Exploring methodological procedures of TORC: an application experience

Abstract

Training has proven to be effective in developing safety in complex systems, such as in aviation. Among recent training technologies for resilience skills and capabilities, TORC (Training for Operational Resilience Capabilities) was developed as a tool for training workers to handle critical situations. It is a non-specific domain gamification to address operational and organizational safety needs. Although it is a promising technology, some methodological procedures should be analyzed in order to promote its development and evaluation. In this study, we report our recent TORC experience with aviation pilots and we explore the methodological procedures in three phases of the game: preparation (i.e. objectives, game definitions and context), application (i.e. training process and training format) and analyses (i.e. discussion about relevance and training method). We adopted a multi-method approach, with one team of researchers taking part in TORC sessions and another team observing TORC dynamics. Data was cross-examined and a framework is proposed, which will offer a visual representation to guide the TORC sessions development. Results provide information for both researchers (concerned in the application of TORC and similar training dynamics) and practitioners (interested in TORC game).