United Parcel Service (UPS), dismayed over the percentage of driver candidates who failed its traditional training, developed a video game that simulates walking on ice and making five deliveries. The game places the candidates in the driver’s seat and requires them to identify obstacles that drivers may encounter. They drive through a village of miniature houses and businesses on a property where they must make five deliveries in nineteen minutes. As one candidate drove through the town, a UPS instructor threw a football in his path. The driver hit the brakes and then continued, but as he delivered a package, the instructor placed an orange traffic cone in front of the truck. The instructor alerted the driver to the cone before he ran over it. The instructor picked up the cone and explained that the cone could have been a child playing with a ball around the truck and went to retrieve it. At the next stop, the driver checked for cones.
1. If you were developing the training curriculum, what other kinds of obstacles would you prepare UPS drivers for?
2. Think about your current job or a job you have had in the past. Are there skills where your training would have been enhanced by video games or virtual reality? Explain.