Royal Navy Serious Games

8/8/2019 Royal Navy Serious Games

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2010 Caspian Learning. http://www.caspianlearning.co.uk

Improving Navy Recruits Performance:A Serious Games Study

This is the story of how the Royal Navy usedSerious Games to transform trainingeffectiveness on a crucial operational area onboard ship Engineering Safety RoundsInspection. Historically, this was the MaritimeWarfare Schools worst performing course.Compared to classroom training, the

immersive learning experience of SeriousGames improved trainee capability, cutfailure rates by 54% and reduced the needsfor additional resource requirements.

A Performance Problem

What would you do if 13% of all new recruitswere failing one of their most critical courses?How would you cope with a failure rate that was

200%-300% higher than most of your othercore training subjects and the cost to retrainfailed recruits kept on rising? Clearly, figures likethese would be unsustainable in most trainingand performance programmes and this was nodifferent for the training officers of the RoyalNavys Maritime Warfare School (MWS), whereimproving performance and reducing cost wereconstant operational goals.

Upon identifying these unfavourable statistics,

the MWS began evaluating current trainingmethods for the course in question; theEngineering Safety Rounds Inspection, andofficers were able to identify several factors thatwere contributing. Getting on board ship for thefirst time was a shock for new recruits and this,coupled with the close spaces and complexoperational environment, proved too challengingfor many new recruits to complete withoutfurther training.

A solution was needed to reduce this initialshock period, shorten the learning curve andprovide a safe practice environment for recruits

to carry out their Safety Rounds Inspections,prior to boarding the ship for the first time. Itwas also necessary that whatever solution was

reached, training officers could still assess therecruit's technical aptitude and fault finding skillsduring the trial inspection.

It was decided that the best and most cost-effective solution was to create aserious game;a fully immersive, 3d virtual ship that wouldenable trainees to walk through it and performduties as if they were actually on board.

Serious Game Requirements

In order to achieve this, the MWS, in conjunctionwith award-winning serious games developmentcompany Caspian Learning, began production ofthe virtual ship and met with subject matterexperts from the specialist school to startbuilding the course content. It was clear that thefinished game would need to meet the followingkey requirements:

Allow trainees the ability to role-playscenarios.


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Allow the trainees to explore an accuraterepresentation of the ship; a Type 23Royal Navy frigate.

The ability to have trainees observe aninstructor walking through the scenarioswhilst also having access to a separate

self study mode. The ability to interact with the

environment. The ability to re-use the assets (art

content) for further applications (such asrecruitment or experimentation).

What Was Done?

To meet MWSs objectives, Caspian Learning

developed an immersive 3D interactive gametitled Weapons Engineering Round - ImmersiveLearning Simulation with their ThinkingWorlds technology.

Thinking Worlds is a globally unique engine; inas far as it is a real 3D games engine that has arange of proven learning interactions andbehaviours designed into it. The engine allowedCaspian Learning to develop and utilise highfidelity 3D environments, such as the exteriorand interior of the Navy frigate in the MWSgame. It also allowed highly interactive gamechallenges to be used to target core learningoutcomes.

As required by the brief, the recruits immersiveexperience on board the ship begins not bysitting behind a computer screen but by beingable to follow the instructor as he navigatesthrough the ship using the instructor-led modebuilt into the game. Trainers can first presentthe ship to recruits on a projector screen.

As if they were on board a real ship, the trainerslead the learners through many of the shipscompartments the Combined Radar Office,Gyro Room, Bridge, Mess, SCOT Office, 4.5 area,Ship Control Centre, FWD SIS, FWD 911, andCMR. Additionally, the trainers guide the recruits

through a typical Engineering Safety RoundsInspection that involves photo-realistic deviceand compartment checks. During each round,and in each compartment, trainers examine andelaborate on equipment. By the time the lessonis complete, recruits are familiar with theimportance of their jobs and the critical natureof the machinery on the ship.

Going Solo

In the free play solo mode of the game, recruitsimmediately discover that on board the ship is asaboteur who is creating faults in the machineryand putting the ships crew in danger. Therecruit must find and fix the errors, locate thesaboteur, and disarm his bomb before time runsout. In doing so, the recruit explores the shipand its cramped noisy compartments, interactswith the equipment they will use on the job andassembles knowledge about the criticalimportance of the machines.

Key Performance Metric

A key performance metric for the UK Military isBrought Up To Standard, or BUTS rate forshort. The Military rigorously measures humanperformance and for those recruits that fail tomake the required standard, they go on toreceive additional BUTS training. This demands aconsiderable investment in additional trainingresources, cost and time off the job.

