Virtual Worlds, Simulations and Games for Online Educators Tuesday, August 17, 2010 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM (Atlantic) 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM (Eastern) 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM (Central) 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM (Mountain) 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM (Pacific) Presented by: Clark Aldrich MAGNA ONLINE SEMINARS
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VirtualWorlds,Simulationsand GamesforOnlineEducatorsVirtual Worlds, Simulations, and Games for Education: A Unifying View I wrote this article for Innovate magazine a few months ago,
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Virtual Worlds, Simulations andGames for Online Educators
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM (Atlantic)1:00 PM – 2:30 PM (Eastern)12:00 PM – 1:30 PM (Central)11:00 AM – 12:30 PM (Mountain)10:00 AM – 11:30 AM (Pacific)
Presented by:
Clark Aldrich
MAGNA ONLINE SEMINARS
Today’s presenter:
Clark Aldrich is an independent consultant who works with academic clients on learning,software interface, and communication strategies. He is also the author of The CompleteGuide to Simulations and Serious Games, and Learning Online with Games, Simulations,and Virtual Worlds–all published by Wiley. His work has been featured in hundreds ofsources, including CBS, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, NPR, CNET,Business 2.0, BusinessWeek, U.S. News and World Report, and, among other distinctions,he has been called an "industry guru" by Fortune Magazine.
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huge investments and infrastructure trapping them in old content, as people realize that you can’t
learn leadership from Google. Instead of straight information, people will be seeking interactive,
learn-to-do content; they’ll want to access virtual environments that allow them to practice
particular skills, such as negotiating scenarios. Google has the same constraint as all linear
content is shocking. You can’t learn stewardship, relationship management, innovation, or
security any more from Google as you can from a traditional book, magazine, or traditional class.
As a shared understanding of the limitations of “learning to know” vs. “learning to do” emerges,
the realizations of the limitation of “Learning to know” approaches becomes obvious.
Increasingly, everyone from the MacArthur Foundation to Accenture will default to producing
interactive content over passive. Reports will be produced not as binders but as experiences, not
as bullet points and inspirational quotes but as equations, interfaces, and dynamic relationships.
For example, rather than having a report describing new market conditions and evolving
customer preferences delivered to top executives of a large retailer, a consultant firm might
produce a fifteen-minute mini-simulation that all employees of the company can access; in place
of a mass of data that must then be disseminated through the corporation, the client will have a
tool that can create across the corporate hierarchy a shared belief in the changes identified by the
consultant and an understanding of the new behaviors necessary to adapt. This new research will
cycle back into increasingly detailed simulations. As the perceived value of information and
expectations for its presentation change, journalism will disappear as a distinct college major and
career.
Open-source simulation design will flourish and be compatible with professionally created
content. When the $49 laptop becomes a reality, sometime before 2015, China and India will
both announce that a majority of their school curricula across all ages will be simulation based.
Game makers will enter the educational simulation space for real here, as they see there is a
market for finished goods, but they will be too late to create real brands. They will still manage
to wipe out large tracts of smaller companies.
2019: A New View of Knowledge and Wisdom
Moving forward, school curriculum in the U.S. will be retooled around teaching innovation and
stewardship and other Big Skills. The first Pulitzer Prize to a simulation will be announced in
2019, as well as the greatly diminished use of multiple-choice standardized tests (after years of
decline). The last textbook publisher will fold. Pure linear content will be looked at the way we
listen to scratchy phonographs. Finally, and truly, the most valuable content in the world will be
educational simulations and serious games. IBM will launch a new initiative into this space.
Supplement: Research Questions to ask Subject Matter
Experts When Designing an Educational Simulation Most business research relies on the same intellectual constructs as other forms of linear content-
including linear analysis, case studies, and inspirational examples. And like with movies and
magazines, these reports end up impressing with their cleverness but don’t actually enable
effective action (or any action, except more presentations), because they are not designed to. The
process of creating a simulations or other “learning to do” content, requires a different process.
Even if the goal is not a simulation, the new types of questions can result in richer, more action
driven content. Here are some examples of different questions for Subject Matter Experts:
1. What situation have you experienced that you feel epitomizes the subject matter? (This
could be a real-time event or an event that took place over weeks, months, or years.)
