Border security is a high priority for national security—regardless of which country in the world you reside in. And, when it comes to border security, we all rely on our border guards to keep us safe. But, put yourself in the shoes of a new border guard for a moment. It’s a tough job. You need to be ready to respond to a wide variety of potential scenarios—from the predictable to the hard to imagine. And, if you misread, or incorrectly handle a situation, the consequences can be dire. Ok, now you’re feeling a hefty weight of responsibility and you need help to get up to speed in your new role. Not to worry. Loyalist College, near Toronto, Ontario in Canada, can help.
In this new case study, entitled, “Virtual World Simulation Training Prepares Real Guards on the US-Canadian Border: Loyalist College i...,” we explore how training simulations in Second Life directly result in improved test scores and directly apply to real-world on-the-job performance. The real result? A safer border.
The executive summary reads, “Before September 11, 2001, Customs and Immigration students at Loyalist College spent three weeks closely tailing professional border guards to experience the daily routine of their future job. In a post-911 environment however, this was no longer allowed. Training suffered until the Director of Educational Technology at Loyalist College catalyzed a virtual border crossing simulation in Second Life for Loyalist students. The amazing results of the training and simulation program have led to significantly improved grades on students’ critical skills tests, taking scores from a 56% success in 2007, to 95% at the end of 2008 after the simulation was instituted. The success of the program has encouraged over 650 students and eight faculty to explore Second Life for mixed purposes. It has also generated enough interest and demand from other learning institutions that Loyalist established a Virtual Design Centre that employs former students with Second Life classroom experience to develop new virtual learning environments.”
So, what makes training in Second Life so effective? It’s a sense of presence. You actually feel like you’re in a “real” environment when you are in a virtual world, despite the fact that you’re physically sitting at a desk in front of a computer. Kathryn deGast-Kennedy, Professor and the Coordinator of the Customs Border Services Program at Loyalist College puts it well. She says, “Even though I have been a Border Services Officer for 28 years, I felt the same level of anxiety in the virtual border crossing as I did 28 years earlier. That experience made me a believer that working within Second Life was as real as it could get.”
And, these simulated training environments not only open doors to more innovative and engaging learning, but also produce impressive results. “Second Life is amazing and unprecedented,” said Ken Hudson, Managing Director, Virtual World Design Center at Loyalist College. He continued, “No single technological addition has ever impacted grades at the college in such a positive way. The affordable tools of Second Life allowed us to explore potential applications for education. Loyalist College believes strongly that were it not for Second Life, we would not be involved in virtual worlds whatsoever. The learning in these spaces is amazing, and when we are working with 30% increases in success, there is nothing more memorable than that.”
To learn more, check out this video on YouTube, read this article on the program in the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, or download our case study PDF.
Ok, now you can take your border patrol shoes off and rest assured that higher test scores—due to Loyalist College’s program in Second Life—have helped improve border security.
