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48 www.coalage.com June 2016 escape training continued retention (Haas et al., 2014; Ambrose et al., 2010). Because debriefs come at the end of the exercise, they are easy targets for exclusion when trainers run short on time. Trainers might think running a computer-based exercise means they can cut a debrief with no negative im- pact on learning, because the data is recorded and can be reviewed later. But that would be a mistake, since research shows that even post-exercise debriefs that average 18 minutes in length mark- edly improve learning ( Tannenbaum and Cerasoli, 2013, cited in Haas et al., 2014). In the case of the invited MEET ses- sions held at the coal mine in 2015, the importance of the debrief seemed to be well understood. During these sessions, several unexpected schedule changes resulted in less time for the MEET ses- sions, which created pressure on train- ers to cut the debrief short. The median debrief was 10 minutes in length: short, although roughly half the median time spent in the escape exercise (22 min- utes). Nevertheless, the MEET trainers always led a debrief that encompassed a replay of the entire scenario with comments or discussion about trainee decision-making. One area where poorly used de- brief tools can exacerbate a problem emerged over the several weeks during which our observations took place. Teaching several sessions a day for Figure 2. The MEET debrief mine map: Close-up. The debrief map shows the full simulation area, with the primary (green) and secondary (red) escapeways, path of the smoke (gray), mine features (stoppings, doors, phones, etc.), and the four miner avatars' paths (represented by solid lines in four different colors) and actions during the exercise.