1. The Volcanic Hazards Simulation
Simulating a volcanic crisis to teach students emergency management, volcanic forecasting and communication skills
Jackie Dohaney, E. Brogt, T.M. Wilson, B. Kennedy, R. Fitzgerald, and J. Lindsay
Postdoctoral Fellow
Geoscience Education

2. Volcanic Hazards Simulation:
What is it?
Pedagogy of Simulation and Role-play
Results: Design and improved communication skills
Ongoing Work

3. The Volcanic Hazards Simulation:
Training exercise
Upper-year undergraduate and Master’s students
4-6 hour complex, team role-play
communication, teamwork, and geologic reasoning-skills
Instructor guide: VHUB

4. Why? Disaster Risk Reduction
Education is a core component to the DRR philosophy.
Improve understanding of volcanic hazards,
Inspire next generation of EM and Science professionals,
Contribute to the GeoEd and Hazards education research communities.

5. Why? Graduates lack important skills
Geosciences research and professional communities have recognized the deficit of quality teamwork and communication skills in their graduates (e.g., Ireton, Mogk and Manduca 1997)

6. Question posed:
What are 2 or 3 key skills you want recent graduates that you hire, to be able to do?
Communication and Teamwork skills are integral to industry hiring practices
Jones, Ko, Caulkins, and Thompson 2009

7. Theory: Simulation
Simulation includes anything that is “played” by the participants set in an exploratory, real-world scenario.
Including: simple games, role-plays, videogames, case-study discussions, debates, mock-trials, etc.
Teaching through simulation is unlike traditional, passive (i.e., stand-and-deliver) style instruction.
It requires students to accomplish higher-level (applied) learning goals (e.g., collaborate, estimate, respond, etc.)

8. Theory: Role-play
In a role-play, each player acts as part of an authentic social environment.
The scenario, setting and players provide a framework in that students can test out a repertoire of behaviours.
Shown to:
a) Improve problem-solving , decision-making and communication skills
b) increase interpersonal interactions
c) positively change student’s attitudes
d) Increase motivation and participation in the learning process

9. 1. Auckland Volcanic Field 2. Tongariro Volcanic Complex
Volcanic Settings: 1. small-scale, urban large scale, regional impacts
1. Auckland Volcanic Field
2. Tongariro
Volcanic Complex
(e.g., Smith and Allen 2010)
(e.g., Cole 1978; Hobden et al. 1999

10. Learning Goals: Synthesize geologic monitoring data in real-time,
Develop and update ‘working models’,
Mitigate the impacts of a volcanic crisis on the economy and human population of NZ,
Work effectively as a team.
Simple,
user-friendly
web design

11. Monitoring Data + Social Media/Injects Student Feedback Learning Gains
Expert Interviews

12. Task specific interactions
Roles: Students play realistic roles, within a complex, real, organisational structure
GNS Team:
(Monitoring Scientists)
Team Leader: Volcanology Section Manager
Seismologists
Geochemists
Geodesists
Field geologists
Ash specialists
Meteorology
Public Information
Emergency Management Team:
Team Leader:
Group Controller
Planning and Intelligence
Welfare
Infrastructure
Human Impacts
Agricultural Impacts
Economic Impacts
Public Information
Instructors:
Prime Minister
Emergency Management Specialists
Local Mayor
Director of Public Information
The ‘Volcano’
‘Rogue’ Volcanologists
Open communication
Task specific interactions
Challenging students
Providing advice

13. Listening to one another
Trust one another
Delegating tasks
Equal contribution
Challenging ideas
Brainstorming
Lending a hand
Being supportive
Listening to one another
Teamwork
Critical Thinking & Decision-making
Students drew maps to plan routes, assess and quantify impacts from the dispersal of volcanic ash
Students effectively multi-tasked and prioritized many datasets simultaneously
WRITING: During the simulation, Students fill out Data logs, Media Releases, Alert Level Reports and Impacts Reports
Communication Skills
On-their-toes
Press conferences

14. Scenario Research: Volcanology & EM
Stage 1 - Roles and organisational information - Geoscience and Emergency Management professionals (interviews; n=14) Stage 2 - Volcanic eruption scenarios research (literature review and questionnaires on precursory data; n=18)

15. Design Research: Pilot based on Harpp and Sweeney (2002)
Iterative, flexible approach
Aim: establish which aspects of the educational design impact student learning.
Pilot based on Harpp and Sweeney (2002)
3yr study, five versions (Tongariro setting)
Data collected: Interviews, Observations, Questionnaires, Artifacts (n=108 total students)

16. Design Variables Success of the simulation was defined by:
The preparedness of the students (did they do the pre-readings?),
The pace (how many tasks?, and how quickly the simulation went),
Role assignment (how well-suited were students, to their roles?).
These variables were understood through the lens of cognitive load (Chandler and Sweller 1991); motivational (Eccles 2005) and team theories (Argote et al. 2000).

17. Design Research: Overall
Highly challenging learning experience (challenging experiences are motivating to learning; Flow Csikszentmihalyi et al. 2005)
Team dynamics: These varied (within, and between the teams) depending on the students, their backgrounds, preparedness, and personalities.
Communication: Students struggled to initiate/maintain effective communication pathways, especially during times of stress. Difficulties: communicating uncertainty, use of jargon, and the amount of and appropriateness of information content to differing stakeholders.  

18. Improved Communication Results
Overall, students reported an improvement of their teamwork and communication skills.
Measured the communication competence (a proxy for effective communication performance) in the last two iterations (3 and 4).
- SPCC: Self-perceived Communication Competence (validated measure; McCroskey and McCroskey 1988)

20. Future Work: Improve current datasets, with more student-data
Assess other communication variables (proxies) that impact performance -> compare to actual performance.
Develop new volcanic hazards scenarios, with help from the volcanology community.

21. Thank you!
The Volcanic Hazards Simulation Instructor Guide: VHUB Contact: Jackie Dohaney

22. SPCC Instrument
Question 1: Your ability to communicate in different situations: Below are 12 situations in which you might need to communicate. People’s abilities to communicate effectively vary from person to person. Please indicate how STRONG you believe your abilities are to communicate in each of the situations described below (Very strong ability to communicate, Strong ability to communicate, Average ability to communicate, Poor ability to communicate, and Very poor ability to communicate). Statements: 1. Present a talk to a group of strangers. 2. Talk with an acquaintance. 3. Talk/Discuss at a large meeting of friends. 4. Talk in a small group of strangers. 5. Talk with a close friend. 6. Talk/Discuss at a large meeting of acquaintances. 7. Talk with a stranger. 8. Present a talk to a group of friends. 9. Talk in a small group of acquaintances. 10. Talk/Discuss at a large meeting of strangers. 11. Talk in a small group of friends. 12. Present a talk to a group of acquaintances.