Bottom-Line Performance (BLP) is the proud recipient of “Best Immersive/Simulation/Game-Based Solution” for Avoid the BBPs, a game-based eLearning course we developed for Roche Diagnostics. The award was given as part of Demofest at the 2013 DevLearn conference.
The eLearning Guild’s annual DevLearn conference is one of the fastest growing conferences in the eLearning industry. With 2,200 attendees in 2013 and 26% growth from the previous year, the Aria in Las Vegas buzzing with eLearning trends and technologies from October 23-25th.
DevLearn’s signature event is Demofest, held near the end of the conference’s second day. Over 1,000 people participated this year, filling the Aria’s Juniper Ballroom to view 81 projects presented by their developers. Attendees were able to cast votes for “Best of” in several categories, and the winners received their awards from Guild co-founders Heidi Fisk and David Holcombe and Guild program director David Kelly.
“The course was a lot of fun to design and develop,” said Senior Learning Designer Kristen Hewett. Kristen was the lead designer for the Avoid the BBPs project. “With the approach we took, learners are able to get access to the information they need in a clever and clear way.”
“Clever” and “clear” are especially important when training is a required task. The game-based course was part of a revamp to Roche’s annual Bloodborne Pathogens Training, which must be delivered annually for compliance purposes. Roche needed a course that would be engaging to learners… and not feel like anything they’ve seen before.
“It is an impressive achievement to come out on top of more than 80 other developers and be named the Best Immersive Simulation/Game Based Learning Solution at this conference,” said Kevin Gara, Director of the Safety, Health, and Environmental Protection Department at Roche. “Congratulations to the entire BLP/Roche team for developing this award-winning course!”
Avoid the BBPs looks nothing like the compliance training of yesteryear. Learners must capture and “defeat” the BBPs who have taken over labs at Roche. To do this, they complete four levels and battle the BBPs in four laboratories, all while helping coworkers perform on-the-job tasks that help avoid exposure to BBPs.
Animated stories, colorful visuals, sound effects and unexpected humor make the course fun for learners. As they complete each level, they earn items like PPE (personal protective equipment) and biohazard labels that unlock a portion of the post-test. At the end of a successful post-test, learners see a 15-second clip of the BBPs being avoided… in dramatic fashion.The game-based course literally turns bloodborne pathogens into “bad guys” that must be avoided at all costs.
