Where We Need to Go - High Tech-High Touch Immersive Learning

Keith Smith, Vice President & Dean at Purdue University Global

Keith Smith, Vice President & Dean at Purdue University Global

Here is the scenario: You are a student in an online course. In course A, you are given an e-book, various additional materials, perhaps a few videos to watch and maybe some interactive learning activities with assignments (papers to write, projects, maybe case studies, etc.), quizzes, and/or exams, occasionally a synchronous or asynchronous interaction with your instructor and fellow students—all this all laid out in a weekly format. This course layout and approach would be typical for online institutions.

Now let us look at a much different approach for course B. In this course, from day one, you are immersed in a virtual world, using gaming-level graphics/multi-media/audio/interactivity. In this virtual world, you are acting via your avatar as a professional worker in a specific industry, responsible for carrying out tasks you would in the real world of this profession. In the VR world, you can access resources, just as you would in the real world, to grab the knowledge and content you need to fulfill the task (learning activities and assessments), and you can replay given scenarios as many times as you want to practice the skills and competencies you are learning.

“We must deliver on equipping people with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to get valued jobs, upskill as they progress in their careers, and be able to grow as persons and contributors to their communities, our country, and our world.”

Just like the real world, you will be interacting with other professionals (students) in various settings, including team activities as well as individual tasks, and communicating with your supervisor (the instructor), who takes a mentor/support role, as well as being directive regarding work tasks. Again, you will be able to replay scenarios to perform at higher levels as you require more diverse and deeper skill levels. The tasks you are asked to perform are all those you would do in a real-world work setting; the course and program are designed to prepare you to enter or move into higher positions within. Assessments are squared with these tasks (i.e., course and/or unit outcomes/learning objectives) to detail how you did and provide guidance and feedback on how to do better.

When you complete the course, you get a finely detailed final assessment of your various skills and skill levels (as well as a grade). At the completion of the program, these all file up to a comprehensive skills assessment report. You will know exactly what you are and are not skilled to do and can work with the career services department accordingly, as well as do any re-work (taking a course over) if necessary.

So given these two scenarios, which would you prefer? Which would yield more real-world knowledge and skills? I think I can guess your answer. Now, is anyone doing this yet? No, there are bits and pieces in the more innovative programs, but nobody has brought it all together yet. The first higher-ed player to do so, to offer a truly, genuinely immersive learning experience, is going to capture far more of the market and do their students and the world they impact a great service.

What will it take to get there? Obviously, some high-level VR development, at the gamer level, to create the virtual world I have described. It will take curriculum developers who are innovative and top-flight in terms of identifying real world skills, authentic assignments (the tasks), skill-based assessments and appropriate feedback. Faculty will need to take on a completely different approach to act as supervisors with a mentor-supporter approach in this virtual world. They will need to be interacting both one to one and with teams, just as a real-world supervisor would, and of course, will need to keep up with the latest in their content area as well as the ed teach used in this approach. And speaking of ed-tech—this obviously will require innovative tech and learning management systems to support this immersive learning strategy. We are talking about significant investment dollars.

But at the end of the day, my friends, this is where we need to go in a world where higher ed must become skills-based, real-world, rapidly adaptive, and able to operate coordinated with advances in technology. We must deliver on equipping people with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to get valued jobs, upskill as they progress in their careers, and be able to grow as persons and contributors to their communities, our country, and our world.

Learning Management