The I/ITSEC Conference (Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference) headquartered in Orlando this year, was an ideal setting to meet and greet many others in the virtual reality industry, to make valuable contacts and to experience, up close and personal, all that is happening – from flight simulation to replicating military medical robotic surgery – on a global scale.

The CTS team was able to partake in a myriad of exercises at the conference and apply these experiences to the specifics of mining safety. How would technology like this benefit miners? How might we adapt our current programs to more specifically target miner safety needs in the most intuitive ways possible?

A conference of this magnitude – the largest virtual training and simulation conference in the world – is filled with inspiration, observations – and questions. Like: Wow, that lab is offering state of the art solutions – how can we learn from them? And, on the other hand: that company has a really impressive array of programs, but it’s great that our programs are just as relevant.

I/ITSEC is always an amazing display of the latest and greatest in virtual reality and simulation training.

And, of course, that’s why CTS was there.

At the end of the conference, we all met for dinner and discussed what we’d seen. With so many of us in attendance, it was illuminating how many differing viewpoints came about. That is, of course, part of the beauty of technology, the intrigue of opinion, and the collective passion for furthering a mission: in our case, furthering the very best in safety training for the mining industry.

We took away many perspectives, studied outcomes, and possibilities. And, together, we talked about all of them. At CTS, it is our endeavor to offer the very best in mine safety training – from mine rescue and escape to in-depth working expertise on equipment operations – from an intuitive standpoint, one that makes sense, and is, most important, to impart key safety and operational knowledge that is simple for miners to learn and retain.

Hands-on development of a safety training program with Penn State.

As you are aware, miner training needs are many – new miner, annual refresher, emergency procedures, mine rescue, MERD, preshift inspection, and equipment operations, just to name a few.

When you consider the importance of offering the most comprehensive, thorough and the current training technologies available to you, which technologies offer the superior choice?    Mobile apps?  Desktop simulation?  Immersive display systems?  Full motion simulators?

MIners engaged in desktop simulation training at Peabody Energy.

The answer is: it depends. There are a lot of factors that come into play for your particular safety training needs.

Each of these technologies can be a useful tool depending on the job to be done. To further explore this topic, we’ll be launching a series of posts.  Each one will focus on the strengths and weaknesses of a technology.

To help you better compare what is best for your training needs, the evaluation criteria will be:

• Training objectives:  What type of training objective can the technology support?
• Breadth of application:  Can it be used for many or only a few training needs?
• Tracking and reporting capabilities: What data can be captured?  Knowledge? Behavior?  Individual?  Group?
• Deployability: How easily can it be moved?  Do students have to come to it or can it be brought to the students?
• Annual throughput:  Realistically, how many can be trained in a year?
• Cost:  What is the initial cost?  What is the cost per training hour?

For in-depth information to help you keep you informed and make the most informed decisions about safety training technologies, check back regularly. Or just sign up for our blog and receive the series right in your inbox.

CTS Training Intelligence™ refers to the use of technology to better assess an individual trainee’s strengths, weaknesses, and habits.  We can apply technology in many useful ways – from iPad mine ventilation apps to desktop virtual environments to 360-degree immersive virtual reality display systems. These technologies allow the user to perform common tasks, handle emergency situations, operate mining equipment, and work through a mine rescue problem in unique ways. .

Training Intelligence™ helps both instructors and trainees in a myriad of ways.  Armed with detailed assessment data, Training Intelligence™ aids instructors to make better training decisions and enables them to address specific needs of a class or individual.  Trainees get to experience authentic and realistic exercises that give them a better feel for working safely.

Intuitive training makes for better learning and higher knowledge retention.

How is this done?  Picture this:

One miner, let’s call him Chance, enrolls in a new miner course and receives 40 hours of lecture, PowerPoint, and video-based instruction.  The only evaluation the instructor for this course has to assess Chance’s readiness for work is multiple choice quizzes.

Another miner, a guy we’ll call Truman, takes a similar course in which he must complete highly interactive training exercises that test a wide range of knowledge and skills that include knowledge retention, observation skills, decision making, communication, and, in some cases, leadership.

While Chance’s instructor has very limited information on Chance’s readiness, Truman’s instructor has valuable, measurable insight into Truman’s ability to recognize hazards, successfully deal with an emergency, and follow operating procedures.