Were there multiple situations?
2. What were your available options? At each moment, what could you have done in that
situation, and what might a naive or inexperienced person done? What did you end up
doing?
3. Why would the naive approach fail? What would it not have taken into account?
4. What were clues that informed your analysis of the situation? What did you see
immediately, and what information did you have to look for? How did you look?
5. What did you want success to be? What did the conclusion end up being?
6. What were you looking for to suggest that things were going well? What were you
looking for to suggest that things were not going well?
7. What were the “maintenance” or routine activities that you had to do (even including
body language) to keep the situation developing well? What would happen if you did not
do them?
8. What was the moment were you knew you were successful (or not)?
9. What was each person’s best case and worse case outcome? What were their strategies
and actions?
10. What would have been three to five legitimate alternative approaches to the problem or
situation?
11. What were the three to five high-level metrics that you were monitoring? Time?
Commitment? Alignment?
12. What trade-offs were you willing to make? What trade-offs did you make?
13. Can you graph the high level metrics over the course of the experience?
14. What were the inflection points for each?
15. How do the actions impact the high level metrics? What else impacts the high level
metrics (be as specific as possible)?
COPYRIGHT AND CITATION INFORMATION FOR THIS ARTICLE
This article may be reproduced and distributed for educational purposes if the following
attribution is included in the document:
Note: This article was originally published in Innovate (http://www.innovateonline.info/) as:
Aldrich, C. 2009. Virtual worlds, simulations, and games for education: A unifying view.
Innovate 5 (5). http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=727 (accessed May
26, 2009).
The article is reprinted here with permission of the publisher, The Fischler School of Education
and Human Services at Nova Southeastern University.
By Clark Aldrich
As with any teaching approach,there are quite a few steps
involved in successfully using simula-tions and virtual worlds in a classroomcontext. Here are two significantsteps: ”Getting Access to the Content”and “The Role of Teacher as Coach.”
Step One: Accessing the ContentUsing virtual worlds or self-
contained simulations obviouslyrequires gaining access to virtualworlds or building them. Here are thebest ways to do it:
Accessing virtual worldsRight now, there are quite a few
virtual worlds existing out there.Depending on your interests, eitherWorld of Warcraft or Second Life comesto mind. Across all virtual worldmodels, once “in world,” participants(often represented as people-likeavatars) , can meaningfully interactwith each other and the environment,including instant messaging, perform-ing tasks/objectives/goal/missions,trade, and create artifacts.
Let’s focus on the most popularworld--Second Life. Second Lifemakes money not by allowing an indi-
vidual to go “in world” (which is free)but by selling virtual real estate. Soanyone can download the Second Lifeapplication for free, create an avatar,and explore.
Often enough, when an institutionwants to create a presence in Second
Life, their first instinct is to buy land(often in the form of an “island”) andbuild a three-dimension facility.However, organizations should focusfirst on running great events, ratherthan spending a lot of money on theperfect classroom environment orisland.
The truth is that there are a lot ofempty classrooms in Second Life. (Infact there are a lot of entire ghosttowns.) So find an institution that isinterested in building up traffic, thenschedule time, and have your classesmeet there (at least initially).
Accessing SimsThe question of finding the right
stand-alone sim, including educationalsimulations and games, is a bit morenuanced than accessing a virtual world.There are many more options.
• Commercial off-the-shelf gamesFor some lucky professors and
students, computer games built forentertainment and bought throughretail channels provides a deep enoughand curriculum-aligned enough experi-ence.
The two most famous are theCivilization and SimCity series. Thepros are that these experiences havereasonable per student costs (around$40), very high production values, andhave at least some element of fun builtin to them. The biggest con is thatonly a few such games exist. Further,both deans and parents can be uncom-fortable having the students spendtheir class time playing off-the-shelfgames.
And, obviously, computer gameswere not built to be accurate. But asRichard N. Van Eck, GraduateDirector, Instructional Design &Technology, points out, “errors andinaccuracies are in fact teachablemoments.” Asking students to findinaccuracies, and then document anddefend their statements, can be thebest of all worlds.
