Multimedia e-Training software (ME-T) is the answer that content authors have been looking for. This software package has been developed as a part of the successful GATE project and consists of a tool that enables authors, lacking in programming skills, to develop multimedia training courses in a user-friendly way. As a result, domain experts are now able to develop multimedia training courses without the help of a programmer. This reduces the cost of developing these types of courses, speeds up the production process considerably and enables to adjust the courseware to the own requirements.
ME-T learning takes place through interactive scenarios, which reproduce realistic situations and challenge the student to take right decisions in order to manage a crisis situation. Through context-based tests, multimedia views on the situation, action management and proper feedback, the student is able to practice and improve his decision-making skills. Scenarios are disseminated with links pointing to reference information, a set of multimedia topics covering the knowledge involved in a specific domain (e.g.: wildfires).
ME-T is a WEB tool: the contents are stored (and updated) on a central repository, and accessed by the students through a browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape). All the activity of a student is traced to keep record on his performance while executing scenarios. Log data can be exploited by the students to assess their learning progress, and by tutors to support the students in a distance-learning or classroom environment.
So far, ME-T has been used by authors and students of Regione Toscana (Italy, forest fire department), and NIBRA (National Dutch Institute for Firemen Training) with excellent results. At NIBRA, the first course executed with ME-T resulted in 90% of students passing the exam (whilst normal success factor with traditional learning methods is between 40% and 60%).