Which of these two miners would you say is better prepared to go to work? Exactly.

The Value of the Virtual Reality Experience.

In order to be good at something, one must be experienced in it. Experience comes from spending time actually doing something. This can be a particular challenge in the mining industry because, of course, most miners just starting out do not have unlimited access to mines and mining equipment, if they have any access at all. What CTS offers is a virtually real experience. This experience that recreates various mine safety situations is so authentic and realistic, even a brand new miner with no time in the mine feels like they are actually there. This enables them to learn faster and better. Miners who have tried our desktop simulation training videos tell us that it’s incredibly realistic. As one miner told us: ‘this is just like what I do for 50 hours a week. Exactly the same. Wow, this is so cool.’

Virtual reality courses with engaging video game quality.

Yes, it’s pretty cool. And it not only makes safety training fun and engaging, it’s highly effective. Our Training Intelligence™ approach allows us to capture valuable behavioral data that can help predict a trainee’s probability of being involved in an accident. Using virtual reality environments, students get a true sense of real world, on-the-job training in a measurable way. Far better than standard classroom instruction involving multiple-choice questions, this interactive engagement allows students to obtain knowledge and then immediately apply that knowledge to a task or situation in the virtual environment. This often requires hazard recognition and making very important safety decisions in order to succeed. This learning context is so realistic it contributes to a much higher retention of information.

Just as business intelligence aims to support better business decision-making, CTS Training Intelligence™ solutions provide students and instructors with insight they never had before; these valuable insights can help increase mine safety and operations practices – and save lives.

For more information about Training Intelligence™, contact us.

Learn more about desktop simulation training or immersive simulation training.

Joe Main, Assistant Secretary of Labor for MSHA with CTS Founder and President, Don Quitter

CTS was there for the excitement at this year’s 100^th anniversary Mine Rescue Nationals Competition bienniel national event in Columbus, OH from October 3-6, 2011, featuring more than 100 teams from coal mines all across the country. The miners in this intense competition undergo rigorous training to develop safety skills in all aspects of mine rescue.

Miners competing in mine rescue

Father and daughter test out the Longwall course

We took over a 1000 sq. ft. room to showcase the variety of our virtual reality programs in impressive large format as well as small and portable. Different formats are appropriate for different training programs and miners at the event were able to experience these virtual reality experiences and compare them to real life. They all expressed virtually the same thought: ‘ this feels just like I’m at work. And it’s fun.’

Our large display system featured operation of the Longwall and proved to be an engaging experience for everyone who tried it. Former operators as well as current operators – including the wife of a former Longwall operator – responded intuitively to the training process. Each person said the experience was extremely realistic, and all physically moved away from the lifelike falling rock as if it were really happening. When asked for their feedback, the unanimous response was that training in this manner was highly relevant and a ‘natural way to learn.’

A young girl gets to experience what it's like to operate the Longwall

The Miner Perspective Offers Major Significance.

Even young kids enjoyed the experience. Miners and their families – taking a break in between the highly competitive mine rescue contests – all enjoyed the video-game quality programs and chose to try more than one course. The kids, naturally comfortable with – and used to this type of technology – possessed an effortless skill. Our showcase also featured a roof bolter operation and an in-depth demo on mine rescue on laptops and iPads.

Also present and enthusiastic about taking a demonstration session with us was Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health, Joseph A. (Joe) Main. An internationally-recognized expert in mine health and safety issues, with 40 years of experience working to improve every aspect of miner health and safety, both in the United States and internationally, Mr. Main was most certainly an honored guest and also took great interest in the CTS virtual reality experience.

When did you first hear about CTS?

About four years ago a colleague of mine told me that CTS was doing really great work in the area of simulation training for underground mining and that their expertise would be of particular benefit to the kind of projects we work on.

How did your relationship with CTS begin?

We hired CTS for our MSHA Brookwood-Sago Mine Safety Grant which focuses on mine safety overall. Our first encounter with CTS was with mine escape emergencies, addressing key safety concerns like fire and explosion. Our first project collaboration in 2008 dealt with underground coalmines, specifically.

What did CTS do?

