Immersive Learning, Training and Education

A White Paper

© 2013 www .daden.co.uk

Who are Daden?

Immersive 3D learning and visualisation specialists Founded 2004, but experience since late 1990s

Times Higher Education Winner 2009

US Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge winner 2010

Nearly 50 projects in immersive environments

What is Immersive Learning?

Learning in a digital environment where learner has a real sense of “being there”, of context

It's a subjective, not an objective, environment

There is a wider course of action (and inaction) open to users than in traditional eLearning

Choices may be more complex

It may be presented as a simulation, or a serious game, or somewhere in-between

You don't have to have an avatar

Through the presentation the blue interstitials provide most of the same case study examples and additional notes as the sidebars in the original white paper.

Virtual Geology

● Combines a variety of modelling techniques including aerial radar and photography, photogrammetry, and manual building from site visits

● As well as“real world” tasks, users can also do things which are not possible in real life, e.g. flying over the landscape, and even bringing up a slice of geology through the landscape.

● Implemented on PC/Web and iPad

● Whole app includes 6 sites, providing 6 nice “bite-sized” piece of learning.

● Even when used on the real landscape the app provides students with additional context and functionality that can further enhance the learning experience.

● Developed for the Open University

● Lets students go on a virtual field trip, roaming over 100 sq km of the English Lake District,

● Examine detailed models of rock outcrops, and pick up specific rocks scanned at an even higher level of detail at particular sites of interest

Why Immersive Learning?Lets compare the advantages and challenges of physical and traditional eLearning, and then see the benefits that immersive learning offers over each:

Emergency Management

● Students build a spatial awareness of the problems of operating in a sprawling building – they even learn short-cuts

● A high number of virtual characters makes the place seem busy and some tasks chaotic – just like real life

● All student actions are logged for later analysis

● Trainers can change wording (and even logic) from the web between each session

● Simple scaffolding (arrows, task markers) to ensure that student time is used effectively

● Re-run after Superstorm Sandy to help with lessons learnt and for validation

● Developed for the New York City's Office of Emergency Management

● Puts students through a 4-6hr simulation of managing a hurricane shelter over 3-4 days of “game” time

● Over 60 student tasks

● Solo or group based

Roles and Uses

Exploring historic sites and speaking to historic personalitiesVirtual geography, geology and environmental field trips, from volcanoes to favelaSTEM education – from visualising complex mathematical shapes to flying inside the body and doing virtual experimentsSocial skills, including anti-bullying and dealing with gangs, drugs and other aspects of street culture

Vocational led courses such as health & social care, customer service & retail NVQs etc

Vocational led courses such as nursing, medicine, paramedics, social work, psychologyLand based courses such as civil engineering, geology, geography, historyScience based courses such as biology, molecular chemistry

Sector Specific SkillsOnboarder & Site FamiliarisationHealth & SafetyCustomer Care & RelationshipsInter-cultural & Language TrainingManagement, Leadership and Team SkillsBusiness Continuity & Emergencies

Area Uses

Schools

Colleges

Universities

Businesses &Organisations

Extending Scarce Resources

● Three different experiments modelled

● Lab equipment modelled on the real equipment in the physical lab

● The learning system guides the student through the experiment

● Samples are correctly placed and transferred between equipments

● To cope with large numbers each bench was replicated multiple times

● Multi-user environment so student could talk and help each other

● Molecular level animations ran above each device, helping students to link classroom theory with lab practice

● Developed for the University of Leicester

● The University labs were heavily over-subscribed and students were not getting enough productive time in them

● The virtual lab lets students practice an experiment virtually, so they can be more effective when using the physical lab

Does It Work? - Numbers

Does It Work? - Feedback

“Corporate training is facing major challenges. Employees are no longer engaging with traditional forms of training including eLearning, finding the whole experience ‘unexciting’ and ‘boring’.

