# Remote Virtual Simulation for Incident Commanders--Cognitive Aspects
## 6 Results: RVS Examination  
### The RVS Examination--The Students' Experiences  
The information gathered through pre-exam questionnaires revealed that all the students were men, with an average age of 40 (span between 32 and 56 years of age). The average number of years as a firefighter was 12, ranging from 3 to 31 years. Seven were part-time firefighters in rural areas, while 13 were full-time firefighters in cities. The experience of real fires among the IC-students varied from no real compartment fire (building fire) experience, to above 100 real fires. Regarding familiarity with computer or mobile phone games, 70% never played computer games, and 60% never played mobile phone games. Only 15% stated that they played mobile phone games more than a few times per month, and no one played computer  
Figure 6: Schematic representation over the setup for RVS examination, where the student could participate from anywhere in the country. games more than a few times per month. Their previous knowledge or familiarity of VS for FRSs was limited. Three had prior knowledge or experience of the software used, gained from participation in VS projects where their FRS collaborated with MSB, and two had previous experience with the Response Simulator ([[https://www.vstepsimulation.com/response-simulator/rs-creator](https://www.vstepsimulation.com/response-simulator/rs-creator)]([https://www.vstepsimulation.com/response-simulator/rs-creator](https://www.vstepsimulation.com/response-simulator/rs-creator)), accessed 17 February 2021). Oral spontaneous comments from the students (documented by notes and video recordings) after completing the five scenarios, and/or free text comments written in the post-exam questionnaires are presented in Table 3.  
One of the students, s4, comments on the cognitive difficulty of perceiving the represented situation. The comment \"I had a hard time interpreting a realistic picture of all impressions\" points towards experiencing a cognitive overload. However, this is the only negative comment on the cognitive part of the arranged examination. The second comment of the same student, \"It was hard to feel the connection to the staff\", addresses interpersonal aspects of simulation training, which was not in focus in the present article. (One of the instructors, has also commented that \"Leadership\", which is an interpersonal non-technical skill, is better taught in the training field, with real people). After the final assessments of the five scenarios, a total of 4 h including breaks and feedback, the session was closed, and the students were asked to fill in the post-RVS questionnaire. The results are presented in Table 4. The results show that 90% of the students (18 of 20) would like (Likert 4 or 5) to perform a similar RVS training again, at their fire station, while 10% of the students (two persons) responded: \"Neither or\" (Likert 3). In addition, 75% perceived RVS as a suitable form (Likert 4 or 5) for IC-training. In previous VS sessions, the students used a gamepad to move in the virtual environment, while in the RVS, the arrow keys were used to move around. No student stated any obstacles related to use of the keyboard for movements. For the question \"How easy was it to move in the environment?\", one student (5%) stated _hard_ (Likert 2) and all the others stated no problems (Likert 3-5). In the previous VS study performed in 2019, 15% of the students expressed an unfamiliarity with the gamepad and considered it as an obstacle [66]. Consequently, using the keyboard was an improvement for some students.