Danger Close has won the 2010 Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) CODiE Award for Best Workforce Training Solution.

From their website:

The CODiE Awards, originally called the Excellence in Software Awards, were established in 1986 by the Software Publishers Association (SPA), now the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), so that pioneers of the then-nascent software industry could evaluate and honor each other’s work. Since then, the CODiE Awards program has carried out the same purpose – to showcase the software and information industry’s finest products and services and to honor excellence in corporate achievement and philanthropic efforts.

The CODiE Awards hold the distinction of being the industry’s only peer-reviewed awards program, which provides member companies with a unique opportunity to earn praise from their competitors. Now in its twenty-fourth year, the CODiE Awards program has raised the standard for excellence and serves as prestigious representation of outstanding achievement and vision in the software and information industry.

Find out more about SIIA and the CODiEs here.

Danger Close is a new VEILS® developed for the US Army which gives users the opportunity to prepare for decision-making and develop your leadership skills through practice in hypothetical situations.  You can find out more about Danger Close here.

Challenge
Imagine you are a non-commissioned officer (NCO) preparing for combat in a U.S. military operation and a new and unseasoned officer has joined your ranks. As a leader of your squad, it is your responsibility to be the proper buffer between the platoon and the new lieutenant. However, as you prepare for the upcoming mission, you realize you are going into battle with a variety of problems that were not resolved in pre-deployment. The necessary respect and trust for the platoon to function at its maximum effectiveness simply isn’t there—and as a result, things are about to go disastrously wrong. Deaths may occur because this critical relationship between your leadership team is malfunctioning. If you fail to resolve problems appropriately, you may even end up with a suicide in the unit.

The problem
The dilemma above is not an unusual one for a soldier serving in Afghanistan or Iraq. While traditional training programs in bases across the U.S. have prepared young soldiers well for day-to-day tactical and operational functions, there have been learning gaps that have left them equally under-prepared for issues involving leadership, improvisation, cultural awareness, and interpersonal relationships. Aware of this gap in learning, Fort Sill leaders in Lawton, OK, decided to address the challenge of how to teach soldiers to handle delicate situations, where they are forced to make decisions, the consequences of which could cost lives.

The solution
Increasingly the military is turning to virtual experience learning systems and advanced training simulations that stop and allow users to weigh their options at critical decision points, providing a safe environment in which to make choices before facing them in potentially life-or-death conditions. When military leaders at Fort Sill realized the need for their NCOs to enhance good decision making and build leadership skills they turned to WILL Interactive, Inc., a serious games developer that has now produced more than 55 VEILS (Virtual Experience Immersive Learning Simulations) for the Army, the National Football League, the FBI, large hospital systems, and other organizations. The result was a unique motion picture/video game hybrid training tool called Danger Close.

Read the full article here.

Washington, D.C, September 10th, 2009 – Sharon Sloane, CEO of WILL Interactive, Inc. (WILL), was honored today as a recipient of a Women of Vision Award in recognition of her many contributions to the media industry as a technical innovator, educator, and savvy business owner. Presented annually, the Women of Vision Awards honor women whose accomplishments have enriched both the media profession and society with intelligence, talent and vision. This event inaugurates the 30th anniversary programs of Women in Film & Video in DC.

As President and CEO of WILL Interactive Inc., Sharon Sloane is a pioneer and leader in the learning simulation and interactive gaming industry who has over 25 years of experience producing cutting-edge instructional systems for behavior modification and performance improvement technology. WILL’s products, a unique cross between live action feature films and video games, are made possible by Virtual Experience Immersive Learning Simulations (VEILS®), a platform for which Sloane holds the U.S. patent.

A recognized innovator, Sloane has been commissioned by and partnered with some of the most influential companies and organizations in the country and worldwide including all five branches of the U.S. Military; the FBI; Mc-Graw Hill; the National Football League (NFL), and Medstar Health, training more than 10 million users to date with VEILS® technology. In an Army-wide stand-down that began in February 2009, every soldier in the United States Army was required to view an interactive video-based simulation called Beyond the Front which was designed by WILL Interactive to stem the number of suicides in the military. As the program aided soldiers in recognizing suicidal behavior and decisively intervening to help others, Secretary of the Army Pete Geren recognized Sloane’s commitment to suicide prevention by awarding her a Secretary of the Army Coin.

“Being recognized as a Women of Vision by such an esteemed organization as Women in Film & Video is a true honor and I am delighted to be selected as someone who has enriched this profession,” said Sharon Sloane. “I have always admired the organization’s support of equal opportunities for women and can’t think of a more distinguished group of women with whom to be affiliated.”