Consequently, there is a need to make training more engaging, relevant and ‘sticky’ because a well trained workforce impacts key business drivers....

New models of training, more relevant to the workforce of today and tomorrow need to be explored. Games-based learning is one such model.

There is empirical evidence to support its learning effectiveness across all three domains of learning … Serious games have a valuable role to play … and should be considered as an integral part of corporate learning strategies”

- The Learnovate Centre

“The open nature lends itself very strongly to creating a rich and valuable decision-making exercise.”

“It’s much better to be able to actually perform treatments rather than just talk about it.”

“Communicating with others helped assess the situation and gave me a better understanding”

STEM – Apollo 11

● Map (and terrain) is overlayed with locations where photos were taken – and photos can be matched to the students position on the simulation

● Scientific equipment can be touched for more information

● Students can stand at the bottom of the ladder and play the “one small step” video

● Rock sample locations can be highlighted and detail imagery shown

● Students can walk around the site putting all the material into context

● Lunar Module can be set to land and take-off, so whole sequence of the landing can be explored

● Originally developed for North Lanarkshire Council and 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11

● STEM engagement project

● Exploration of Tranquility Base – Apollo 11 landing site

● Students can bring up a “walk map”, showing to scale exactly where Armstrong and Aldrin walked

Styles & Pedagogies

Approach Key Points

Exploratory

Structured

Task

Assessment

● User moves through environment at own pace and direction● Activates items (and learning nuggets) of interest as they go● Ideal for a general introduction and to get students motivated and interested in

a topic● Often followed by a more structured exercise● Also useful when the student enters revision mode.

● Student led step by step through a learning exercise● Minimal scope of action between (or even in) each step.● Ensures that all the learning is covered● Can demotivate if not well presented

● The student is given a particular task to do – but a relatively high degree of latitude as to how they achieve it.

● Challenging to tutors to create as forced to think in a non-linear way. ● More like eDrama – with the student marshalling “props” and talking to “actors”

to achieve the task.

● Used once mastery has been gained● “Task” type approach, but with no scaffolding so as to see how well a student

might be able to complete the task in the real world. ● Unlike much physical assessment we know that we have a completely

repeatable exercise, and a completely consistent scoring system.

Design Decisions

Simulation vs Serious Game Do we use game mechanics?

Linear vs Freeform How much structure/guidance we are going to provide?

Realism vs NPIRL Do we reflect simple reality, or show things Not Possible in Real Life

Avatar vs No Avatar Do we use avatars in all, or part, or as user choice (some users don't like them)

2D vs 3D Do we use 3D for all, or mix 2D and 3D depending on what works best

Single vs Multi-User Is this a single user experience, or for groups, or let the users choose?

Synchronous vs Asynchronous Will the tutor (and others users) be in at the same time?

Feedback Models

● This matrix can be a useful way of thinking about how feedback is provided within an exercise – and as a result where the exercise sits on the game-serious game- simulation spectrum

● Games tend to have a high degree of instant, out of context feedback (power up bonus, leaderboard positon etc)

● Simulations tend to focus on in-context feedback (patient pulse monitored by a pulsimeter) and after exercise review

Basic & Customer Skills

● Basic Skills: First scenario focussed on reading and number skills

● Virtual world environment overcame many of the problems of teaching “reading” on line, since environment was primarily graphical

● Student completed a group task to plan and buy things within budget for a party

● Customer Service: Second scenario had students as shop assistants

● Tutor could trigger automated scenarios and role play scenarios depending on student performance. Other students could “spectate” by CCTV or a one way mirror

● Use of avatars and “remote” spectating overcame many problems of class-room role-play – eg suspension of disbelief

● Developed for Learn Direct

● Two scenarios based in an English town street

● Users accessed remotely, as a group, with the tutor in world to help

Useful Design Models

Bybee's 5E Model

Merrill's First Principles

4 Dimensional Model

Balanced Scorecard

5E Model

Source: Bybee

Immersive environments can help at all stages in the 5E model. Relate to earlier Styles & Pedagogies table.

