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New immersive elearning platform for aid workers in Syria

Frontline Humanitarian Toolbox (FHT)  is the latest interactive, online training platform from Near-Life™.

Designed in partnership with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Spirit and Sida,  Frontline Humanitarian Toolbox delivers humanitarian elearning in Syria to help aid workers there deliver life-saving programmes.

Background

Since the Syrian conflict began in 2011, more than 6.6 million people have been displaced. As a result, the demand for a humanitarian presence has rocketed.

Despite these challenges, NRC has been able to reach communities in need through programmes implemented via partnerships, using remote management techniques. This approach required NRC to develop a network of trusted local humanitarian partners and to provide them with ongoing support to ensure effective programme delivery.

The remote management context means that face to face contact with partner staff is extremely limited, and impossible in many locations.

Conventional training in this context is not always possible or appropriate.

Utilising our Near-Life™ technology to combine e-learning with a flexible and cost-effective gaming approach, the Frontline Humanitarian Toolbox e-learning platform delivers an immersive learning experience tailored with the Syrian context in mind.

Filmed on location in Jordan, within view of the Syrian border, and entirely in Arabic, the interactive scenarios give learners a taste of the security situations they will most likely encounter, preparing them for life in the field.  Additionally, the FHT course gives aid workers in those difficult to reach areas to access  expert content, interactive scenarios and specially curated media including documentary and podcasts featuring local humanitarian workers.

The Near-Life™ system also allows NRC and partners to gather valuable data, measuring knowledge via a number of methods, in order to develop additional programmes of support that will provide the most value to their delivery partners on the ground and thereby increase the effectiveness of aid delivery in the region.

Experiential learning online

What makes Frontline Humanitarian Toolbox so effective?  By integrating a wide array of experiential learning techniques to engage and stimulate participants in real-world situations, FHT increases the dissemination of humanitarian principles and helps develop potentially life-saving skills.

Learners can move easily from the concrete to the abstract and back again, through the written content, or theory, that has been specially commissioned to transfer expert knowledge and the carefully chosen scenarios, scripted in co-operation with humanitarian workers that deliver aid in the region.  With a ten second time limit and ‘real’ consequences, the scenarios require learners to take initiative, make decisions and be accountable for the outcomes.  As in real life, the story moves on whether you make a decision or not.

Find out more here or to register for the Frontline Humanitarian Toolbox, visit: www.fhtbox.org

Need to find out more? Get in touch with our team.

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