Education and Training in Virtual Environments for Disaster Management
Jennifer Tichon, Richard H. Hall, Michael G. Hilgers, Ming C. Leu, Sanjeev Agarwal · QUT ePrints (Queensland University of Technology) · 2003
Virtual Environments (VE) are currently being developed and evaluated as an alternative for educating and training first responder personnel. The methods being developed offer a more realistic alternative to lectures, manuals, and traditional computer-based training and circumvent the logistic and resource requirements of a full-scale field exercise. This presentation will discuss how lessons learned in the application of VR in education, carried out within the University of Queensland will assist to inform a developmental project training first responders to disaster scenes. This large-scale project, just getting underway at the University of Missouri-Rolla's Virtual and Rapid Prototyping Laboratory and sponsored by the United States Army's Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) combining VR and DM will be discussed. The presentation will reflect on and discuss the current and near-future possibilities for applying VR to education and training in the DM field.