Merrill's First Principles

Source: Merrill/Wikipedia

Immersive environments can help at all stages in Merrill's First Principles.

Note how the principle stress real-world tasks, context and problems, which immersive environments can provide in a way that traditional 2D eLearning cannot.

4 Dimensional Model Representation

– Fidelity: Environment, Task, Interaction**

– Interactivity– Immersion

Pedagogy– Associative– Cognitive– Social/Situative– Explore/Teach/Practice/

Assess

* Based on Four Dimensional Framework, Prof. Sara de Freitas, University of Coventry, Serious Games Institute** Prof. Bob Stone, University of Birmingham & MOD Human Factors Integration

Learner Specifics– Profile– Role– Competencies– Experience/Attitude– Accessibility

Context– Environment (eg bus)– Access to Learning– Support resources

Balanced Scorecard

Is everybody being satisfied?

Interpersonal Skills

● The first scenario is set in a supermaket and look at workplace psychology

● Student is briefed by the supermarket manager, and then speaks to the marketing manager, a customer and a check-out operator

● All roles are performed by bots and driven by an open conversation system

● The second scenario is set in a psychology practice

● In one task the student listen whilst a client session takes place, both parties being controlled by Discourse – similar to a video but text can be changed and updated at any point

● In a second task the student can talk to a client – again the client is Discourse controlled

● Developed for the University of West England

● Provides two scenarios for psychology students to use to practice and observe techniques within a completely safe environment

● Uses Daden's Discourse chatbot for rich conversations and OOPAL/PIVOTE for overall exercise management

Challenges - Technical

Can the PCs handle the graphics? - We typically develop for the “average” business PC, not high end game machines

Can the network handle the bandwidth? - Only potentially an issue with multi-user environments, not standalone 3D spaces, but even then it's typically only position updates, and less with Unity3D than with SL.

Are the firewall ports open? - Only a multi-user issue again, but you may need to liaise with the IT department to have them enabled, even with Unity3D.

Can you change the desktop? - Might stop you downloading a client, but with Unity3D we can run in the browser

Challenges - Social

What level of computer literacy do users have?

What types of computers and devices will they be using – and where?

Are they familiar with computer game “norms” - in terms of both behaviour and graphics?

Will they have inflated expectations (eg from playing too much Grand Theft Auto)

Are they familiar with avatars – or are they hostile to them? - we can make avatarless if so

Will they treat it as “just a game” and not take the learning seriously

Challenges - Learning

Matching the experience and style to the desired learning outcomes (see Bybee etc)

Balancing graphical fidelity between pure eye-candy (which can distract form learning) and too simple to engage

Ensuring that the simulation accurately models the critical parts of the real world task, otherwise there is a danger that the students “learn the simulation” rather than learning the real-world task.

Youth Citizenship

● NPCs can be aggressive towards players – intimidating them and chasing them out of an area – not what many users expect

● Focus is on awareness and interpersonal skills

● No “right answer” but provides a valuable platform for group discussion about the scenarios and real-life experiences, and merits of different responses

● Developed for the South Lanarkshire council (on the edge of Glasgow)

● Lets young people explore local citizenship issues such as gangs, knife crime and racism

● All scenarios controlled via the PIVOTE authoring tool – so can be changed via the web interface

● Extensive use of non-player characters (NPCs) to guide and challenge the “players”

Costs and Cost Drivers

Area

Building Complexity

Level of Detail/Realism

Amount of Interaction

Number/type of training steps

Duration

Degrees of freedom

ComplexityOf Crowd/Traffic

Environment(Day/Night etc)

In-world building

VLE/LMS & other Integration

Delivery Modes(Web, PC, iPad)

Complexity of NPCs

Sophistication of Self-Authoring

Avatar choices

Typical range: £20k - £80k Project duration: 3 – 6 months

Levels of Detail

3D as User Interface

● Example might include a physiological model of the human body, or a complex electrical or hydraulic system or chemical process model.

