Considerations and Methodology for Designing a
Virtual World Solution for a Large Corporation
Brian Bauer
Étape Partners, USA8-29-2009
Abstract
Our
Case Study centers on a publically traded Fortune 500 Pharmaceutical company
based in the United States. With over
100,000 employees spread across many countries, physical separation of the
workforce is an everyday reality. In our
Case, it was not the goal to attempt to unite the entire company; rather, it
was our goal to provide a means to overcome the obstacles that present
themselves when physically disparate coworkers must perform seamlessly to
complete a business process.
In
the following Case Study we determined that although users were open minded to
trying Virtual Worlds and other types of Immersive technologies, the solutions
delivered needed to provide task oriented functionality that was directly in
line with everyday business process. Using
this basic requirement, we developed a Virtual Corporate Environment Business
Tool (VCEBT©) box.
The
VCEBT© philosophy is grounded on the principal that business process
is accomplished by following a set of business methods each performed using a
set of business tools. While it may
sound like a rigid and inflexible way to describe a knowledge-worker
environment, we find that the process-method-tools definition applies to most
environments quite well. Our goal is to
introduce new tools that increase the effectiveness of this process in terms of
its ability to meet clearly defined business objectives.
The
VCEBT© framework does not attempt to change people or the work that
they do. VCEBT©’s do augment
the business tool box, providing highly efficient tools designed to solve real
world challenges that can restrict a business’s ability to maximize business
performance.
Introduction
What
is Virtual Reality (VR)?
Some
will tell you that it is an unreal environment that has no firm connection to
“real life”. Merriam Webster (2009), for
example, defines Virtual Reality as “an artificial environment which is
experienced through sensory stimuli (as sights and sounds) provided by a
computer and in which one's actions partially determine what happens in the
environment”. In other words, what happens there stays there, and there are no
real consequences for actions. Others
will tell you that if someone is fully engaged and immersed in Virtual Reality,
then it is the only reality that is “happening” to them while they are
experiencing it, In the movie “ The Matrix” the subjects are forced to
choose between “realities” that are both very “real”. The choice between which
reality to “exist” in becomes very philosophical and grounded on fuzzy concepts
like faith, and beliefs. Is this a
challenge that we want to confront in 2009 in the workplace? Or is there a more
elegant way to introduce Immersive technologies?
According
to Winifred Gallagher (2009), author of the recently published “Rapt”, we
constantly make decisions determining what we are going to pay attention
to. Any events, experiences, and
activities not within the scope of our chosen interest will not exist to us as
we immerse ourselves in our selected targets of concentration and focus. What we choose to concentrate on defines our
state of consciousness and becomes our Reality.
The
fact that our mind and body may be “in two different places at the same time”
is not a unique characteristic of Virtual Reality, and does not therefore
create the need to refer to this immersive technology as “Virtual
Reality”. If we are deep within our own
thoughts, and no longer mindful of our physical surroundings, are we in “virtual
reality”? If we are reading a news
article on a website, and are so engrossed that we forget that we are late for
a meeting, do we say that “virtual reality” interfered with “physical reality”?
The
power of “Virtual Reality” software is in its ability to emancipate the mind
from the body, making physical “reality” a minor element of our Federated
Reality. Federated Reality has two
parts: Consciousness and Physical Existence.
For our purposes, we will always need to address the requirements of
Physical Existence and Consciousness.
However, it is our objective to relegate Physical Existence to nothing
more than a set of requirements for accessing a medium that will manipulate the
Consciousness away from Physical Existence.
In other words, people have bodies: eyes, hands, etc. We must build software that provides
convenient physical access. But after
that, the vast majority of our attention will be turned to capturing the full
attention of the user. We use
“federated” to mean that the two parts of Reality have a partnership, but are
not so close as to be synonymous. They are individually self-sustaining. We assert that there is only one relevant
reality, and it is defined as: A
context of stimulation that acutely focuses awareness and defines our state of
consciousness.
