Distil, CSA Partner For New eLearning Serious Games

eLearning platform provider Distil has announced that it has partnered with the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) to develop educational games for the CSA’s training programs. The first two games addressing emergency planning and ISO quality systems have already been released, while future games leveraging all aspects of Distil’s platform offerings are expected to be launched in mid to late 2007. Officials note that this partnership marks the first time CSA has incorporated serious games into its education programs, though the nature of the organization would seem to be a natural fit for serious game development. The CSA Learning Centre provides comprehensive training materials and seminars, training products and technical services to its clients learn more about standards and codes development, their technical requirements, and how they are applied. Response Ready, one of the first products to be created through this agreement, is a serious game designed to help site managers, environmental managers and safety professions refine their methods for developing emergency response plans through emergency simulations. According to Distil, the game uses a trial and error methodology to highlight which responses do and don’t work, thus allowing players to test planning skills in a forgiving virtual environment rather than waiting for a real disaster. The second game, Quality at Work, teaches the essentials of ISO9001:2000, a standard that promotes the implementation of quality management systems in workplaces of all kinds. The game assists employees in understanding and evaluating the practices of their company to meet and exceed the expectations of the standard. “The CSA Learning Centre is committed to providing its clients with progressive and innovative training solutions to support their education requirements,” said CSA Learning Centre eLearning programs manager Heather McBurney. “Adding non-traditional learning methods such as serious video games will allow us to expand our service offerings while delivering new and exciting training resources to help end users better understand and apply complex CSA standards and QMI management system standards.”