Other recipients of this year’s Women of Vision Awards include Constance Chatfield-Taylor, founder of Flying Colors Broadcasts Inc., which develops satellite and business networks for companies including General Electric, Nationwide Insurance and numerous news and sports bureaus; and Sheila Smith, director of photography, accomplished cinematographer and Steadicam operator. Previous recipients of the award include Gwen Ifill, Tipper Gore, Sharon Percy Rockefeller, and Lesley Stahl.

About WILL Interactive Inc.

Founded in 1994, WILL Interactive pioneered and patented the advanced form of digital game-based learning called Virtual Experience Immersive Learning Simulations® (VEILS®). WILL works with America’s leading organizations to help address their most critical education and training challenges, including issues of national concern. VEILS® uniquely enable users to role-play lead characters in live action, research-based movies and experience real-life decisions and consequences in the safety of cyberspace. WILL’s products are used by millions of military and law enforcement personnel, and are also part of the curriculum in thousands of middle schools, high schools and colleges. WILL’s unique blend of art and science allows it to create immersive learning simulations that have been shown in independent pilot evaluations to improve individuals’ decision-making under real-life stresses.

www.willinteractive.com

About Women in Film & Video

Women in Film & Video of Washington, DC (WIFV) supports women in the industry by promoting equal opportunities, encouraging professional development, serving as an information network, and educating the public about women’s creative and professional achievements.

www.wifv.org

September 20, 2009
The Lawton Constitution
BY MITCH MEADOR

Fort Sill soldiers recently participated in the making of WILL Interactive Inc.’s newest training simulation, “Danger Close.”

According to Sharon Sloane, CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based enterprise, “Danger Close” was shot here over a three-week period. Professional actors were used for the most part, but Fort Sill officers and non-commissioned officers appeared as extras.

“We had just wonderful support from Fort Sill in terms of production. They provided locations, equipment, subject matter expertise and just excellent general support for the production itself,” Sloane said.

“This was really and truly a post-wide effort,” said Joe Kirby, now chief of NCO Enlisted Education at Fort Sill, but at the time of the project senior instructional designer in officer education.

Sandra Pokorny, Fort Sill’s Design and Evaluation Branch chief, said Col. Dan Karbler, commander of 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade, had to play a scene two different ways, angry and frustrated with the way convoy operations were going in one outcome and happy and content in the other. The Impact Zone was used for a fight scene, Comanche County Memorial Hospital offered space to shoot a hospital scene and Range Control was involved on a staged medi-flight. The Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security and the 479th Field Artillery Brigade also had a big part in the production.

An Oklahoma City agency advertised an open casting call, and auditions were held in Lawton and Oklahoma City. Some 40 actors tried out for parts. Once it was cast, Col. Allen Shell ran a Friday evening boot camp for the actors, showing them how to salute and which pieces of body armor go where. The next day the actors were taken to get haircuts.

“We’re very proud of the way they behaved. They were very respectful. They got into the script,” Pokorny said.

Maj. Brian Anderson, formerly with the ROTC program at University of Central Oklahoma, portrayed “Capt. Anderson” in “Gator Six” and was so committed to the concept that he returned to serve as a technical adviser on “Danger Close.”

As always, it takes a lot of postproduction work to create the finished product. Balanced against the video portions of the simulation are text screens asking roleplayers to make choices.

“There are actually two playable characters whose roles you assume in the simulation,” explained Sloane.

One is a platoon leader — a bright young lieutenant who has the benefit of schooling but doesn’t yet know the ropes. The other is a platoon sergeant who represents the wisdom that comes with years of experience.

“The overarching goal of the platoon sergeant is to bring everyone home safely. The sergeant brings to his job seasoned experience,” Sloane explained. “They each have their storylines which intersect among many common issues.”

“Danger Close” emphasizes the importance of the relationship between the two. It’s important they have a positive working relationship, because that’s critical to unit functions and how they will perform their missions.

But this simulation opens with what Sloane calls “the spine.” The leadership team has gone into combat with problems that were not resolved in pre-deployment. The necessary respect and trust for the platoon to function at its maximum effectiveness simply isn’t there — and things are about to go disastrously wrong as a result. Deaths occur because this critical relationship between the leadership team is malfunctioning.

“From our point of view, from the instructional side, if you don’t grab the students’ attention right up front, he’s lost. So with the big bang and everything going wrong, and all the action and the fear that’s engendered … then it stops, and you can change it,” Pokorny said.

“Danger Close” was designed with second lieutenants in Fort Sill’s Basic Officer Leader Course in mind. It’s currently being used by NCOs at the NCO Academy. Fort Benning, Ga., and Fort Bliss, Texas, use it in their classrooms as well.

The WILL Interactive motto is “play it out before you live it out,” so students get to back up the simulation and make better decisions to alter the outcome. Sloane said there is a continuum of possible outcomes, from the best possible to the worst, and anything in between.