Virtual
Reality as a Tool for business
The newest VR technology provides a fully
immersive 3D experience in which the user of the technology adopts the persona
of a character (avatar) that exists in a software based “world” designed to
have the look and feel of a physical office or learning institution. The users of Virtual Reality technology
operate in the 3D space and see objects and people from the Point of View of
their avatar inside the technology.
Common activities inside the Virtual Reality software include:
-
Meetings, in which a collection of avatars collocate in a virtual
meeting room with the look and feel of a physical meeting. Audio is
provided by integrated conference bridges
-
Instruction/Assessment, in which teachers are able to interact with students in
an authentic way. The use of avatars and realistic activity makes
role-play based teaching and testing a powerful exercise in engagement
-
Learning, game-play embedded in the Virtual Reality technology
creates a framework for self-study. Study that combines an immersive
environment with fun has been demonstrated to improve interest in self-study as
well as data retention rates
-
Structured and Unstructured Coworker
encounters, Virtual Reality technology enables groups
of people who may be physically separated to come together for formal and
informal get-togethers. Frequent and often unstructured encounters with
colleagues help to recreate some of the advantage that is lost when associated
coworkers become physically separated.
High
quality virtual reality can be a very effective medium for gaining an
employee’s full attention. It is also a powerful tool that can be used for
teaching and collaboration. But do we
need a “world” to accomplish our business objectives? Or are we better served
with a set of Business Tools that are deployed as needed in specific
situations? After all, we are not trying
to create the “Matrix” we are trying to achieve business results. Employees use Business Tools to accomplish
tasks that are part of a process followed to achieve a result. As such, we can think of Virtual Reality as a
business tool, if deployed the right way.
Think of it this way: when Microsoft first created MS Word, were they
attempting to change the way in which people fundamentally did their jobs? Or
were they looking to create a vastly improved typewriter? More than 20 year later we might argue that
Microsoft Office has fundamentally changed the way people work, but in the
beginning, the goals were more modest.
We believe that revolutionary change happens incrementally. Paradigm shifting tools are delivered
discretely and become ubiquitous. When
the timing is right, these tools can be conjoined, and we will find that the
office-of-the-future exists.
The
Virtual Corporate Environment (VCE) represents a collection of Business Tools
(BT). VCEBT©’s are designed
to help accomplish business tasks in new and more effective ways. A thoughtfully connected group of VCEBT©’s
will yield a “virtual corporate world”.
This Case Study steps through the basic elements of how to successfully
design, implement, and ensure a successful VCE.
Mission and Objectives
Mission
The
VCE will be an environment that exists for bringing together associates who are
separated not only by physical space, but by function as well. The VCE
will enable both structured and casual encounters with coworkers much in the
same way people would interact with each other when they work in close physical
proximity. The belief is that the facilitation of more frequent and
impactful encounters with coworkers will enhance working relationships and
ultimately yield improved business results driven by increased productivity and
efficiency.
Objectives
•
Improve
business results through increased efficiency and productivity
•
Improve
process-awareness such that work styles begin to adapt to
process-oriented-results rather than functional results
•
Create
an environment that encourages results oriented process improvement
•
Improve
productivity by increasing the ease and effectiveness of associate
collaboration
•
To
create a working process-oriented virtual environment that is modeled on
physical reality, but reduces well established physical-world challenges
•
To
create a virtual environment that is cognizant of existing collaboration challenges,
and establishes bridges to overcome these challenges
•
To
create a virtual environment for associate contact such that individuals may
become more aware of each other’s personalities and work-styles enabling coworkers
to make subtle adaptations to interactions with the goal of process improvement
based on more efficient personal workflows
Current State
Why
Consider a VCE?
A
Virtual Corporate Environment (VCE) will help unify our client’s diverse
population of associates who are both physically separated and functionally
discrete. Efficiency and effectiveness
can be raised to levels not currently achievable in the physical space
resulting in favorably impacted business results. The VCE will be an environment that exists
for bringing together associates who are separated not only by physical space,
but by function as well.
