  Enhancing the earthquake behavioral responses and post-earthquake evacuation
preparedness of building occupants is beneficial to increasing their chances of
survival and reducing casualties after the main shock of an earthquake.
Traditionally, training approaches such as seminars, posters, videos or drills
are applied to enhance preparedness. However, they are not highly engaging and
have limited sensory capabilities to mimic life-threatening scenarios for the
purpose of training potential participants. Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) and
Serious Games (SG) as innovative digital technologies can be used to create
training tools to overcome these limitations. In this study, we propose an IVR
SG-based training system to improve earthquake behavioral responses and
post-earthquake evacuation preparedness. Auckland City Hospital was chosen as a
case study to test our IVR SG training system. A set of learning outcomes based
on best evacuation practice has been identified and embedded into several
training scenarios of the IVR SG. Hospital staff (healthcare and administrative
professionals) and visitors were recruited as participants to be exposed to
these training scenarios. Participants' preparedness has been measured along
two dimensions: 1) Knowledge about best evacuation practice; 2) Self-efficacy
in dealing with earthquake emergencies. Assessment results showed that there
was a significant knowledge and self-efficacy increase after the training. And
participants acknowledged that it was easy and engaging to learn best
evacuation practice knowledge through the IVR SG training system.