CTS created a dynamic, highly realistic simulation of an underground roof collapse. This sort of collapse encompassed the traversing of 5 mine entries that, under dire circumstances, would become blocked. If you picture a city street, the road that you’re driving on is like an area that’s mined. Cross streets are where coal has also been mined. In a larger highway situation, for example a five-lane highway, that’s the extensive roof fall situation that CTS created by mimicking what it would be like for a running cave roof fall to traverse all five of these. Essentially, CTS created a virtual reality package that realistically simulated the cutting off of all routes of escape. And, worse than that, the roof fall eventually would fall on a battery charger which would catch fire and fill the mine full of smoke.

What is the biggest benefit to this type of training?

Through this simulation training, miners learn that after all possible routes of escape are cut off, they can seek the refuge chamber to stay out of the smoke for a determined number of hours in a fresh air bay.  CTS created a very realistic, very engaging simulation of a highly dangerous situation such as this roof fall. Miners had to find their way out; and when all escape routes were blocked, they had to find the refuge chamber. Virtual simulation is effective, especially with younger miners, because of their technology savvy and their familiarity with video games which is a naturally appealing platform – and naturally lends to greater learning.

“We’ve liked CTS so well – we’ve called on them three times.”

What is the benefit of working with CTS?

Their material can be used effectively in two ways:

1) It’s great for experienced miners who are required to go back for their minimum 8 hours of training annually. It brings up useful points and is a terrific annual refresher supplement.

2) It’s highly effective for new miners who haven’t been in the mine yet. It gives them a sense of depth perception. It’s virtually real and is, overall, a great training tool – for young and old alike.

Either way – from experienced miners to the acclimation of new miners –this type of training is wholly hands-on, it’s real, and it’s measurable. In my opinion, this is one of the most effective ways we can possibly train for mining safety today.

What are you currently working on with CTS?

We are actually working on another program right now, one that deals with pre-shift examinations for underground coal miners as well as underground limestone miners. Our relationship with CTS is a little broader spectrum and it’s truly an educational format where the high points of making a quality preshift examination can’t be overstated. We are trying to grow, trying to promote and foster a generalized culture of safety in the mining industry. By truly and actively caring about what we’re doing, we can discover potential issues and/or abate any problems before they become big incidents. In both industries (coal and stone) supervisors are required to inspect the work area, to verify that the area is safe for workers to enter the work area. With CTS, we develop a hands-on training module using various simulation options. We identify noticeable high point concerns and the student is able to interact with their training in a real way, in real time as well as validate if they were right or wrong – and get mearsurable results that they can continue to improve upon. Our newest effort wit CTS will be launched by March 30, 2012.

“CTS is an extremely high-tech and well run professional organization.”

Tell me about the CTS team.

CTS has a tremendous staff. They have been just fantastic in dealing with the supervisors interviewed on camera. They really elucidate their thoughts well on mining and mining safety and they are able to really tell the story. Even with limited information, they are able to garner enough facts and insights to develop a well-told narrative that anyone can relate to.

CTS also use this valuable information in their program design, which helps them create the most realistic materials possible. I have been very impressed with their ability to draw out a lot of information from a casual conversation. The CTS team is comprised of real people who are dedicated to their mission – and our mission – safety. Through that, they are able to have engaging, seemingly casual conversations that yield definitive information and measurable results about mining experiences, duties, safety concerns, and goals.  I can’t state it more emphatically: CTS just does a great job. They are all just really nice people and working with them is a pleasure. It’s a professional experience that I’ll long remember.

What makes CTS different in their approach to safety training?

Their training programs are realistic, engaging, and they are effective. And they bring the message of safety right where it needs to be – to the miner.

Why would you recommend CTS to colleagues?

CTS is an extremely high-tech and well run professional organization that has always put my relationship with them at the forefront. And they put safety at the core of everything they do using the latest technology to show in extremely realistic ways the importance of making good safety decisions. They are adept at illustrating and educating miners of the importance of finding and correcting hazards before they become incidents. CTS is very skillful at taking real life situations and putting them into a format that miners can relate to.

We’ve liked them so well we’ve gone back 3 times to develop new initiatives. And each project has been a great success. Our next mission is to develop a program for both underground coal and stoneworkers with regard to hazard recognition throughout a mining operation.

Anything special we should know about CTS?

The entire staff is very accessible and willing to work with you every step of the way. They are right there from initial design through product delivery and they are very passionate and particular about turning out the highest quality product. This is something I deeply respect because the CTS team really understands that safety is serious business.