Abstract
A principal element in maintaining the right levels of preparedness in pollution response management is passing on lessons learned and international good practices to a new generation of responders. For many trainers, PowerPoint Presentations have become the main tool in delivering the same course every time and these provide consistency between courses over the years. But from a participant's perspective it can be quite challenging to digest such series of presentations, and remembering what has been presented can be even more difficult.
Tabletop exercises are normally highly appreciated as part of a training course, as they provide an environment of interactivity and social exchange. It raises the question whether tabletops can bring participant engagement to the next level and replace some of the passive learning via PowerPoints with active learning. Could tabletops include game-like elements, including the use of dice and cards to make them more playful? Could dice and cards bring in stochastic injects that are also characteristic of real-time responses? Could we think of new types of tabletops where complex matters could be visualised and where scenarios are generated by throwing a dice? Could participants learn from engaging discussions amongst them, rather than watching PowerPoints?
These were amongst the questions that over the years have led to the development of a series of game-based tabletops that aim to engage participants in the management aspects of wildlife response via methods of “active learning”. Games have been developed designed to be played face to face, but also online using interactive and collaborative software platforms.
This paper describes the path towards creation of the WildX tabletop environment, a wildlife emergency response exercise package developed with European Union (EU) funding, and the experience of providing game-based tabletops both in-person and online.