• Free foundation, cause, or corpora-tion-sponsored sims
There are a lot of freesims that havebeen created in the last few years byvarious organizations. They are often
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Editorial Advisory Board: Stephen Donahue, M.S., G-Learner Corp.; Stephen Ehrmann, Vice President, TLTGroup; Donald P. Ely, Associate Director, ERICClearinghouse on Information & Technology; JeffreyFeldberg, Chairman, CEO, Embanet Corporation;Gordon Freedman, Director, Strategies & Alliances,Prometheus; Christine Geith, Director, Program andBusiness Development, MSU Global, Michigan StateUniversity; Chere Gibson, Ph.D., Associate Professor,University of Wisconsin-Madison; Darcy W. Hardy,Ph.D., Assistant Vice Chancellor for AcademicAffairs/Director,UTTelecampus,TheUniversity ofTexasSystem; JosephHolland,Chair,Department ofHospitality& Tourism, University ofWisconsin-Stout;Marge Jeffers,WTCN Distance Education Network, Fox ValleyTechnical College; Marina Stock McIssac, EducationalMedia andComputers, Arizona StateUniversity; Karen L.Murphy, Ed.D., Associate Professor, Texas A&MUniversity; Don Olcott, Jr., Ed.D., Executive Director,Division of Extended Programs, Western OregonUniversity; Christine Olgren, Ph.D., Chair, DistanceTeaching and Learning Conference, University ofWisconsin-Madison; Rick Shearer, MA, MBA,Instructional Designer, World Campus, PennsylvaniaState University; Karen Vignare, Director of BusinessStrategy & Development, Rochester Institute ofTechnology; Linda L. Wolcott, Ph.D., Department ofInstructional Technology, Utah State University.
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Adobe Flash based. They representsome of the most successful and innov-ative examples of serious gamesincluding Cisco’s Binary Numbers, andAmerican Public Radio’s Budget Hero.
• Off-the-shelf or custom vendorsupplied educational simulations
Some vendors sell prepackaged off-the-shelf simulations. The pro’s? Theytend to be rich and detailed educational
experiences. They have technicalsupport. They also have instructionalsupport—notes for how to use them ina classroom environment. They mayhave gone through several generationsof modifications. And often the bestsupporting documentation has beenrigorously gathered from other users.The cons that the licensing is oftenrestrictive, and the costs tend to bethree or four times as much as acomputer game.
• Internal development houseSome institutions have a staff of
people (usually between one and 20)who are dedicated to building simula-tions to support classes. The good newsis that these people are focused, havethe requisite skills, and are aligned withthe goals of the institution. Once built,the content can most likely be infinitelyreused and shared. The cons?Often theexperiences that result are dry, and takethree or four times longer to build thanexpected. These internal development
groups often fight with the subjectmatter experts (the professors) fromwhom they have to draw content.
• Professor-created simulationsWe are seeing an explosion of tech-
nology savvy academic hobbyistscreating simulations to support theirclass, developed in their free time. (Itwas professor-hobbyists who alsocreated the educational simulationgenre of interactive spreadsheets decadesago that are thriving today.) The pro’sare that these tend to be perfectlyaligned with content, and are deep andnuanced. They can also be freelyshared. The cons are that the simula-tions are often makeshift, with kludgyinterfaces. They also tend to be morelabs than finished sims. Knowledge ofhow they were built, assumptions thatwere made, and how to best use suchsimulations tends not to get recorded.
• Otherwise freeFinally, for whatever reason or
business model, some simulations arejust free. For example, joining andinteracting in Second Life is free,(though it costs money to buy realestate or the intellectual property ofother people). World of Warcraft is freefor a trial period, often long enough forclassroom engagement, but not enoughto get to Level 70.
Step Two: Coaching a SimA second step discussed here will be
how instructors can coach sims. It willstart with the set-up, then the simitself, and the after-action reviews (alsocalled debriefing).
From real life to simulationAfter any initial discussion, the first
priority of the coach is to smoothly“on-ramp” the student from the realworld to the simulation.
