PIVOTE system for Effective Training and Simulation in 
Virtual Worlds Second Life and Beyond

 David Burden¹ and Dr. Hanan Gazit²

¹ DADEN LIMITED and ²MetaverSense Ltd

Introduction

3D Virtual Worlds are becoming more and more a valid place to conduct corporate training, serving as a complementary platform for real life training and instruction sessions and existing E-Learning applications. Organizations, no matter how big or small, are finding that virtual worlds are a very cost effective alternative that delivers results, improving engagement, performance and recall.

There are three typical levels of virtual worlds use for learning and training:
1. Virtual space bringing a group together to meet/discuss/learn from multiple locations but without creating a "simulation", e.g. for discussions, presentations and simple role-play.
2. Training exercises locations which are not immersive but making use of the 3D environment. e.g. management games, visualizing and discussing data etc.
3. Immersive training simulations
Virtual world environment can also be made as private or secure as the nature of the business and training demands.

 

Virtual Worlds Advantages for Training and Simulation

Virtual worlds offer several advantages over both real-life and other E-Learning approaches, although of course no single solution does everything, one should use the most appropriate methodology for each task. Common advantages for virtual worlds (and other E-Learning) over physical training traditional E-Learning include:

·   Company savings in both time/money

·   Flexibility in creating different scenes and locations.

·   Bridging over time and place

·   Environmentally friendly save costs/carbon/time etc.

·   Richer environment than audio/web meetings and simpler than video conferencing

·   Different student group dynamic

·   Improved learning/student satisfaction/motivation (Gazit et al., 2006)

·   Improved recall from improved sense of place/immersion

·   Flexibility to host wide variety of training and other collaboration (e.g. meetings) on one platform

The PIVOTE System
PIVOTE is an open-source training system developed by DADEN LIMITED, a full service virtual world consultancy company and a Second Life's Gold provider solution, for a Government funded project to train and assess St George's Hospital paramedics (Burden et all, 2008). MetaverSense Ltd is the exclusive partner of DADEN LIMITED in Israel for developing and implamenting PIVOTE System for decision making  and training simulations for the Israeli market.
 
Why to use PIVOTE system?
PIVOTE allow the user to create training or learning exercise on the web and then play it in a virtual world, on the web, or even on a mobile phone. PIVOTE system records the transactions with the system and timestamp them to the log. Figure 1 demonstrate PIVOTE's System cross-platform main components: Web, XML and Second Life or any other virtual world platform.

 

Figure1. PIVOTE System components

Why to use PIVOTE system for meeting simulations and decision making?

* Tutors and Instructional Trainers need to focus on content and structure, not the nitty-gritty of Second Life (or other) virtual design

* Organisations need to know that their content is protected, so it doesn't matter which virtual world they use, they can still use the lessons

* Trainees would prefer the full immersive experience, but still need have web access to content if they don't have the computing power or bandwidth to access a full virtual world.

Video clip above show David Burden avatar (aka Corro Moseley) and Hanan Gazit avatar (aka Vrider Dancer) in the debriefing room on simulation sim in Second Life. A Second Life BOT [an artificial intelligence based avatar) can be seen at the store beyond the mirror glass. For more nformation and demonstration of PIVOTE System contact presenters via Second Life or snail mail.

References

Burden D., Conradi E., Woodham L., Poulton T., Savin-Baden M., and Kavia S, (2008). Creating and Assessing a Virtual Patient Player in Second Life. In Peachey, A (Ed.): Proceedings of Researching Learning in Virtual Environments ReLIVE08 Conference, (pp. 49-62), 20-21 November 2008, The Open University, UK.

Gazit, E., Yair, Y., & Chen, D. (2006). The gain and pain in taking the pilot seat: Learning dynamics in a non immersive virtual solar system, Virtual Reality, 10 (3-4), 271-282.

 
About Presenters:
Hanan Gazit, PhD (aka Vrider Dancer) is the CEO of MetaverSense Ltd, specialized in professional development and design of Virtual Worlds for business branding, instruction and learning for the Israeli Market.

David Burden (aka Corro Moseley) is the Managing Director of Daden Limited – a virtual worlds and virtual character consultancy. David has been involved in virtual worlds since 1996 and in Second Life since 2004.

Website: http://www.daden.co.uk/

PIVOTE System accepterd for presentation at the Synthetic Reality (SR) Symposium 2010: The science and applications of virtual, mixed, and augmented reality, IBM Haifa Research Labs, Haifa University Campus, Mount Carmel, Haifa, 10th of January 2010, ISRAEL. Link: http://www.haifa.il.ibm.com/conferences/sr2010/index.shtml