The VCE will
enable both structured and casual encounters with coworkers much in the same
way people would interact with other when they work in close physical
proximity. The belief is that the
facilitation of more frequent and impactful encounters with coworkers will
enhance working relationships and ultimately yield improved business results
driven by increased productivity and efficiency. A VCE will create a collaborative and social
environment that encourages both formal and informal coworker encounters. It is anticipated that increased encounters
between functional silo’d and physically separated associates will encourage
communication and cross-functional awareness among individuals and groups who
are all part of a cross-functional process.
Process
awareness that transcends functional responsibilities is believed to be a key
enabler of success when the goal is to improve a singular result. The VCE will create a platform for ensuring
that all associates are well equipped with an understanding of business
priority, cultural principals and process oriented objectives. It is believed that if all process
contributors are fully immersed in process and not just function, the unique
ability of each contributor will help to improve the quality of the end
result. In today’s corporate environment
defined by flexible work schedules, disparate physical locations and functional
alignment, providing an impactful tool that breaks through these
process-challenges is essential. The VCE
is such a tool.
Is
the Client audience ready for a VCE?
An extensive polling of the target
employee population yielded the following results:
Figure 1, Polling Results
Increase
the Ease and Effectiveness of Associate Collaboration
Coworkers
in the same department are two-thirds more likely to collaborate if their
offices are on the same corridor than if their offices are simply on the same
floor If they were not in the same
department, then being on the same corridor boosted their likelihood of
collaborating by over 8 times.
Collaboration is about: initiating communication, conducting a
conversation, and maintaining awareness of the state of the environment, task,
and team. The more senses and stimuli brought into the equation, that are direct
contributors to the situation, the more poised the situation becomes for
impactful collaboration.
Proximity
increases frequency of communication.
All else being equal, people communicate most with those who are
physically close by. Proximity increases
the frequency of communication by putting people who have the prerequisites for
conversation in each other’s presence. A
VCE will seek to fabricate proximity my making a multi-sensory encounter with a
remote colleague both easy to initiate and lifelike.
The
magic of an office environment is contained in the atmosphere. However, even offices where the benefit of coworker
proximity is ever present can lack focus.
An immersive environment creates focused, situational collective
knowledge. Within the constructs of well-defined
Process, the value of a VCE is magnified as more productive, more collaborative
and more synergistic. Many of our client’s team members charged with
collaboration and connected by process, are also having to overcome challenges
of being dis-intermediated by time, distance, and functional area. Achieving
business goals that include reaching new levels of customer intimacy and
customer service will require that challenges put into the path of employees be
removed. The VCE embodies a methodology that targets very specific
inefficiencies created by a physically disparate workforce.
Reduce
well Established Physical-world Challenges
The
“Office of the Future” has been crafted in the minds of designers and
scientists for decades. In almost all
cases the resulting plans were exclusively physical (e.g. floor plans, etc.). We now understand that the real “Office
of the Future” is not just physical, it is a combination of location,
technology and awareness that transcends physical boundaries to create a
“virtual co-location”.
The
“Office of the Future” will consist of several nuances of what we know today
but will also possess its own unique innovative ways of creating a working
environment. The bindings that will create “virtual co-location” will be
stronger than physical proximity due to this workforce’s connection through
process awareness, collaboration and tools. Due to this, workers stand a good
chance at being more effective than a dysfunctional collective that happens to
be physically together. Organizational capability is another edge to
differentiate companies from their competition. Visionary companies translate
their ideologies into tangible mechanisms aligned to send a consistent set of
reinforcing signals. They impose tightness of fit, and create a sense of
belonging to something special through practical, concrete items.