● This enables clients to leverage existing investment in complex models, but allow users to interact with them in a whole new way

● For one client in the USA we have taken an existing radio network simulator and interfaced it to the immersive environment. Students sit in virtual tents and use accurate models of the radios, so they get the benefits of immersion AND the benefits of using a high grade, high precision simulation engine.

● 3D immersive environments can provide a highly visual, realistic and engaging interface to sophisticated, existing simulation systems and engines

● The back end can take a detailed maths based approach to how things actually work – but the user can be provided with the environment and equipment interfaces with which they are familiar

Project Design - ADDIE

Conventional linear/waterfall models like ADDIE can face challenges were the client is on their first immersive learning project and cant really describe what they want til they're immersed in the environment. So start simple, and then build up.

Project Design - SAM

The Successive Approximation Model is a more “agile” approach than ADDIE, and often for suitable for initial immersive learning projects, where clients are still learning the capabilities of the environments

Chatbots

● We typically define 3 levels of NPC:

● Background: The people walking down a street but who do not interact with the learner, they just make a place look busy

● Foreground: Characters with whom the learner may have a brief interaction, but not an extended conversation

● Feature: Characters with whom the learner will have an extended conversation or interaction with.

● We have a sophisticated chatbot engine that lets us model natural human conversation in these NPCs

● Think of this in terms of appropriate levels of fidelity, and again in terms of eDrama – extras, walk-ons and real actors!

● “Non-player- characters” (NPCs) are avatars that your learners see and interact with in a learning environment, but which are controlled by the learning application rather than other learners, tutors or actors.

● NPCs make a place come alive – otherwise it can just seem live a deserted, passive environment

● As well as playing the actor role such NPCs can also do duty as virtual guides, tutors and mentors.

Project Design – Typical Plan

2-4 weeks* capture of current information, lessons and assets

4-8 weeks* iterative design

8 – 12* weeks development

1-2* weeks Daden Factory Acceptance Test and refinement

2-4* weeks client User Acceptance Test and refinement

Delivery

Implementation/Pilot course

Assessment and further refinement

Roll-out

* elapsed not effort times

Alternate Interfaces

● The 3D environments are also compatible with virtual reality headsets such as Oculus Rift.

● We can also support Augmented reality systems when you want to overlay real and virtual worlds

● In all cases the only major changes we typically need to make are to optimise the user interface for the new platform

● Developing on standard platforms such as Unity3D makes it easy to deploy immersive learning exercises onto tablets and larger smartphones

● We can produce iOS and Android versions, and even Windows 8.

● We can also use alternate controllers, such as motion/movement sensors

Daden's Trainingscapes

User logon

Multi-user (optional), inc. text chat, avatar visibility

First or third-person (avatar) navigation

Click to focus navigation

Avatar selection (optional)

Simple scoring

Simple countdown timing

Tutorial

Help

Logging and audit

2D management application (web or PC) to control: Accounts, Users and 2D content

PC download or browser based

CORE FUNCTIONALITY CUSTOM FUNCTIONALITY

3D environment to suit subject and at appropriate level of detail

Training tasks developed to your pedagogy and specification

Avatar and avatarless scenes

2D, 2.5D and 3D scenes

Role specific avatars (optional)

In-world building (optional)

Exercise authoring (in-world or 2D app)

VLE/LMS integration (also SCORM and Tin-Can API)

Closed and open user groups for multiple users

Student registration validation

Tablet versions

White Paper

The full white-paper is available for download:

http://www.daden.co.uk/new-immersive-environments-for-learning-education-and-training-white-paper/

Web: www.daden.co.ukEmail: info@daden.co.ukVideo: www.daden.co.uk/vimeoTwitter: @dadenlimited