It is the BUTS measurement that was used todetermine the effectiveness of the serious gamelesson in comparison to the traditional classroomlesson. The measurement was taken over 10classes, throughout the term.

Serious Game Makes Serious Impact

Before an immersive learning simulation hadbeen used to deliver this course, the pedagogical

approach had been more traditional; deliveredunder normal classroom conditions. This meant


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that recruits spent a lot of time reading fromtext books and watching PowerPointpresentations.

These methods were not very engaging and farfrom realistic. The missing context made it

difficult for new recruits to fully appreciate theirresponsibilities and the consequences of notdoing their jobs properly. Despite thecomprehensive classroom training, new recruitswere still heavily susceptible to a shock factorwhen they boarded for the first time. BUTS rateswere 200% - 300% higher compared to othercourses.

After using the Weapons Engineering Roundsserious game to deliver the course content the

BUTS failure rates dropped substantially byalmost 60%. The 6% failure rate was now lowerthan the average for other courses.

How Did The Recruits React?

As well as measuring the BUTS rates, aquestionnaire was tailored specifically to theprogram and given to all of the recruits whotook part in the trial period. Of these 116trainees, 99 questionnaires were returned andthe collated results of this survey can be foundat the Caspian Learning website1. In general, thetrainees found that the simulation was easy touse, relatively intuitive and did aid theirunderstanding of the subject matter beingtaught.

1 Link: http://www.caspianlearning.co.uk/MWS-SeriousGames-Study-Full.pdf

Feedback from training officers corroborated theresults of the questionnaire and the introductionof the serious game package and the overallreaction from MWS has been positive andalready discussions are taking place for further

content and course development.

Training officers were invited to comment ontheir own feelings to the course and a summaryof some of their comments are below:

The majority of the students find that thegame facilitates their understanding and aidsthe learning process.

Less time is spent using PowerPoint, a

welcome break for both instructors andtrainees.

The simulation has been smoothlyintegrated into the overall lesson plan.

Overall, Caspian Learnings serious gamehas been well received and has enabled afuller understanding of one of the mostimportant roles the trainees will conductonce they jointheir ship.

The lab setup worked well allowing theinstructor easy access to the student PCs asrequired.

The noise level in the class is much lessthan normal. This is due to the increasedconcentration levels and focus of thetrainees on what theyre doing.

Undoubtedly, the introduction of the seriousgames package into the MWS Engineering SafetyRounds Inspection course has generated amarked improvement in trainee capability and agreater understanding of the module. This isparticularly evident in the reduction of BUTSactivity necessary after the course. We canconfidently say this is a direct result of theintroduction of the game as no other element ofthe course had been altered.

The qualitative results support the quantitativeBUTS data and the overall feeling from this

collation of feedback is that the immersivelearning simulation has enabled greater trainee
http://www.caspianlearning.co.uk/MWS-SeriousGames-Study-Full.pdfhttp://www.caspianlearning.co.uk/MWS-SeriousGames-Study-Full.pdfhttp://www.caspianlearning.co.uk/MWS-SeriousGames-Study-Full.pdfhttp://www.caspianlearning.co.uk/MWS-SeriousGames-Study-Full.pdfhttp://www.caspianlearning.co.uk/MWS-SeriousGames-Study-Full.pdf


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understanding of the subject and has enhancedthe way this subject is delivered.

Final Words

The use of serious games technology to deliver akey element of career training in the Military hasproven successful. The avatar based seriousgames package delivered and deployed byCaspian Learning has enabled trainees with noprevious experience of a Royal Navy warship tosuccessfully conduct Weapons EngineeringSafety Rounds in a safe, but effective, training

environment.

A video overview of this game can be watchedonline from the following link:http://www.caspianlearning.co.uk/results/watch-demo-videos/uk-navy-simulation

eLearning Age Awards:

Best Learning Game 2009

For more information about Thinking Worlds,

Caspian Learning or any of our other studies intothis area, call +44 (0)191 556 1043.
http://www.caspianlearning.co.uk/results/watch-demo-videos/uk-navy-simulationhttp://www.caspianlearning.co.uk/results/watch-demo-videos/uk-navy-simulationhttp://www.caspianlearning.co.uk/results/watch-demo-videos/uk-navy-simulationhttp://www.caspianlearning.co.uk/results/watch-demo-videos/uk-navy-simulationhttp://www.caspianlearning.co.uk/results/watch-demo-videos/uk-navy-simulation

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Royal Navy Serious Games