Cover...from page 1
cover
Online Seminar:August 17: Virtual Worlds,Simulations and Games
Join Clark Aldrich for “VirtualWorlds, Simulations and Games forOnline Educators” Tuesday, August17. To register, or for more informa-tion, go to: www.magnapubs.com.
continued on page 6
Distance Education Report August 1, 2010 3
monthly metric
What is the average compensation for adjuncts at your institutionfor a 3-credit distance learning course?
August 1, 2010 Distance Education Report4
Lessons from SUNY: A Sampler of Persistence Tips and Practices
persistence
1. Risk Factor: Student EngagementStrategy / Tool / Practice
Strategy / Tool / PracticeDirect faculty intervention with
non-participating students after first,second or third week of termComment/Examples
Some faculty may believe directintervention with students is “not myjob.” Research on best practices in suc-cessful retention suggests otherwise.http://www.campustechnology.com/articles/62560/
pating students before “drop w/openalty” date (pre-census), withwarning.Comment/Examples
Genesee CC’s “early alert” initiativeextends to online courses includingfaculty reports of student participation,Dean’s email to faculty “It’s week two,
do you know where your students are?”
2. Risk Factor: Time of RegistrationStrategy / Tool / Practice
Block registration in online sectionsafter course start dateComment/Examples• Require DL office permission• Require advisor sign-off with PINnumber
• Genesee CC blocks registration inonline courses as of first day ofclasses, requiring (and discouraging)instructor and dean permission afterthat date.
• Dutchess Community College blocksregistration the Friday before theofficial start of classes.
Strategy / Tool / PracticeCut off online registration earlier
than F2F / on-campus coursesMCC limits registration for onlinecourses – the SLN Angel Gateway is“closed” the day before classes start andafter that students can get in only withpermission from the instructor.Comment/Examples
GCC blocks registration as of firstday of term, without written (email)instructor & dean permission.
3. Risk Factor: Inappropriate orAbsent AdvisingStrategy / Tool / Practice
Require advisor signature beforeregistration can be completedComment/Examples
PIN # in order for student to registerComment/Examples
Pop-up window blocks registrationin MIS w/o passcode
Passcode can be assigned no matterhow advising occurs: in person, byadvisor, by phone, or online.
Only one passcode per student;requires Registrar / MIS coordination
Strategy / Tool / PracticeAdvisors must be trained & con-
stantly updatedComment/Examples
Genesee CC advisors meetmonthly. DL Advisor is regularly onthe agenda; trains & updates alladvisors re: DL issues, demographics,risk factors.
MCC offers workshop for onlineadvising
4. Risk Factor: First Time DistanceLearning StudentsStrategy / Tool / Practice
Mandatory DL orientationComment/Examples• Require first time online students totake face-to-face or online orienta-tion to online learning, and/ortutorials
• Article reinforces the value of F2F
continued on page 7
Several community colleges in the huge SUNY (StateUniversity of New York) system have been assembling
a database of “best practices” in distance learning studentpersistence, so that other institutions can enjoy the benefitof their experience. Here is a sampler of tips and advicefrom SUNY’s community colleges.
SUNY’s Top Student Persistence Risk Factors1. Student engagement2. Time of registration3. Inappropriate or absent advising4. First-time DL student5. Developmental needs6. Technical factors
Distance Education Report August 1, 2010 5
course design
By Hong Wang, PhD
Social presence, teaching presence,and cognitive presence are three
important elements in online teachingand learning.Social presence is the ability to
present oneself socially and effectively ina virtual environment. An onlineinstructor achieves social presence bypresenting himself or herself as a realperson who also fills the role of teacherand mentor.Teaching presence refers to the
work of teaching before and during acourse. Teaching presence is manifestedin the course materials such as thesyllabus, choice of readings, content pre-sentations, discussions, and assignments.
To achieve cognitive presence, anonline instructor needs to shift instruc-tional strategies from giving lectures toquestioning, probing, and open inquiry,which help students construct theirknowledge through reflective thinkingand practical inquiry. Cognitivepresence means providing opportunitiesto help students understand what theyhave learned. Learning activities thatallow students to connect what theyhave learned to the real world fostercognitive presence.
