The After-Action Review (AAR) in Virtual Reality (VR) training for police provides new opportunities to enhance learning. We investigated whether perspectives (bird’s eye & police officer, bird’s eye & suspect, bird’s eye) and line of fire displayed in the AAR impacted the officers’ learning efficacy. A 3 x 2 ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of AAR perspectives. Post hoc pairwise comparisons showed that using a bird’s eye view in combination with the suspect perspective elicits significantly greater learning efficacy compared to using a bird’s eye view alone. Using the line of fire feature did not influence learning efficacy. Our findings show that the use of the suspect perspective during the AAR in VR training can support the learning efficacy of police officers.Practitioner summary: VR systems possess After-Action Review tools that provide objective performance feedback. This study found that reviewing a VR police training scenario from the bird’s eye view in combination with the suspect perspective enhanced police officers’ learning efficacy. Designing and applying the After-Action Review effectively can improve learning efficacy in VR.
Background/Objectives: Homecare staff often take over activities instead of “doing activities with” clients, thereby hampering clients from remaining active in daily life. Training and supporting staff to integrate reablement into their working practices may reduce clients' sedentary behavior and improve their independence. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the “Stay Active at Home” (SAaH) reablement training program for homecare staff on older homecare clients' sedentary behavior. Design: Cluster randomized controlled trial (c-RCT). Setting: Dutch homecare (10 nursing teams comprising a total of 313 staff members). Participants: 264 clients (aged ≥65 years). Intervention: SAaH seeks to equip staff with knowledge, attitude, and skills on reablement, and to provide social and organizational support to implement reablement in homecare practice. SAaH consists of program meetings, practical assignments, and weekly newsletters over a 9-month period. The control group received no additional training and delivered care as usual. Measurements: Sedentary behavior (primary outcome) was measured using tri-axial wrist-worn accelerometers. Secondary outcomes included daily functioning (GARS), physical functioning (SPPB), psychological functioning (PHQ-9), and falls. Data were collected at baseline and at 12 months; data on falls were also collected at 6 months. Intention-to-treat analyses using mixed-effects linear and logistic regression were performed. Results: We found no statistically significant differences between the study groups for sedentary time expressed as daily minutes (adjusted mean difference: β 18.5 (95% confidence interval [CI] 22.4, 59.3), p = 0.374) and as proportion of wake/wear time (β 0.6 [95% CI 1.5, 2.6], p = 0.589) or for most secondary outcomes. Conclusion: Our c-RCT showed no evidence for the effectiveness of SAaH for all client outcomes. Refining SAaH, by adding components that intervene directly on homecare clients, may optimize the program and require further research. Additional research should explore the effectiveness of SAaH on behavioral determinants of clients and staff and cost-effectiveness.
Virtual training systems provide highly realistic training environments for police. This study assesses whether a pain stimulus can enhance the training responses and sense of the presence of these systems. Police officers (n = 219) were trained either with or without a pain stimulus in a 2D simulator (VirTra V-300) and a 3D virtual reality (VR) system. Two (training simulator) × 2 (pain stimulus) ANOVAs revealed a significant interaction effect for perceived stress (p =.010, ηp2 =.039). Post-hoc pairwise comparisons showed that VR provokes significantly higher levels of perceived stress compared to VirTra when no pain stimulus is used (p =.009). With a pain stimulus, VirTra training provokes significantly higher levels of perceived stress compared to VirTra training without a pain stimulus (p <.001). Sense of presence was unaffected by the pain stimulus in both training systems. Our results indicate that VR training appears sufficiently realistic without adding a pain stimulus. Practitioner summary: Virtual police training benefits from highly realistic training environments. This study found that adding a pain stimulus heightened perceived stress in a 2D simulator, whereas it influenced neither training responses nor sense of presence in a VR system. VR training appears sufficiently realistic without adding a pain stimulus.
