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Situational judgment tests (SJTs) are widely used in personnel selection but have not been empirically explored as methods of training design. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate SJT-based training as a workplace training design method which utilizes active learning and structured feedback to enhance learning of both procedural and declarative knowledge.

Volunteers (n=416) were randomly assigned to full-length lecture-based training or abbreviated lecture-based training followed by 15 minutes of SJT-based training. Knowledge of training content was assessed at pre-test and three weeks after training.

SJT-based trainees showed greater improvement on declarative and procedural knowledge than those in traditional training.

The results indicate that integrating the SJT methodology into training delivery may lead to greater mastery of declarative and procedural knowledge relative to exclusive use of lecture-based training methods.

Findings suggest that the relatively inexpensive, low-fidelity scenario-based training methodology the authors detail may increase retention of training material compared to more traditional training methods.

This is the first study to incorporate SJT methodology into the design of training content and to demonstrate that such content can produce greater retention of both declarative and procedural content.

There has been an increasing emphasis on developing officers who can effectively make decisions in dynamic and stressful environments to manage volatile situations. The aim of this paper is to guide those seeking to optimize the limited resources dedicated to police training.

Drawing on research related to stress exposure training, principles of adult learning, the event-based approach to training and policing more broadly, the authors show how carefully crafted training scenarios can maximize the benefits of police training.

The authors’ review highlights various training principles that, if relied on, can result in scenarios that are likely to result in the development of flexible, sound decision-making skills when operating under stressful conditions. The paper concludes with an example of scenario development, which takes the reviewed principles into account.

The authors hope this discussion will be useful for police instructors and curriculum designers in making evidence-informed decisions when designing training scenarios.

A narrative review of existing research literature was conducted to identify practices that are likely to improve the quality of de-escalation and use-of-force training for police officers.

Previous reviews of de-escalation and use-of-force training literature were examined to identify promising training practices, and more targeted literature searches of various databases were undertaken to learn more about the potential impact of each practice on a trainee's ability to learn, retain, and transfer their training. Semi-structured interviews with five subject matter experts were also conducted to assess the degree to which they believed the identified practices were relevant to de-escalation and use-of-force training, and would enhance the quality of such training.

Twenty practices emerged from the literature search. Each was deemed relevant and useful by the subject matter experts. These could be mapped on to four elements of training: (1) commitment to training (e.g. securing organizational support for training), (2) development of training (e.g. aligning training formats with learning objectives), (3) implementation of training (e.g. providing effective corrective feedback) and (4) evaluation and ongoing assessment of training (e.g. using multifaceted evaluation tools to monitor and modify training as necessary).

This review of training practices that may be relevant to de-escalation and use-of-force training is the broadest one conducted to date. The review should prompt more organized attempts to quantify the effectiveness of the training practices (e.g. through meta-analyses), and encourage more focused testing in a police training environment to determine their impact.

Health and safety training via immersive virtual reality (VR) in the construction sector is still limited to few early adopters despite the benefits it could provide in terms of training effectiveness. To foster its adoption, in this work, the authors address the lack of an organized asset of digital contents dedicated to the production of VR site scenarios that emerged as one of the most limiting factors for the implementation of building information modeling (BIM) and VR for construction workers’ safety training. To improve this critically time-consuming process, a dedicated site object library is proposed.

The development of the site object library for the production of BIM-based VR safety training experiences followed a four-step process: definition of the object list and categories from the analysis of heterogeneous knowledge sources – construction sectors’ regulations, case studies and site scenarios’ imagery; definition of the object requirements (e.g. information, graphics, sounds, animations and more); design of an object information sheet as a library implementation support tool; and library implementation and validation via collaborative VR sessions.

This work provides the definition of a structured library of construction site objects dedicated to the production of VR scenarios for safety training comprising 168 items, implemented and validated.

The research contributes to facilitate and standardize the time-consuming contents’ production and modeling process of site scenarios for VR safety training, addressing the lack of a dedicated site object library. Furthermore, the novel library framework could serve as a base for future extensions dedicated to other applications of VR site simulations (e.g. constructability analysis).

Assigning business process activities to agents (human or automated) for their performance or supervision is a critical issue in business process management. Role‐based approaches are commonly used to specify work assignment policies, with roles defined as collections of capabilities and privileges required to perform job functions. The purpose of this paper is to address the activity assignment problem through a competency‐based approach. In this context, an ontology‐based competency model is developed to assist in identifying the competencies that exist in an organization and the competencies required, by workflow activities and in performing a competency gap analysis as a prerequisite for domain‐specific user development through competency‐based training.

An approach for developing a business process activity assignment policy based on an ontology‐based competency model is presented. This model is also used to define domain‐specific training courses that enable users meet the competency requirements of process activities. In broad terms, the approach consists of the following steps: identification of the competencies required in order to perform the various activities involved in each business process and definition of roles based on these competencies; identification of the competencies acquired in the organization and assignment of users to roles; performance of competency gap analysis to identify the missing user competencies for role playing and identification of user development needs; and development of competency‐based training scenarios intended to fill the user competency gaps.

