Non-Mimetic Simulation Games: Teaching Team Coordination from a Grounding in Practice

Abstract

Fire emergency responders work in teams where they must communicate and coordinate to save lives and property, yet contemporary emergency response training expends few resources teaching team coordination. The present research investigates re emergency response team coordination practice to develop a zero- delity simulation game to teach team coordination skills. It begins with an ethnographic investigation of re emergency response work practice, develops the concept of nonmimetic simulation with games, iterates game designs, then evaluates game designs with non- re emergency responders and re emergency response students. The present research de nes a new type of simulation, non-mimetic simulation: an operational environment in which participants exercise skills without a re-creation of the concrete environment. In traditional simulation, the goal is to re-create the world as faithfully as possible, as this has clear value for teaching skills. Non-mimetic simulations capture abstract, human-centered aspects of a work environment from a grounding in practice. They provide an alternative, economical, focused environment in which to exercise skills. Constructed as games, they can provide intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to practice and learn. The present work iterates a series of game designs in which players transform and share information with each other while under stress, engaging in processes of team coordination found in re emergency response work practice. We demonstrate how the game successfully teaches participants how to become more e ective at coordinating and communicating through user studies with non- re emergency responders and re emergency response students. Principles for the design of team coordination education, non-mimetic simulation, and cooperative game play are developed.