In 52 B.C., Julius Caesar was quoted as saying, "Experience is the teacher of all great things." A century later, the Roman author Pliny the Edler in ‘Naturalis Historia' wrote, "Experience is the most efficient teacher of all things."
Toolwire's belief in the power of experiential learning has driven its innovation of online education technology solutions for students for over a decade. By embracing its belief in "learning by doing" in its own internal processes, Toolwire refined its co-creation and instructional design process, which has been recognized as a leader in field of online learning. Most recently, Michael Watkins, Toolwire's Director of Instructional Design and Technology, received the 2011 Gold Medal for "Instructional Designer of the Year Award" by the Institute of IT Training for his efforts designing Immersive Learning Environments (Learnscapes).
In this workshop, Michael Watkins will share best practices for designing experiential learning solutions across a range of subjects including Healthcare, Legal, Business, Information Technology, and First Year Experiences. Over the years, Watkins has benefited from the knowledge gained by working with a range of institutions including large for-profits universities such as the University of Phoenix, non-profits such as Auburn University, community colleges such as Cuyahoga Community College and the Midwest Community College Consortium, and international universities such as the University of East London. Watkins will share best practices learned from these engagements, demo a few examples of immersive learning technologies, and then open the floor for questions about how instructors and administrators can implement these solutions at their institutions.
Context - Breaking the Fourth Wall
By combining the worlds of instructional design and assessment with digital media storytelling, Michael Watkins has worked with clients to co-create an innovative experiential learning product that has touched over 100,000 students across multiple universities to significantly improved student course completion rates.
Learnscapes are the genesis of years of hard work establishing a robust virtualization infrastructure and designing experiential solutions for leading IT companies and higher education institutions. They go beyond what has been achieved before and open up a realm of possibilities previously unimaginable for educators by breaking the "fourth wall" of the classroom and taking students inside of their education.
Built from a learner-centric perspective, Learnscapes deliver compelling learning experiences that are unique in the simplicity of design, yet extremely powerful in their ability to engage students. By creating engaging storylines, tied to course learning objectives and outcomes, Toolwire and its clients have been able blur the line between traditional assignments and real life tasks, creating environments where students learn by doing.
Case Study - University of Phoenix
The Learnscapes project was initiated to meet a demand from the University of Phoenix (UoP) to engage students in their first year of study. After working with UoP for five years to enable their online AAIT and BSIT programmes, Toolwire was approached about extending their offerings into the First Year sequence.
Dr. Doug Beckwith, Dean of Axia College wanted to bring learning to life in the general studies courses - a series of eight introductory courses addressing foundational skills. Michael's client-focussed collaborative approach to instructional design, tenacity, deep understanding of the science of learning, his storytelling skills, and ability to adapt his instructional design skills to a totally new way of delivering effective learning, coupled with the Toolwire belief that "the best way to learn is to do" turned a client's aspirations for a unique learning experience into a highly successful reality.
In its association with Dean Doug Beckwith, Toolwire was fortunate to find a progressive and innovative educator who understood this new approach to learning and assessment and who supported and encouraged the creation of first generation Learnscapes. As Watkins will share, having early adopters or "champions" at a university is a great way to introduce a new technology. By starting small and implementing a successful pilot project, these environments speak for themselves. Toolwire continues to rapidly expand its production of learnscapes for the University of Phoenix across an increasing number of departments.
Approach - A Shared Vision - Co-Creation Methodology
Michael, in conjunction with David James Clarke IV, initially whiteboarded the concept of an expanded "Day in the Life" scenario with greater multi-pathing and a unified storyline that would flow across multiple stories to populate each of the courses.
Michael collaborated with the Instructional Design (ID) team at UoP to create each Learnscape. The process began with a kick-off meeting with the ID's where Michael would present the Toolwire Assignment Mapping (TAM) outlining the storyline for the Learnscape and detailing the week by week episodes, along with opportunities for remediation and assessment. In this meeting, the University ID's, as well as their course SME would review the TAM and engage in a lively dialogue about the course and how to shape the Learnscape to help foster the best learning outcomes.
Michael's involvement with the ID staff at the university would continue unabated until after the TAM was approved. Together they would review image selection for the virtual locations used as backdrops to the various scenes and give feedback on the character profiles.
Michael collaborated with the ID staff during their review of the Detailed Storyboard which served as both a script, as well as direction for the creation of the storyline and shooting of the various video elements. During this process, the storyline, assessment elements, remediations, and the overall deliverable were fine tuned through a collaborative exchange of ideas. Upon finalisation of this Detailed Storyboard with the ID staff at the university, video production of the Learnscape would begin.
Once the various components were created and assembled into the alpha version of the Learnscape, Michael would ask for review and comments from the University ID's. These comments steered the development of the final product as Toolwire incorporated the ID review into the beta build. Upon review and approval of the beta product build, Toolwire created the final version, inclusive of any recommendations at the beta phase, and presented this for final approval and sign-off by the University.