The following 10 ways are related toeach of the three types of presence. Thefirst four activities are focused on socialpresence, the following four are relatedto teaching presence, and the last twoare associated with cognitive presence.
1. CyberCaféIt is good to set up a forum named
CyberCafé or Free Forum as a socialplace for students to share informationthat they think is interesting. Frominformation on professional conferencesto information on sports, from informa-tion on the graduation ceremony toinformation on other classes in whichstudents are interested, students are
willing to share with each other, and itis a nice place for instructors to havesome informal communication withstudents so that online learners feelconnected and supported.
2. Class blogAnother easy and fun activity to
promote social presence is to set up aclass blog. I created a blog and invitedeach student as a blogger. Each studentuploaded a picture and provided a briefself-introduction. They can also share
information and resources on the topicsthey are learning in the course. Studentscan see each other’s pictures on theblog, and this activity allows names,faces, and student background informa-tion to be connected. The class blog is away to help build a visual, friendly, andeffective learning community in whichall participants, including the instructor,are co-learners.
3. Instructional TwitterTwitter is getting more attention
from educators in addition to its morepopular use in business. I explored theinstructional applications of Twitter byasking each student to set up a Twitteraccount for the class and follow eachother, with the Twitter guidelinesprovided for the students. I send outreminder messages on assignments andvirtual office hours as well as informa-tion on course change and grade bookupdates. Students also share course
information and community informa-tion with each other. Twitter providesstudents a different channel to getcourse information in a prompt manner.The picture by each student’s screenname also adds a visual presence whenstudents check their Twitter accounts.
4. Synchronous communicationUsing synchronous communication
will make up for some elements that aremissing in the asynchronous communi-cation, such as the speaking tone, facialexpressions, and the post if a headsetand a webcam are used. Adobe ConnectPro or Elluminate, along with some freeweb conferencing tools such asFlashmeeting, are some synchronouscommunication tools that can be usedfor such activities. We can use the syn-chronous communication as virtualoffice hours to answer students’questions and connect the classtogether, or we can invite guest speakersfrom the field to answer students’questions and share their field experi-ence with students.
5. Slide shows with audio narrationIt is boring to just read textbooks
without any additional lecture notes orstudy guides. Recording lectures overthe PowerPoint slides will not only addsome personal touch to the presenta-tions, but also add more detailed infor-mation to help students learn. Theoriginal graphics or bullet outlines onthe slide shows may not make muchsense to the students, but will be moremeaningful with the audio explanationof the instructor. Articulate Presenter isa tool that can serve this purpose well.
6. Audio podcastsI used Audacity to record a three-to
five-minute introduction or a summaryof each chapter that students are
continued on page 7
10 Ways to Make e-Learning More Exciting
Learning activities thatallow students to connect
what they have learned to thereal world foster cognitive
presence.
August 1, 2010 Distance Education Report6
The best simulation coaches start offwith connecting the sim to the realworld. The coach may:• Ask for personal stories or opinion."Have you ever been in a fight withsomeone and you just got stuck in acycle of violence?"
• Ask the class to define the value ofthe activity. "Across history, whatwas the most expensive war, in termsof resources spent and the lack ofanything real accomplished?"
• Ask for a definition. "How wouldyou define a successful peace negotia-tion? What would the outcome looklike?"
• Set up a mock debate. "I want halfthe class to argue that diplomacy is agood strategy, and the other half toargue that going to war is a good
strategy."• Write down a lingering problem orquestion. "With whom right now, inyour personal life, are you in a fight?You don’t have to share it with theclass, but you do have to pick a realexample.” Or one could ask, “Whatconcept in the literature are youhaving the most trouble understand-ing?”It is critical to draw everyone in. If
anyone sits out during this part, theyprobably will not be engaged later inthe process.
• Teaching the interfaceInterfaces provide some of the
biggest paradoxes in simulations. Forinstance: The more intuitive is the useof the interface in the final level, theless the student will probably learnfrom the simulation. As a result, the
interface should be taught as valuablecontent.