“If you fail to resolve problems appropriately, you can have a suicide in the unit. You can have an individual with performance problems,” she said.

“Everything in these simulations happened somewhere, to someone. We don’t make up random things. Everything comes from extensive focus groups,” said Sloane.

Personnel from WILL Interactive conducted some of these focus groups at Fort Sill with a broad range of senior officers, NCOs, soldiers and lieutenants, so that they could bring different perspectives to the shaping of the training tool.

“We’ve had really good results from the field,” Pokorny said of the finished product. Three military transition teams have given it excellent reviews. The NCO Academy instructor who used it as a lesson said he had trouble keeping it to his four-hour block, because students wanted to go on talking about it for up to six hours.

Kirby said the video is exceptionally good from the standpoint of keeping students emotionally engaged.

The simulation uses the same behavior modification platform as in previous Army programs. It’s one that has been proven to impact the choices that people make, particularly under stress, and improve those decisions, Sloane said. The lessons learned in the simulation may not have immediate consequences, but because the role-players remember what decisions they made and the outcome of those decisions, it personalizes the learning experience and makes it real. It provides a “reach-back” that students will remember and apply, in some cases, years later.

Something similar to what was in the simulation happens in real life, and it kicks in.

“It’s what we call ‘sticky content,’” said Sloane.

“That’s the engagement part — the emotional engagement, and it’s an area that’s not often explored, but the Army with its Army Leadership Program is moving towards that now. We’re hoping that this research that we’re doing will help advance that leadership training. It’s not just soldiering. It’s leading, it’s critical thinking, it’s more on ethical decision-making,” Pokorny said.

WILL Interactive has now produced over 50 VEILS (virtual experience, immersive learning simulation) for the Army, the National Football League, the FBI, large hospital chains and many other organizations.

“The authors describe the steps in the ethical decision-making process and show how employers and educators are addressing ethical gray areas using innovative simulations in order to better prepare employees and other personnel to face ethical challenges head-on. The model outlined in this article can be used as a teaching and training tool to enhance training in the workplace.”

You can download an Adobe PDF of the article here (8mb) (reprinted with permission of Educational Technology Publications).

A soldier in Iraq is getting valuable intelligence information from a clan leader with whom he has cultivated a relationship, when he hears screams in the leader’s enclave that he fears could be from someone being tortured.

What action should he take, and how?

That’s one of the moral dilemmas being filmed at Fort Indiantown Gap this week and next that will become part of Army training videos being produced by WILL Interactive.

Read the full story here.

They’ve also posted some behind the scenes footage of the production:

Referring to the title of the video, Jones said, “The ‘front’ stands for the battlefield, but ‘ front’ also stands for the face that a Soldier may put on to disguise the stress they are dealing with.”

“You can make a difference,” Jones emphatically told the audience. “This training shows you how to recognize the warning signs of suicide and more importantly, it shows how to deal with it, how to talk openly about depression and suicide and how to help Soldiers.”

The “Beyond the Front” training is part of the Army-wide Suicide Prevention Campaign. Major elements of this program are designed to decrease the stigma that Soldiers feel when they’re seeking help and encourage Families not to hesitate to ask for help. It is also designed to enhance coping skills and let Soldiers know that seeking help is actually a sign of strength and will not be detrimental to their Army career.

The training is conducted to inform all Army personnel, to include Families and civilian employees, of key issues that The Army’s leadership believes are of value for everyone to know about suicidal behavior and to help recognize warning signs and risk factors of those persons who might be considering harming themselves.

Read the full article here.

Local Army installations haven’t experienced an increase – since 2003, two soldiers stationed at either Fort Eustis in Newport News or Fort Story in Virginia Beach have taken their own lives. None have killed themselves while deployed, and 96 soldiers made suicide gestures or attempts over the past six years.

But like Army installations around the world, they’re wrapping up a month of mandatory suicide prevention training.

By the end of next week, every soldier and government employee at the two bases will have completed an interactive scenario called “Beyond the Front,” which is a cross between a feature film and a computer game in which participants choose how a soldier responds to certain situations.

Read the full article here.

“It wasn’t an after-school special,” said Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Correll, 35, a member of the Bear Mountain Recruiting Company in Middletown. “Some of it hit home to some people. You could really tell.”

His unit screened “Beyond the Front” last week during an Armywide recruiting stand-down day. The video follows soldiers through a series of emotional pitfalls and stops, at critical moments, to ask the audience what to do.
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“Remember the “Which Way Books” when we were kids? It was kind of like that, but in digital form,” said Correll.

And instead of scary literary adventures, the suspenseful turning points were eerily familiar to soldiers gathered around the big screen.

Read the rest of the article here.