associated with these activities. A multicentre descriptive, observational cross-sectional study was performed.
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In the fall of 1999, an international integrated product development pilot project based on collaborative engineering was started with team members in two international teams from the United States, The Netherlands and Germany. Team members interacted using various Internet capabilities, including, but not limited to, ICQ (means: I SEEK YOU, an internet feature which immediately detects when somebody comes "on line"), web phones, file servers, chat rooms and Email along with video conferencing. For this study a control group with all members located in the USA only also worked on the same project.
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We propose an approach to enhancing knowledge sharing and connectedness in distributed teams. Termed ‘Narrating Your Work’ (NYW), the approach involves members of distributed team using a microblogging tool to post regular updates about their current work, accomplishments, and issues. The NYW approach was evaluated within a geographically and temporally distributed team at Shell International for a period of one month, using a mixed-method research design. Methodology comprised of a quantitative survey, followed by semi-structured interviews and analysis of microblogging updates posted during the month in which the approach was being trialled. The evaluation results suggest that NYW was viewed as a valid and practical approach to enhancing knowledge sharing and connectedness. A range of barriers and enablers that could impact the future application and embedding of the approach are identified and recommendations for implementation are outlined.
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This paper shows an overview of design practices of the XR-lab at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands. Over the course of six years, interdisciplinary teams of students have delivered 55+ prototypes in virtual, augmented, and mixed reality for a variety of 40+ clients. As human-computer interaction is entering a new evolutionary phase towards human-computer integration, new opportunities in extended reality (XR) have the potential to fundamentally alter human characteristics and abilities. Therefore, this paper begins with taking a philosophical stance on ‘being human’ and the anthropological concept of ‘liminality’ in XR-experiences. A further exploration of the concept of 'emotional rehearsal spaces' uses know-how from performance art, dance, architecture, and dramaturgy. Insights from tangible practices at the XR-lab show the cultural journey in XR-collaborations. This is made visible through a quick and dirty experiment on artistic thinking, design thinking, and system thinking, which shows how interdisciplinary collaborations are able to ignite new combinations of thought in design teams and individual professionals. Finally, we show an overview of specific design methods and tools that have been explored at the XR-lab over the years.
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Abstract Background Visuospatial neglect (VSN) is a cognitive disorder after stroke in which patients fail to consciously process and interact with contralesional stimuli. Visual Scanning Training (VST) is the recommended treatment in clinical guidelines. At the moment, several mixed reality versions of Visual Scanning Training (VST) are being developed. The aim of this study was to explore the opinions of end-users (i.e., therapists) on the use of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) in VSN treatment. Methods Therapists played one VR and two AR Serious Games, and subsequently flled out a questionnaire on User Experience, Usability, and Implementation. Results Sixteen therapists (psychologists, occupational, speech, and physiotherapists) played the games, thirteen of them evaluated the games. Therapists saw great potential in all three games, yet there was room for improvement on the level of usability, especially for tailoring the games to the patient’s needs. Therapists’ opinions were comparable between VR and AR Serious Games. For implementation, therapists stressed the urgency of clear guidelines and instructions. Discussion Even though VR/AR technology is promising for VSN treatment, there is no one-size-fts-all applicability. It may thus be crucial to move towards a plethora of training environments rather than a single standardized mixed reality neglect treatment. Conclusion As therapists see the potential value of mixed reality, it remains important to investigate the efcacy of AR and VR training tools.
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Chronic itching is a serious and uncomfortable condition. The scratch response might result in a vicious cycle of alternating itching and scratching. To develop psychological interventions for people suffering from chronic itching and to break the vicious itch-scratching-itch cycle, it is important to elucidate which environmental factors trigger itch sensations. Virtual reality (VR) techniques provide a useful tool to examine specific content characteristics in a three-dimensional (3D VR) environment and their influences on itch sensations and scratching behaviour. This article describes two experiments in which we focused on the effects of environmental information on itching and scratching behaviour. Additionally, in the second experiment, we examined the influence of having a chronic skin condition on sensitivity to itch induction. We found evidence for the importance of the content of audio–visual materials for the effectiveness in inducing feelings of itch in the observers. In both experiments, we observed significantly higher levels of perceived itch in the itch-inducing conditions than in the control condition. Moreover, the results showed that elevated levels of perceived itch were associated with an increase in scratching behaviours, which was especially salient in the contagious itch condition, in which perceived itch was accompanied by a significant increase in the number of scratches. Experiment 2 additionally showed increased perceived itch levels in participants who reported having a chronic skin condition, reflecting higher sensitivity to itch-inducing audio–visual stimuli in this group than in participants without a chronic skin condition. Based on the results we concluded that directing attention towards itch- or scratch aspects of related information in the environment and to the consequences for one’s own skin are effective tools to induce itch sensations and scratching behaviour. This knowledge provides tools for developing novel strategies in advising and treating people suffering from chronic itching and breaking the vicious itch-scratching-itch cycle.
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