Serious Games - Concepts For Learning

NIH Serious Games Summary

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), part of the United States Department of Health & Human Services, chose JANUS to create an engaging and interactive training environment for teaching laboratory safety to intern employees. Based on a body of existing material created by NIH, JANUS designed, developed, integrated, and managed a Virtual Environment Training software program that provides complete instruction for nearly all major laboratory hazards most interns might encounter.

Development teams leveraged the concept of traditional training to construct realistic environments and scenarios in an immersive virtual laboratory setting. Both the JANUS and NIH teams were able to create lessons that helped users not only react to existing emergencies, but also anticipate safety hazards by recognizing their potential causes, thereby helping to avoid disasters before they can ever occur.

These lessons are predominately taught in a rich, interactive, three-dimensional environment. This non-traditional approach engages the user using simulations and affords a greater opportunity for learning retention. Rather than being tested on paper or attending verbal lectures, the user trains for event-specific scenarios in the environment they'll soon be working and with the equipment they'll soon be using.

Serious Games Process

The system development technique used by JANUS allows for the rapid development of training material based on a three dimensional interactive model of environment, and all associated equipment, items, and personnel within the environment. This approach eliminates the traditional need to develop frames commonly associated with a computer based training system, as well as speeds development.