CM Group perform cyber security gaming research for MOD
Global learning solutions innovator, CM Group has announced that it has won project funding from the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) to build and then research the effectiveness of online games verses traditional, interactive eLearning.
CM Group is now building an online computer game which illustrates some of the latest cyber risks and threats faced by military and non-military organisations. The game combines elements of a multimedia role playing game, with strategy and competitive interactions. Alongside this, CM Group is producing HTML5 eLearning on the same topic. Both will be provided to learners, and the impacts of each assessed and compared.
Both the game and eLearning will be delivered in online form to selected audiences from CM Group’s Luminosity Reach Learning Management System (LMS). This LMS has the advantage of being able to deliver multiple digital learning assets, even complex games, to targeted learners, and then tracking results. CM Group has even been able to incorporate a competitive leaderboard element with the LMS to record high scorers.
CM Group’s Chief Learning Strategist, Tim Buff said “This is a fascinating area for anyone interested in how people learn and how we can mobilise alternative learning formats to engage an audience. And of course, cyber security is a crucial area which is inevitably very topical in our uncertain world.”
The use of games, and the gamification of learning, is at the top of many organisations’ list of wants, but very few are actually able to deliver workable solutions in this field. This project underlines CM Group’s technical leadership, as well as its in-depth knowledge and experience in how people learn.
CM Group provides acknowledged IT and cyber security experts to some of the largest IT companies in the world and has a long track record of expertise in this topic area. This project usefully links CM Group’s security and software development expertise with its capability to provide learning solutions to wide ranging audiences across a broad variety of subject areas.
Tim Buff added, “Needless to say the integrity of the subject matter is vital, but we are also keen to make the game fun to play and our initial designs have gone for a dark and moody atmosphere to reflect the nature of the topic. It will be interesting to see how the research illuminates the effectiveness of the two contrasting approaches to what is a key practical area of concern to many organisations”.