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This article examines how a virtual case that prepares students for practical scenario training affects police students' performance in a practical scenario training. This study included 69 Swedish police students at the Basic Training Programme for Police Officers – 35 assigned to a virtual police case (VCASE) and 34 assigned to a conventional teacher-led (CON) lesson. A questionnaire captured how students experience training conditions and a blind assessment by police officers evaluated the students' performance in the practical scenario training. The results show that both the VCASE and CON participants thought that the training they received before the practical training was meaningful and motivating. However, to a significantly higher degree than the CON students, the VCASE students thought that their preparation helped them during the practical training. The expert assessment of one practical scenario (stopping a suspected stolen car) showed that the VCASE participants performed better than the CON participants in three out of five criteria. In conclusion, the VCASE and the CON training had different effects on the students' performance in the practical scenario: compared to the CON training, the VCASE training seemed to more effectively help the police students solve the situations presented in the practical scenario training.

The main principle in International and Swedish crisis management is collaboration between emergency services (police, fire brigade and ambulance service). Collaboration is a complex concept and a number of studies show that many practical problems during crisis management can be attributed to problems related to how the collaboration is organized and implemented. One way to train how critical events should be handled is through live simulation exercises. The authors have developed a validated live simulation model to improve collaboration between emergency services. The live simulation model is developed within the framework of the project Safety and Security Test Arena in Sweden. The model focusses on learning for the participants and is based on theories on learning, previous research on collaboration and live simulation together with professional experience from conducting live simulation. The model includes preparation, acting in scenarios and structured reflection seminars. In this paper, the preparation phase is in focus. A digital preparation material has been developed to support learning before and during the live simulation. The preparation aims to develop knowledge about equipment, tasks and needs of the other services as well as knowledge on functional collaboration. The preparation also aims to create a good learning climate and better conditions for learning from participating in the scenarios of the live simulation. The digital material is an interactive material, which includes instructional films from each emergency services, structured reflective questions, short lectures from researchers on collaboration and live simulation knowledge. The digital preparation material has been tested, evaluated and further developed in two collaboration live simulations. After each live simulation focus group interviews were conducted with both participants and instructors. The result showed a need to increase the interactive elements of the digital preparation material in order to stimulate active discussion and reflection, which are central theoretical bases for the model.

Police students must learn skills to manage different complex situations. Students must master both specific practical techniques and the thinking and decision-making required to use these techniques effectively. This is normally learned through a variety of practical exercises such as drill exercises and practical scenario training where students´ should act as police officers (Söderström, et al, 2014). Practical scenario training, which is in focus in this article, is usually arranged in such a way that students are prepared for the training through a teacher-led lesson before the actual scenario training. However, since practical training generally requires large investments, limiting opportunities for sufficient training, there is a need to raise the students' level of knowing for increasing possibilities to learn through scenario training. Therefore a virtual case was developed that allow students to practice tactical skills, decision making and receive feedback on their actions based on the national basic police tactics manual (Polishögskolan, 2005). This study compares the influence of two learning conditions – a virtual police case and conventional teacher led lesson – that prepare police students for the upcoming practical scenario training. The study focused on a) how the students´ experienced the different learning conditions and how it prepared them for the scenario training and b) how the different learning conditions influenced their task completion in the practical scenarios. The sample consisted of 66 participants and used a comparative group design with 35 participants assigned to a virtual case training group (VCASE) or conventional-training group (CON) with 5-6 students in each group. The VCASE group worked 1.5 hour with a virtual police case to perform two exercises (a stolen car incident and observation of a house with suspects). The CON group had a teacher led lesson with the same content. This was followed by practical scenario training. The objectives with the practical scenario training was that the students should learn to perform various police tasks and acquire an understanding of these tasks based on the national basic police tactics manual (Polishögskolan, 2005). A questionnaire was used to collect the students´ experiences of the both the preparation and practical scenario training. A blind expert assessment, by police officers, was used to collect students´ performance in the practical scenario training. The results showed that a majority of the students in both groups believed that the task they did before the practical training was meaningful and motivating. However, the results showed (independent t-test) that the VCASE group in significantly higher extent thought that the preparation helped them when they conducted the practical training (e.g. confident how to act, sufficient knowledge to solve the situation, a feeling of being sufficiently prepared). The expert assessment of a stolen car incident during practical training showed (independent t-test) that the VCASE group performed better according to three out of five base tactics measurements (stop the car and approach the suspects, reporting and treatment of the arrested). To conclude, the different learning conditions produced different results with respect to how they prepared for practical scenario training.

