IDSI, part of the VESSEL Team, wins the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Modeling and Simulation

Jan. 7, 2011 - PRLog -- Intelligent Decision Systems, Inc., (IDSI), part of the VESSEL team along with, Raytheon BBN Technologies (BBN), Alion Science and Technology, University of Central Florida (UCF), and IDEAS, was honored by the National Training and Simulation Association (NTSA) with the Training – Team Award for Outstanding Achievement in Modeling and Simulation for their innovative product, VESSEL (Virtual Environments for Ship and Shore Experiential Learning) Damage Control Trainer (DCT). The following is a description of the successful teaming, end product and results as described by members of the VESSEL Team.

The VESSEL team, sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, demonstrated outstanding achievement in three major areas: creating a fully-deployed, award-winning serious game, the Damage Control Trainer (DCT); advancing the science and technology of game-based learning; and establishing an active community of interest within the Modeling and Simulation community. The team has achieved innovative integration of the science of learning, gaming best practices, and efficient software development models. The team represents the entire training industry including experts in instructional system design, story development, software development, game development, graphics modeling, educational science and assessment methods.

One of the primary objectives of the DCT was to address a major training gap faced at the U.S. Navy Recruit Training Command (RTC). The existing 8-week lecture-based curriculum allowed limited opportunity for hands-on practice of damage control skills and no exposure to shipboard environments prior to the graduation exercises aboard Battle Stations 21 (BS21), a high-fidelity, simulated ship environment. To bridge this gap, the VESSEL team built the Damage Control Trainer, using low-cost, open source technologies and a guided discovery strategy. DCT allows students to explore a virtual ship and perform damage control missions while receiving instructionally supportive guidance and feedback. The DCT is an important innovation in training at RTC because it provides an immersive experience that better prepares recruits for the BS21 exercise, is appealing to the recruit population, and produces a significant improvement in learning and performance in minimal time (2 hours) without requiring additional instructor resources.

The end result of this collaborative effort is a game-based trainer that is highly usable (90% of students found the game easy to play), appealing (90% of students found the game stimulating), and significantly improves both individual and team performance. Students who play the game commit 80% fewer critical errors, improve communications by 75%, and increase situational awareness by 24% when they participate in the Battle Stations 21 exercise. The trainer has been so well received by the RTC that it has been fully integrated into the RTC curriculum for use by up to 40,000 recruits per year. The DCT has also received independent recognition for its solid design. It won the Best Business Game at the 2009 Serious Games Challenge as well as Training Magazine’s 2010 Outstanding Training Initiatives Award.

For more information contact Intelligent Decision Systems, Inc. or visit www.idsi.com

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The expert in human and organizational performance, IDSI is a woman-owned, small business providing human and organizational performance products and services. We pride ourselves on proven efficiency and the effectiveness of our internal processes. IDSI is unique in our understanding and application of the science of learning to our designs, allowing us to provide our customers with desirable, predictable outcomes. IDSI’s discipline-based approach to the final product provides our customers with purposeful designs which provide an ideal learning experience for the users and result in the desired performance.