• Coaching during the student useLike parents, coaches must pre-
paretheir students as much as possible,then thrust them into the unforgivingsimulated world. Their own rolediminishes considerably as theirstudents take up much of the responsi-bility for their own results. There are,however, a few things to look out for asyou scan the activity.
• Keeping students engagedOne role the instructor needs to
keep, however, is tracking to make surethat all are engaged and none areforced into “cram” situations, wheresimulations work remarkably poorly.
• Asking questionsOne on-going role for a coach (and
some would say the only real role) is toask questions. These questions can beaimed at individual students, or, evenbetter, to the group as a whole. Somegood questions enquire about long-term issues such as, “What is thebreak-even point for the product youare currently developing?” Other goodquestions follow the driving instructormodel, i.e., “Why did you just dothat?”
If a student does something eitherright or wrong, and the instructornotices it either through immediatescreen sharing (but more likely fromlooking at a dashboard of some type)the instructor asks something like,“What did you hope would happen?What is your thinking right now?”These forced moments of reflection canbreak the student out of a mindless,clicking mentality that seizes most sim-ulation players at some point; ideally
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continued on page 8
Distance Education Report August 1, 2010 7
orientation (w/o discussion aboutwhether this is correlation orcausation), and other types of DL ori-entations. http://insidehighered.com/news/2008/04/08/retention
• DCC is piloting a mandatory studentorientation for each online class thatincludes both technical assistance andinformation about online courses as awhole.
checklists / links to help sitesComment/Examples• Pre-course readiness inventories &checklistso https://www.hvcc.edu/dl/dlquiz.htm
o http://www.genesee.edu/_content/depts/dl/Quiz/Online_Course_Choice.htm
• Many variations of these inventoriesexist, since nearly all colleges usethem. A challenge is whether students
read them pre-advisement, BEFOREregistration, when prompted to do soafter the course begins (i.e. firstassignment, etc.), or when they’re introuble (too late).
5. Risk Factor: Developmental NeedsStrategy / Tool / PracticeBlock registration (in MIS) when two,three or ?? risk factors are present
Comment/Examples• Require completion of readinessassessment(s)
• Require instructor permission• Require DL office permission• Dutchess CC has implemented anonline course policy as follows: “Allcontinuing students enrolling inonline courses must have a cumulativegrade point average of 2.5 or higher.All full-time students must have suc-cessfully completed 12 credits beforeenrolling in an online course.”
• NOTE: some technical, practicaland legal cautions are appropriatehere
6. Risk Factor: Technical FactorsStrategy / Tool / PracticeOnline tutorials for LMS/CMSComment/Examples• All current CMS/LMS systems(Angel, Blackboard / WebCT, etc.)include tutorials.
• Advising or DL office can require orrecommend completion prior tocourse enrollment.
• Faculty can require as first assign-ment, or for late-add students prior toenrollment
These practices were collected by StateUniversity of New York (SUNY) Distance/ Online Learning staff, including:• Martha Dixon, Erie CommunityCollege (Buffalo NY)
• Susan Gallagher, Hudson ValleyCommunity College (Troy, NY)
• Bob Knipe, Genesee Community College(Batavia NY)
• Peggy Van Kirk, Monroe CommunityCollege (Rochester NY) �
required to read for the course. Theaudio podcast highlights the importantconcepts or points in the chapter. I alsoadded some soothing background musicto make it more effective and enjoyableto listen to.
7. Screen-capturing demonstrationsIf you want to show your students
how to use a learning tool such asBlackboard or a specific program suchas Excel, it is good to try some screen-capturing tools such as Jing, Camtasia,or Captivate. Jing is a free tool thatallows the user to create five-minute-long videos. It does not have editingfunctions within the program itself, butit is simple and easy to use. Camtasia
and Captivate are more advanced toolsto capture the screens.
8. Online help deskSimilar to the CyberCafé, the online
help desk is a place for students to askquestions related to the course you areteaching, including technical support,course logistics, and cognitive problemsin the course. The benefit of doing thisis to have students’ questions answeredpromptly, as the instructor knows this isa place that needs to be checked daily.In addition, it encourages and promotespeer learning. In a forum like this,students can help each other and learnfrom each other.