Client
Business Objectives
Both organizational business
objectives as well as financial objectives exist in the current state of the
VCE acceptance process. Organizational business objects are those linked not
only to the business and its product(s) but also to the development of customer
relations. Customer intimacy, such as customer service and service quality for
example, are great way to enhance the level of effective engagement.
Aside
from the relationship of the product to the customer, objectives in respect to
business performance and product quality must also be set. An objective of high
productivity increased output with the same or fewer people. Similarly, the
idea of a same or lower cost production of higher quality output is an
objective as is the objective to reclaim “proximity driven” value lose due to Flextime
and working from home.
Lastly,
an objective of partnership and collaboration is key to furthering innovation
and insight that yield to business impacting actions. Education and training
will also help with this.
In
collaboration with organizational objectives, financial objectives should be
set for several reasons. First, the objective of cost savings can only serve to
be beneficial to any business. With lower production costs, organizational
business objectives can also be met with lower costs. Secondly, revenue
generation, for example, is a financial objective because better training
yields more sales. It will also shorten the time-to-useful cycle of
on-boarding. Lastly, Cost avoidance is important because more impactful
training yields fewer repeats which saves money as well as resources.
VCE
and Business Process Objectives
Business Processes targeted by the
VCE include:
·
Improve
business results through increased efficiency and productivity.
·
Improve
process-awareness such that work styles begin to adapt to
process-oriented-results rather than functional results.
·
Create
an environment that encourages results oriented process improvement.
·
Improve
productivity by increasing the ease and effectiveness of associate
collaboration.
·
To
create a working process-oriented virtual environment that is modeled on
physical reality, but reduces well established physical-world challenges.
·
To
create a virtual environment that is cognizant of existing collaboration
challenges, and establishes bridges to overcome these challenges.
·
To
create a virtual environment for associate contact such that individuals may
become more aware of each other’s personalities and work-styles enabling coworkers
to make subtle adaptations to interactions with the goal of process improvement
based on more efficient personal workflows.
Improve
Efficiency and Productivity
If
we are trying to improve knowledge worker performance, it is necessary to
define it. The definition of the American Productivity and Quality Center is,
"the relationship between what is put into a piece of work and what is
yielded (output)" (APQC)
The application of this broad definition presents a challenge since everyone
defines outputs differently, especially for the "knowledge worker,"
whose work is characterized by intangible, ill-defined, and uncountable
outputs, processes, linkage to the company’s strategic objectives, performance
criteria, and high independence.
As
our client continues to push for more value from their assets and greater
performance, there has been a surge of interest in considering the place of
work, i.e., the real estate and facilities location and characteristics, as an
important part of the ecology or system. This approach is especially relevant
as corporations explore new workplace approaches by rethinking how, when and
where people work. Planning an integrated workplace can result in solutions
which change, not only the physical work setting, but the other parameters,
such as behaviors, processes, and technologies. As we observe today at our
client, larger corporate motivations for facilitating a physically disparate workforce
present challenges that must be overcome at the Business Unit level.
Encourage
Results Oriented Process Improvement that align to Business Goals
An
organization's strategic goals should provide the key direction for any
Business Process Improvement exercise. Alignment of function to process is
another major consideration. Increased intimacy among process participants will
improve alignment.
Customer Focus
Fast-changing
customer needs underscore the importance of aligning business processes to
achieve higher customer satisfaction. It is imperative in any BPI exercise that
the "Voice of Customer" be known, and factored in, when reviewing or
redesigning any process.
Establish
Process Owners
For
any process to be controllable, it is essential that there be clarity on who the
process owners are as well as what constitutes success/failure of the process.
These success/failure levels also help establish "control limits" for
the process, and provide a healthy check on whether or not a process is meeting
the desired customer objectives.
In
an effort to increase the ease and effectiveness of associate collaboration, scientific
research has been used to explain office occurrences. It has been found that
physical proximity encourages collaboration. In some cases, degrees of
collaboration can be multiples if offices are next to each other.
