Firefighting - Search and Rescue
This multi-sensory VR simulation immerses pre-service firefighters in emotionally charged scenarios mirroring real-world search and rescue operations. By navigating simulated fires, oxygen depletion, and limited visibility, students confront the visceral and cognitive responses they might encounter on the job. This innovative approach, beyond traditional psychomotor skill development, fosters emotional intelligence and decision-making under pressure, preparing them for the psychological aspects of first responder duties. Conestoga's Firefighting Search and Rescue simulation breaks ground by integrating affective design principles with sophisticated virtual reality experiences. It recognizes the crucial role of emotions in decision-making, particularly in high-stress situations. Inducing controlled emotional responses, our learning simulation cultivates the necessary mental resilience and self-awareness firefighters in training require for optimal performance. Our SAR simulation was developed as a partnership with XpertVR, with the content expertise, pedagogy and ongoing user-experience research being conducted at Conestoga.
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Status : Released -Firefighting students engage with the simulation for nine hours per term
Future versions are planned with additional skills & training features incorporated into the design
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Evidence-based affective design elements utilized in this simulation:
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Increased student motivation and learner retention through enjoyable immersive storytelling (Sailer et al., 2020)
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Sanchez-Crespo et al. (2019) demonstrated that VR simulations designed with emotional engagement in mind significantly improved students' critical thinking skills.
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Recent articles further illuminate the impact of affect: Kizilcec et al. (2019) explored the relationship between emotional response and memory consolidation in VR
Emotional Regulation & Mental Well-being
Our immersive VR Search and Rescue simulation provides safe spaces to practice navigating challenging emotions within simulated rescue scenarios while mitigating risk in dangerous contexts.
Increased Motivation
Realistic virtual environments in the SAR simulation inspire curiosity and wonder. Our students go through the simulation wearing their firefighting gear, crawling through spaces as appropriate and experiencing many of the actual intense auditory and visual realities of a being in a fire.
Virtual Practice Enhancing Real-World Skills
Conestoga's firefighting students practice in the virtual simulation for an average of nine hours a term before they practice in an actual burning building. Instructors in the firefighting program remarked that they had never had a cohort of students work the live burn as effectively and with as much skill as those who had been learning in the simulation throughout the term.