9. Google DocsSuch activity will increase the com-
munication among group members andprovide them an opportunity to learnfrom each other.
10 Individual BlogCreating a group blog or asking each
student to create a blog can helpstudents understand, present, and buildtheir knowledge. Each student in one ofmy general education courses created ablog, and they all shared a lot withother students through their ownresearch, reflective writing, andcomments on each other’s posts.
With the rich resources available inthe digital age, I believe there are manyways to make online learning moreexciting and engaging. The 10 waysshared in this short article are only justa drop in the sea. �
Course Design..from page 5
Persistence..from page 4
the instructor’s intervention will beasked “live” through messaging tools,less well through synchronous toolssuch as email or chat rooms.
A variation of this is to role-play,often through emails, a stakeholder,such as a customer, a constituent, or aboard member. Then specific questionscan be asked from a very tight point ofview that may have higher emotionalstakes. “Why are you supporting theopposing party? Don’t you know theyare corrupt? I hate you,” one email ormp3 voice message might say from acitizen.
Instructors can get at the behavior ofthe simulation by asking, "Why do youthink the simulation did that?" Or"what are the important variables thatare being tracked here?" This is espe-cially powerful when students havediffering experiences from each otherand are becoming confused and frus-trated.• Ongoing player comparison
Where there are multiple students orteams engaged either competitively orcooperatively, it is useful for them toshare some aspect of their progress orlack thereof. It can be the sharing ofkey metrics each turn. It can be a highscore list. It can even be “headlines”such as “Team A scores a majorvictory,” or “Team B faces major finefor ethics violations.”
• After Action ReviewsAfter action reviews (AARs, also-
called debriefings) are a pedagogicaltechnique using focused sessions,typically after the core gameplay imple-mentation, to better understand whathappened, and what should havehappened. This can include strategicimplications.
AARs are is especially critical when
a simulation ends with some studentsstill quite frustrated. The coach has tohelp the students understand whythings got so frustrating, and how itties back to the real world.
AARs in a sim ultimately require acombination of human and computerintervention. But one or the other cando in a pinch.
Ideally, the participant will give thefirst analysis of his or her own perfor-mance, before any comments from thecoach. One of the changes as simula-
tions move online, however, is thatboth the student/team self-evaluationand the coach evaluation are oftenenough being done asynchronously.
AARs risk either being too positiveor too negative. Parts of the militaryhave a phrase "thumbs up, thumbsdown," meaning, "here is one positivething and here is one thing to change."
Feedback in AARs can include: rawmaterial, such as recorded plays andtime lines, analysis (what happened andwhy at a thematic level), coaching (howto get better results next time, andperhaps how to transfer to subsequentreal life situations, from the perspectiveof an expert and/or peers), evaluationfor certification (how ready the player isto handle any real situation), and evengame elements like a high score orrewards and recognition to spur compe-tition and replay/redo.
Off-ramp: From simulations back toreal life
The final activity of the instructor inthe context of the simulation is to wrapup the entire experience by tying it backto real life. Remember that at thebeginning of the simulation launch, theprofessor tried to go from real life tosimulation. Now the professor has todo the opposite.
This includes:• Asking the students what they havelearned, and what they might see anddo differently as a result. Highlightsome great plays (or at least greatresults), and any common humor(“Remember when team x accom-plished this? I bet no one thoughtthat was even possible.”)
• Recalling the content from the on-ramping session, and asking if any ofthe personal challenges brought upthen can now be resolved. (“Go backto your notes. Look at what youwrote down before we started thesim. That thing that was a bigchallenge, that concept that was hardto get, is it any clearer now?”)
• Highlighting the key lessons learned;getting students focused on nextsteps, if any, including an action plan.
• Tell the students how they canreaccess the sim, and when, and whathelp is available to them.
Into the breachThe two steps-- finding and
accessing the right sim, and teachinginstructors to serve as coaches-- are thetwo critical steps in making sims apowerful educational tool. �
August 1, 2010 Distance Education Report8
Cover..from page 6
The coach has to help thestudents understand why
things got so frustrating, andhow it ties back to the real