The
magic of an office environment is contained in the atmosphere. However, even offices where the benefit of coworker
proximity is ever present can lack focus.
An immersive environment creates focused, situational collective
knowledge presence that is charged with cathartic potential.
Reduce well
Established Physical-world Challenges
We
now understand that the real “Office of the Future” is not just physical, it is
a combination of location, technology and awareness that transcends physical
boundaries to create a “virtual co-location”. As well as a stronger bind than
those created through physically proximity, a “virtual co-location”, companies
using virtual reality will differentiate themselves from their competition
through their organizational capability and this will give them an edge.
Visionary
companies translate their ideologies into tangible mechanisms aligned to send a
consistent set of reinforcing signals. They impose tightness of fit, and create
a sense of belonging to something special through practical, concrete items.
Establish
Bridges to Overcome Collaboration Challenges
We
can loosely define a collaborative process as integrating the communication,
cooperation and coordination (3Cs) perspectives with functional, behavioral and
organizational perspectives.
The
dimensionality of the “collaboration matrix” does not scale, it simply needs to
stretch or contract to fit an organization. For example, the Actor Network
Theory (ANT) states that, entities (or, the collaborative semantic concepts)
take their form and acquire their attributes as a result of their relation with
other entities (within the collaborative processes) (Crawford,
2004) .
The relationships take their shapes at the “entity edges”. In other words, people attempting to collaborate
form inter-personal relationships based on their relationships with others.
These
relationships are effective in direct correlation to the degree in which the
“entity edges” are allowed to come into contact with each other in impactful
ways (non-impactful “touches” will not shape the edges. A good collaborative
process model must not focus solely on the flow and transformation of data
within the system but also focus on the communication, cooperation and
coordination (3Cs) among the actors
Introduction to
Authentic Learning
Authentic
learning typically focuses on real-world, complex problems and their solutions,
using role-playing exercises, problem-based activities, case studies, and
participation in virtual communities of practice. The learning environments are
inherently multidisciplinary. They are “not constructed in order to teach
geometry or to teach philosophy. A learning environment is similar to some
‘real world’ application or discipline: managing a city, building a house,
flying an airplane, setting a budget, solving a crime, for example.
Educational
researchers have found that students involved in authentic learning are
motivated to persevere despite initial disorientation or frustration, as long
as the exercise simulates what really counts—the social structure and culture
that gives the discipline its meaning and relevance. The learning event
essentially encourages students to compare their personal interests with those
of a working disciplinary community: “Can I see myself becoming a member of
this culture? What would motivate me? What would concern me? How would I work
with the people around me? How would I make a difference?
Authentic
learning may be more important than ever in a rapidly changing world, where the
half-life of information is short and individuals can expect to progress through
multiple careers. Expert thinking and complex communication will differentiate
those with career-transcending skills from those who have little opportunity
for advancement. It also involves the ability to identify and solve problems
for which there is no routine solution. This requires pattern recognition and
metacognition. Another differentiator is complex communication, such as
persuading, explaining, negotiating, gaining trust, and building understanding.
Although
foundational skills (reading, writing, mathematics, history, language) remain
essential, a more complex set of competencies are required today. These go
beyond being technically competent to being able to get things done,
demonstrate ethics and integrity, and work well with others. The most important
skills in new hires are quickly becoming teamwork, critical thinking/reasoning,
assembling/organizing information, and innovative thinking/creativity
10 design
elements of Authentic Learning
1.
Real-world
relevance: Authentic activities match the real-world tasks of professionals in
practice as nearly as possible. Learning rises to the level of authenticity
when it asks students to work actively with abstract concepts, facts, and
formulae inside a realistic—and highly social—context mimicking “the ordinary
practices of the [disciplinary] culture.”
2.
Ill-defined
problem: Challenges cannot be solved easily by the application of an existing
algorithm; instead, authentic activities are relatively undefined and open to
multiple interpretations, requiring students to identify for themselves the
tasks and subtasks needed to complete the major task.
