An Electronic Tabletop ´eTableTop´ Exercise for UK Police Major Incident Education

UK Emergency Service Major Incident training is traditionally delivered using very high (via bespoke simulation centres) or low tech (using slides, models and paper maps) means. The Greater Manchester Police (GMP) Resilience Development Unit (RDU) is responsible for providing Major Incident education to Police Officers responding to emergencies across the Greater Manchester area. In order to produce a more interactive and engaging way to deliver a work-based training scenario the RDU have been working with The University of Salford School of Computing, Science & Engineering to produce a low-cost novel electronic tabletop ´eTableTop´ software solution. Acceptability and usability of the software produced was assessed via a post-exercise questionnaire completed by course attendees. The pilot product has been used by 114 Police Officers over eight Instructor-led courses held in 2011. Results demonstrate participants rated a significant level of agreement with the software having clear content, being easy to navigate, use, fit for purpose and facilitating their learning about the initial phases of Major Incident management (directional Wilcoxon one-sample test, p<;0.001). Working together with GMP we have addressed real world training delivery issues via the application of an interactive, usable, portable, low-cost, technology-enhanced educational solution.