Using Online Role Playing to Demonstrate Impracticability of Reponses to An Earthquake Scenario

The course “Earthquakes and Society” is an undergraduate course for non-majors which provides and overview of seismicity and seismic hazards. To further reinforce the “human-element” an online simulation was developed which has a fictional city, complete with maps, photographs of neighborhoods, demographics and an array of specific geologic substrates and buildings with different seismic capabilities. The students design a safety plan for their city, and city officials are appointed. An intensity VIII earthquake “occurs” The students then interact online to the “damage and life threatening conditions in their city”. The responses of the students and their officials to the earthquake are often surprising and unpredictable. This experience then gives them food for thought as they evaluate their city's survival and their officials.