Developing a public online learning environment for crisis awareness, preparation, and response

This article describes the design and development of an online immersive learning environment focused on enhancing the general public’s awareness of, and preparation for, crisis situations. This research has sought to answer the question “Is it possible to develop a timeline based immersive and engaging training environment for mass self-study education in crisis preparedness?” The system developed is based on the Pandora+ training environment and integrates original collaborative European research work carried out on eLearning and Crisis Management over the last ten years. The research reported here not only describes the design of the Pandora+ training environment but also the outputs from a pilot trial in Lisbon run by the POP-ALERT EU FP7 project. Where appropriate, the results were also compared to those from a large EU survey on crisis preparedness and attitudes, also undertaken within POP-ALERT. The results of this article have resulted in an original and innovative system that has significant potential to transform the education of the public in disaster preparedness

A framework for evaluating the effectiveness of flood emergency management systems in Europe

Calls for enhancing societal resilience to flooding are echoed across Europe alongside mounting evidence that flood risk will increase in response to climate change amongst other risk-enhancing factors. At a time where it is now widely accepted that flooding cannot be fully prevented, resilience discourse in public policy stresses the importance of improving societal capacities to absorb and recover from flood events. Flood emergency management has thus emerged as a crucial strategy in flood risk management. However, the extent to which emergency management supports societal resilience is dependent on the effectiveness of governance and performance in practice. Drawing from the extensive body of literature documenting the success conditions of so-called effective emergency management more broadly, this study formulates an evaluation framework specifically tailored to the study of Flood Emergency Management Systems (FEMS) in Europe. Applying this framework, this research performs a cross-country comparison of FEMS in the Netherlands, England, Poland, France, and Sweden. Important differences are observed in how FEMS have evolved in relation to differing contextual backgrounds (political, cultural, administrative and socio-economic) and exposures to flood hazard. Whereas the organization and coordination of actors are functioning effectively, other aspects of effective FEMS are relatively under-developed in several countries, such as provisions for institutional learning, recovery-based activities and community preparedness. Drawing from examples of good practice, this paper provides a critical reflection on the opportunities and constraints to enhancing the effectiveness of FEMS in Europe

Design of an immersive online crisis preparation learning environment

This paper describes the design and development of an online immersive learning environment focused on supporting the general public in awareness of, and preparation for, crisis situations. The system developed uses the PANDORA+ training environment, and integrates prior research work carried out on eLearning and Crisis Management. Specifically, it pulls together the outputs of three European funded research projects, described in the paper, which provided the authors with a rich multimedia, immersive training environment for crisis managers, experience in the management and support of a large, distributed learning exercise through a MOOC, and extensive survey information on general population awareness of crisis responses and attitudes to crisis preparation. Based on these outputs, the authors are using the PANDORA+ training environment both as a field event support tool and as a MOOC platform, to support large-scale general public crisis preparation training

Investigating the status of disaster management within a world-wide context: a case study analysis

Disasters can be described as feats of spontaneous occurrences, in that they can happen at any minute at any time. There are two classifications of disasters, which are, natural disasters that cannot be predicted and continuously occur throughout society. While the other classification of disaster is that of man-made disasters, where disasters are caused not by natural phenomena, but by man's or society's actions, involuntary or voluntary, sudden or slow, with grave consequences to the population and the environment (Hays, 2008). Both these types of disasters can be controlled to a certain extent through appropriate disaster management plans and if managed efficiently have the potential to reduce the likelihood of overwhelming loss of lives and property. The Disaster Management cycle is split into four elements of response, recovery, mitigation and preparedness which contribute to emergency protocols of a nation when disaster strikes. Therefore, nations should incorporate them in their development plans and ensure efficient follow-up measures at community, national and international levels. This paper investigates worldwide disasters in order to examine how these disasters were managed and to identify the lessons learned. It provides an analysis of five worldwide case studies of recent disasters (Tsunami in Sri Lanka, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Earthquake in Pakistan, Summer floods in the UK and Flooding of the West-Link in Northern Ireland) mapping those to the four staged disaster management cycle. The paper analyses in detail the strategies adopted at each stage of the cycle comparing strengths and weaknesses of each case. It concludes that there had been satisfactory progress in both response and recovery phases but more attention is needed for disaster mitigation and preparedness

Investigating the status of disaster management within a world-wide context: a case study analysis

Disasters can be described as feats of spontaneous occurrences, in that they can happen at any minute at any time. There are two classifications of disasters, which are, natural disasters that cannot be predicted and continuously occur throughout society. While the other classification of disaster is that of man-made disasters, where disasters are caused not by natural phenomena, but by man's or society's actions, involuntary or voluntary, sudden or slow, with grave consequences to the population and the environment (Hays, 2008). Both these types of disasters can be controlled to a certain extent through appropriate disaster management plans and if managed efficiently have the potential to reduce the likelihood of overwhelming loss of lives and property. The Disaster Management cycle is split into four elements of response, recovery, mitigation and preparedness which contribute to emergency protocols of a nation when disaster strikes. Therefore, nations should incorporate them in their development plans and ensure efficient follow-up measures at community, national and international levels. This paper investigates worldwide disasters in order to examine how these disasters were managed and to identify the lessons learned. It provides an analysis of five worldwide case studies of recent disasters (Tsunami in Sri Lanka, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Earthquake in Pakistan, Summer floods in the UK and Flooding of the West-Link in Northern Ireland) mapping those to the four staged disaster management cycle. The paper analyses in detail the strategies adopted at each stage of the cycle comparing strengths and weaknesses of each case. It concludes that there had been satisfactory progress in both response and recovery phases but more attention is needed for disaster mitigation and preparedness

Forgotten Youth: Re-Engaging Students Through Dropout Recovery

Each year, thousands of Massachusetts students drop out of school. The path forward for these students is difficult, and failing to fully educate the next generation of workers and leaders has substantial long-term consequences for our shared economic and social well-being. To address this, policymakers have devoted significant attention in recent years to raising high school graduation rates through dropout reduction strategies. Missing from this agenda, however, is any significant focus on dropout recovery, the act of re-engaging and re-enrolling students who leave school before graduating. Without a more systemic approach to connect with out-of-school youth, we will continue to struggle to fulfill our commitment to educate all students.To address this need, Boston Public Schools has established the Re-Engagement Center, a dropout recovery program that strives to re-enroll out-of-school youth through outreach, personal connections, and a variety of educational options that support students to graduation. The Rennie Center conducted a case study of the Re-Engagement Center in Spring 2012, the findings of which are highlighted in the policy brief Forgotten Youth: Re-Engaging Students Through Dropout Recovery.The purpose of this brief is to make a contribution to a growing body of work about dropout recovery. The brief begins by discussing the role of dropout recovery as a strategy to increase the graduation rate, identifies common practices in other dropout recovery models, and documents the development and operation of the Re-Engagement Center. Forgotten Youth then identifies promising practices and ongoing challenges of this program, and concludes by offering considerations -- based on literature and research findings -- for school and district leaders, community partners, and state policymakers