Scripted collaboration for enhanced learning outcomes in virtual crisis management exercises

Exercises on management of crises such as forest fire and flooding disasters must for several reasons be carried out as simulations. Beside the advantage of an infinite number of replications without additional costs a virtual crisis management exercise allows participants to make mistakes without serious consequences (Urban & Oulehlová, 2017). As suggested byRothkrantz and Fitrianie (2018), virtual exercises on water management and flooding disasters can be orchestrated with serious games. However, free and unstructured gaming does not automatically lead to high-level interaction and quality learning outcomes. An identifiedtechnique for enhancing communication and learning outcomes in computer-supportedexercises is scripted collaboration (Kobbe et al., 2007).Findings from a literature study show that scripted collaboration is an instructional methodfor stimulating interaction, that could enhance the quality of learning outcomes in seriousgames (Hummel et al., 2010). Scripted collaboration can be further specialised into the categories of conflict scripts (van der Meij, Albers & Leemkuil, 2011), and role-play scripts(Strijbos & Weinberger, 2010). Both these identified specialisations of scripted collaboration seem to have a potential to reinforce collaboration and learning outcomes in virtual crisis management exercises.GSS