Many working tasks in our complex, fast changing world are no longer to be solved by single workers, but require effective cooperation of a team of workers. Communication, cooperation and participation are basic skills needed for a well functioning team, especially in safety-critical domains like security. In these domains, the ability of a team to cooperate sometimes even decides about life and death. The development of a shared understanding of a given situation is a prerequisite for effective teamwork. Traditional methods of enhancing teamwork related skills are limited due to their lack of flexibility and their distance to real world challenges. In more general terms, rapidly changing environments require emerging and creative strategies and tools. Our research aims at exploring whether and how such a creative tool, namely a simulation game, can be used as a socio-technological system to support shared situational awareness. Results from usability tests of various game scenarios show that realistic virtual environments imply the ability to foster teamwork related skills like situational awareness and communication.
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