BENVEGNÙ FURLAN – HIT Test web

Giulia Benvegnù, Mattia Furlan

EMERGENCY FIRE TRAINING IN VIRTUAL REALITY

Year: 2018

Supervisor: Luciano Gamberini

Graduate student: Giulia Benvegnù, Mattia Furlan

According to statistics, during 2016 there were almost a million of structure fires worldwide. As a part of the effort in responding to these kinds of emergency situation, companies organize training programs for staff and personnel. However, these training programs might not always be received with a level of motivation that makes the resource investment worthwhile and effective.
In recent years, Virtual Reality (VR) has been proposed as an enticing, versatile and relatively affordable training tool. Indeed, many studies have shown that people respond to situations presented in VR as if they were real and that VR is effective in creating engagement and maintaining attention. VR allows also to re-create risky situations in a safe, controlled and realistic environment where the user can experience and practice proper behaviors.
However, very little attention was given to understanding which factors of a virtual training, such as level of immersion or interactivity,

are more effective in learning safety behaviors.
The general aim of this project is to test different formats of virtual training program (immersive VR; 360° video; desktop simulation and desktop video) teaching how to extinguish different office-related fires using the correct fire extinguisher.
The focus is on the individuation of the most effective type of training in terms of knowledge acquisition and trainees’ motivation, measured via both quantitative and qualitative methods.
Investigating which factors of a virtual training increase learning and motivation appears fundamental in order to understand when and how it is recommended to invest in virtual systems for emergency training.