The ability of Combat Lifesavers and Combat Medics to render efficient and effective battlefield care is often the deciding factor on whether injuries lead to death or survival. Over 80% of American fatalities with survivable wounds from Iraq and Afghanistan wars died from hemorrhage wounds that are potentially survivable and treatable when the first responder has been suitably trained. Combat Medics receive advanced training to include simulated scenarios that provide the necessary realism of battlefield stress, complexity, and dynamics. Yet, due to the prohibitive cost of medical manikins and limited opportunities to practice under contextually representative conditions, Combat Lifesavers are often ill prepared for providing appropriate, timely battlefield trauma care for Soldiers with survivable injuries. However, Augmented Reality (AR) can couple with instructional design strategies to support tactical combat care at the Combat Lifesaver level. This paper presents a usability evaluation of a tablet-based AR training system which uses constructs associated with contextualization and embodied cognition to enhance training effectiveness. The key aim of the system is to systematically utilize these features within an AR environment such that it leads to contextualization of declarative knowledge faster than standard training methods, thereby increasing trainees’ understanding of material and decreasing the overall training time required to reach a competent level. However, a crucial step in developing AR training solutions that leverage the principles of contextualization and embodied cognition to enhance training is to evaluate the usability of novel contextually-based design elements and embodied interactions afforded by AR. Careful examination of these features can highlight positive and negative experiences trainees experience in AR, possible improvements to usability, and future directions for evaluating the application of contextualization and embodied cognition principles into the design of AR training solutions for Combat Lifesavers.
Training
Usability Evaluation of Augmented Reality Training for Battlefield Care Tasks
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