An experimental implementation of the ontology‐based competency model proposed in the banking domain provided a fine‐grained role structure that was based on the competencies required by business process activities, and a user‐to‐role assignment that closely matched the competencies required for role playing, and brought forward missing user competencies that pointed to required user training needs.

The proposed ontology‐based competency model fulfils the need for a sustained work assignment approach based on user roles. To this end, roles and users are defined as collections of required and acquired competencies, respectively. A novel approach based on ontology‐based competency ontologies was also developed to fill required but missing user competencies.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate the relationship between simulation training and police officers' ability to think creatively in crises.

This quantitative study used instructional design principles including aspects of Cognitive Load Theory to explore the cognitive load and creative thinking of police officers training with a MILO Range use-of-force simulator.

When provided with scenarios requiring de-escalation of emotionally disturbed persons, and when encouraged to be creative or innovative in their approach to de-escalate, officers were observed being more creative after experiencing a second simulation with the same scenario; however, multiple repetitions of similar scenarios did not result in an innovative response.

The results of this study suggest that cognitive load could be affected by changing the manner in which the officers train in simulation. When a simulator curriculum is designed with the incorporation of cognitive load theory, there is potential to foster creative thinking in a situation where de-escalation is the goal.

Instructional design principles, consideration of cognitive load and creative problem-solving are nontraditional methods in the law enforcement field and in use-of-force training.

People are subjected to a multitude of interruptions. In order to manage these interruptions it is imperative to predict a person's interruptability – his/her current readiness or inclination to be interrupted. This paper aims to introduce the approach of direct interruptability inference from sensor streams (accelerometer and audio data) in a ubiquitous computing setup and to show that it provides highly accurate and robust predictions.

The authors argue that scenarios are central for evaluating the performance of ubiquitous computing devices (and interruptability predicting devices in particular) and prove this on the setup employed, which was based on that of Kern and Schiele.

The paper demonstrates that scenarios provide the foundation for avoiding misleading results, and provide the basis for a stratified scenario‐based learning model, which greatly speeds up the training of such devices.

The direct prediction seems to be competitive or even superior to indirect prediction methods and no drawbacks have been observed yet.

The paper introduces a method for accurately predicting a person's interruptability directly from simple sensors without any intermediate steps/symbols.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the practical knowing that is central in police education. Drawing on perspectives about tacit knowledge and embodied learning (e.g. Merleau-Ponty, 1945/1997; Polanyi, 1966; Argyris and Schön, 1974) as well as empirical examples, this paper discusses the design of and what can be expected from computer simulation training for the development of police students’ professional knowing.

The discussion is based on lessons learned from working with two different computer simulation training situations designed to prepare the students for an upcoming practical training by facilitating the understanding of complex situations as they should be handled in the physical training situation.

The experiences from the training sessions showed that the different characteristics of the simulations mediate how the training session was performed, e.g., unplanned trial and error vs focused and attentive, but also group discussions about how to act and appropriate actions in relation to the situation to be solved in the simulation.

Based on the lessons learned from working with the two different computer simulations, it is posited that the use of computer simulations for practical scenario training is a complex endeavor that needs, in various degrees, to be supported by pedagogical steering. The design of computer simulation training (both the simulation and how the training is designed and performed) need to consider the specific aspects that surround tacit knowledge and embodied learning in the “real sense” (anchored to the practical training) to be of relevance for police students development of professional knowing.

Fixing problems in an organization often involves developing managers in order to increase leader effectiveness. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned issue.

Data collection includes multiple surveys and small group interviews. Analysis uses rigorous coding methods to construct a model of critical organizational values and behaviors essential for leadership effectiveness. The authors bring “theory to practice” by applying complexity leadership concepts in the authors’ intervention strategy.

Findings are categorized into three parts: identifying critical culture value gaps, applying complexity concepts to a scenario-based training intervention, and identifying intervention outcomes. Outcomes include transformed work environment led by leaders who respect others, share decision-making and enable employees to be interdependent.

This explanatory case study contributes to research by applying complexity leadership theory to create a practical consulting intervention.

This work provides a template and process for managers using complexity leadership to inform their client interventions.

This case study identifies value shortfalls in a manufacturing plant, documents a scenario-based training intervention which develops managers to build organizational trust. Results include reducing turnover, improving job satisfaction and increasing production.

Technology for training military teams has evolved through a convergence of advances in simulation technology for individual and collective training, methods for analyzing teamwork and designing training solutions, and intelligent tutoring technologies that adapt training to the student, to accelerate learning. A number of factors have slowed this evolution toward intelligent team tutoring systems (ITTS), including the challenges of processing communications data, which are the currency of teamwork, and the paucity of automated and generalizable measures of team work. Several systems fulfill a subset of the features required of an ITTS, namely the use of team training objectives, teamwork models, measures of teamwork, diagnostic capability, instructional strategies, and adaptation of training to team needs. We describe these systems: the Advanced Embedded Training System (AETS), Synthetic Cognition for Operational Team Training (SCOTT), the AWO Trainer, the Benchmarked Experiential System for Training (BEST), and the Cross-Platform Mission Visualization Tool. We close this chapter with recommendations for future research.