De Top-up subsidie gebruiken wij voor het ontwikkelen van cursusmateriaal vanuit de resultaten uit project ‘The Next Level’ voor het curriculum ‘Communicatie’, ‘fysiotherapie’, een postbachelor-cursus ‘het gesprek’ die september 2017 start bij het Centrum voor Communicatie en Journalistiek (CCJ) en voor de beroepspraktijk ook buiten het crisisdomein. The Next Level heeft interessante inzichten opgeleverd over de wijze waarop taalgebruik op sociale media bijdraagt aan geruchtvorming en mobilisatie tijdens crisis. We spreken van geruchtvorming als een bepaalde voorstelling van zaken online de ronde doet, terwijl de feitelijkheid door autoriteiten (nog) niet is bevestigd of (al) is ontkend, en samengaat met of bijdraagt aan maatschappelijke onrust . Bij de vorming van mobilisatie kan het om verschillende doelen gaan zoals het winnen van morele en ideële steun voor de beweging . Een crisis kent vaak een sluimerende aanloop die uitmondt in een escalatie van de situatie. Het is de taak van het crisisteam om gedurende de aanloopperiode tot en met de escalatie van een crisis signalen tijdig en juist te kunnen duiden. Maar ook in reguliere tijden kunnen de inzichten vanuit een gespreksbenadering voor professionals die veel gesprekken voeren waardevol zijn. Inzichten uit The Next Level zijn verwerkt in een training voor crisisprofessionals: de Discoursanalytische Bril (DaB). Deze training stelt professionals in staat te kijken naar interacties op social media tijdens crises. Communicatie- en veiligheidsadviseurs hebben door de invloed van social media te maken met een veranderde interactionele context. Toch is er zowel wetenschappelijk als in de praktijk weinig aandacht voor de interactionele aspecten van crisiscommunicatie (Klarenbeek, 2012), de manier waarop mensen met elkaar in gesprek zijn over een crisis en de effecten daarvan. In The Next Level demonstreren we aan de hand van de DaB de toegevoegde waarde van een dergelijk perspectief voor professionals in het crisisdomein. De training werd goed beoordeeld. Renate den Elzen, communicatieadviseur Nationale Politie, gaf aan dat de resultaten toepasbaar zijn in de praktijk van alledag. Ook Niels Loeffen, adviseur bij communicatieadviesbureau HowAboutYou, benadrukt de toepassing van de gespreksbenadering bij crises. Tijdens en vlak na de looptijd van het project is er voortdurend aandacht geweest voor de integratie van deze inzichten in de beroepspraktijk, door middel van een reeks trainingen bij Nationale Politie, het Genootschap voor burgemeesters, Veiligheidsregio’s Utrecht, Friesland en Zuid-Holland, Foodlog, in workshops op internationale congressen, en als cursusonderdeel van post-bachelor cursus bij het CCJ. Ook in het onderwijs buiten de HU hebben we gastcolleges verzorgd bij de RUG en de WUR. De gespreksbenadering (ook buiten het crisisdomein) wordt een kernthema in het vernieuwde curriculum van de faculteit Communicatie en Journalistiek aan de Hogeschool Utrecht (Communicatie). In de opleiding is behoefte aan het stimuleren van het onderzoekend vermogen van studenten Communicatie. In vakken behorende tot de onderzoeksleerlijn kan worden ingezet op gespreksanalytisch onderzoek. Vanuit de opleiding fysiotherapie is gevraagd om een cursus gesprek tussen behandelaars en patiënten.
Within TIND, Christian Roth studies the training of interactive narrative designers with the goal of developing teaching methods and learning tools for artists and designers to enable the creation of more effective artefacts. Interactive Narrative Design (IND) is a complex and challenging interdisciplinary field introducing new affordances in technique and user-experience. This requires practice-based research for further development of the educational format, demonstrating its potential while identifying and overcoming common learners’ challenges. This project aims to develop a framework for the design and evaluation of meaningful interactive narrative experiences that effectively stimulate a variety of cognitive and emotional responses such as reflection, insight, understanding, and potential behavior change. It provides tools, methods and activities to enable aspiring or practicing narrative designers through an interdisciplinary approach, including game design, immersive theatre, behavioral and cognitive psychology, and the learning sciences. HKU education means to prepare students for success in the creative industries and IND plays an important role for current and future jobs in education, arts and entertainment. IND has the potential to create an emotional impact and spark transformative change by offering agency, defined as the ability to influence narrative progression and outcomes in a meaningful way. This enables interactors to feel the weight of their own choices and their consequences, to explore different perspectives, and to more thoroughly understand complex multi-stakeholder issues, which could have significant impact on the success of emerging artistic, and learning applications. The research project is directly embedded in the curriculum of the HKU school Games & Interaction with annual educational offerings such as the Minor Interactive Narrative Design (MIND) and HKU wide broad seminars. Course evaluation and literature research will be used to create new and adjusted training for different HKU schools and the industry. Outcomes will be shared via an interactive website and events.