This study compares the influence of two learning conditions - a virtual police case and conventional teacher led lesson - that prepare police students for a practical scenario training. The study focused on how the students' experience the different learning conditions and a) how they prepare them for the scenario training and b) how they influence their task completion in the practical scenarios. The sample consisted of 66 participants and used a comparative group design with 35 participants assigned to a virtual case training group (VCASE) and 31 participants to a conventional-training group (CON) with 5-6 students in each group. The VCASE group worked two hours with a virtual police case to perform two exercises. The CON group had a two hour teacher led lesson with the same content. This was followed by practical scenario training. A questionnaire was used to collect the students' experiences of both the preparation and practical scenario training. A blind expert assessment, carried out by police officers, was used to collect the students' performance in the practical scenario training. The results showed that a majority of the students in both groups believed that the task they did before the practical training was meaningful and motivating. However, the results showed (independent t-test) that the VCASE group in significantly higher extent thought that the preparation helped them when they conducted the practical training (e.g. confident how to act, sufficient knowledge to solve the situation and a feeling of being sufficiently prepared). The expert assessment of a stolen car incident during practical training showed (independent t-test) that the VCASE group performed better according to three out of five base tactics measurements. To conclude, the different learning conditions produced different results with respect to how they prepared for practical scenario training.

The integration of theory and practice is an eternal question for educators. The article reports from a project in progress concerning the design of realistic scenario training. The aim with the project is to develop a virtual learning space that takes into account the preparation before, the actions during and the debriefing after the realistic scenario training. The preparation phase will be done collaboratively with help of videos of different situations in order to achieve reflections that guides the actions in the coming scenario (implementation phase). The online debriefing phase, where recordings of their own actions will be used, aim to help students to reflect on their experiences of their training. The goals are to create a model that will increase the students´ activity and involvement to enable for increased knowledge and competence but also for better used teacher time. Results from the pilot study show that students are very satisfied and believe that the preparation concept enhances their learning and use of the scenario exercise. A larger study will be carried out in the spring of 2014 in order to investigate the impact of structured preparation and debriefing for police students learning of police knowledge and skills.

The literature reveals the following pattern: that police students worldwide prefer on-the-job training to theoretical, academic studies. In this study, using a Swedish version of Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory, we test the learning preferences of Swedish police students in two groups, one at the beginning and one at the end of their studies. The students score quite far along what in the inventory is labelled the pragmatic side of the transforming axis, as opposed to the reflective side. Two alternative responses to this fact are discussed. The first is for the education programme to adapt to this learning preference and use mainly hands-on learning activities that fit the students’ preferences. The other is to take the opposite route and activate the students’ less-preferred side. The article argues for both ways but emphasizes the second as a means of training students’ general learning capabilities.

Under 2010 utvärderades Polisutbildningen i Umeå av en extern utvärderingsgrupp bestående av Christine Brulin (professor i omvårdnad vid Umeå universitet), Nils Eriksson (utbildningsledare, Umeå universitet), Anton Ridderstad (utredare vid KTH samt sekreterare i polisutbildningsutredningen 2006) och Rick Sarre (professor i juridik, University of South Australia).

Något som lyftes fram i utvärderingen var behovet av en tydligare högskolemässighet/inriktning. Bland annat var det de många examinationerna som fångade bedömarnas uppmärksamhet. Även studenter och lärare framförde synpunkter på det stora antalet examinationer och bristen på tid för eftertanke och reflektion i utbildningen.

En utvecklingsgrupp bildades med representanter från flertalet ämnen inom utbildningen. Uppdraget för gruppen var att under 2009 – 2012 föreslå och genomföra åtgärder för ökad kvalitet inom Polisutbildningen. Inga ytterligare resurser tillfördes utan målsättningen blev att öka kvaliteten genom att omfördela de befintliga resurserna.

Under hösten 2010 inleddes ett samarbete mellan utvecklingsgruppen och IKT coachen vid Polisutbildningen samt UPC. Att införa mer nätstöd i utbildningen identifierades som en väg att uppnå målsättningen för utvecklingsarbetet. Strategin innebar att minska mängden schemalagda timmar och se över antal och form för examinationer för att på så sätt frigöra tid för kunskapsinhämtning och reflektionstid för studenterna. Detta tillsammans med kompetensutveckling av lärare och kursutveckling bidrar till att höja kvalitén i Polisutbildningen.

En rad olika insatser och aktiviteter genomfördes hösten 2010. Bland annat förankrades strategin i utvecklingsgruppen samt hos de lärare som var involverade i utbildningen, stöd och utbildning erbjöds för lärare och IKT coach, och flera olika nätbaserade resurser utvecklades.

Under presentationen kommer konkreta resultat och exempel från detta strategiska utvecklingsarbete att presenteras och diskuteras.