3.
Sustained
investigation: Problems cannot be solved in a matter of minutes or even hours.
Instead, authentic activities comprise complex tasks to be investigated by
students over a sustained period of time, requiring significant investment of
time and intellectual resources.
4.
Multiple
sources and perspectives: Learners are not given a list of resources. Authentic
activities provide the opportunity for students to examine the task from a
variety of theoretical and practical perspectives, using a variety of
resources, and requires students to distinguish relevant from irrelevant
information in the process.
5.
Collaboration:
Success is not achievable by an individual learner working alone. Authentic
activities make collaboration integral to the task, both within the course and
in the real world.
6.
Reflection
(metacognition): Authentic activities enable learners to make choices and
reflect on their learning, both individually and as a team or community.
7.
Interdisciplinary
perspective: Relevance is not confined to a single domain or subject matter
specialization. Instead, authentic activities have consequences that extend
beyond a particular discipline, encouraging students to adopt diverse roles and
think in interdisciplinary terms.
8.
Integrated
assessment: Assessment is not merely summative in authentic activities but is
woven seamlessly into the major task in a manner that reflects real-world
evaluation processes.
9.
Polished
products: Conclusions are not merely exercises or sub-steps in preparation for
something else. Authentic activities culminate in the creation of a whole
product, valuable in its own right.
10.
Multiple
interpretations and outcomes: Rather than yielding a single correct answer
obtained by the application of rules and procedures, authentic activities allow
for diverse interpretations and competing solutions.
Authentic
Learning and the Introduction of Virtual Reality
With
the help of the Internet and a variety of communication, visualization, and
simulation technologies, large numbers of professionals can begin to
reconstruct the past, observe phenomena using remote instruments, and make
valuable connections with mentors around the world. Similarly, with access to
online research communities, learners are able to gain a deeper sense of a
discipline as a special “culture” shaped by specific ways of seeing and
interpreting the world. They begin to grasp the subtle, interpersonal, and
unwritten knowledge that members in a community of practice use (often
unconsciously) on a daily basis. “Learning becomes as much social as cognitive,
as much concrete as abstract, and becomes intertwined with judgment and
exploration,” just as it is in an actual workplace (Atwell, 2004).
Virtual
Reality tools can aid in this the transformation from science to application.
A
Culture of Learning
"A
learning [culture] is one that is skilled at creating, acquiring, interpreting,
transferring, and retaining knowledge, and at purposefully modifying its
behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights."
Actionable
Education.
Are
you more or less interested in learning about something that you can use every
day, or never use? People have their own perceptions of what they can use on
the job. If management and student have differing perceptions, this must be
corrected.
Passive
resistance in learning and development appears when there is no perceived
benefit to completing the training. Can we achieve a culture of learning by,
for example, counting course credits? If you believe in Transformative
Learning, then the answer is no. I think we see many examples of people
attending classes, getting credit, but not transforming. Is a paper-based
culture is learning enough?
Transformative
Learning.
Transformative
learning is basically the kind of learning we do as we make meaning of our
lives. It's become a very popular topic in adult education because it doesn't
just involve classroom learning--it involves learning about our lives. This is
important because as adults, the meaning making process can change everything
about how we look at work, family, and the world.
There
is a set of steps that adults go through when they experience transformation
and those steps are:
·
Experiencing
a disorienting dilemma.
·
Self-examination.
·
Critical
assessment of assumptions.
·
Recognizing
that others have gone through a similar process.
·
Exploring
options.
·
Formulating
a plan of action.
·
Reintegration.
Transformation
is something that is usually triggered by a problem, and very often
transformative experiences are painful to go through. After identifying their
problem or challenge, people seem to enter a phase where they reflect
critically on this--this is typically a problem that you've never experienced
before, so it takes a lot of thinking and talking to others to work through. During the thinking phase, people may find
that they can no longer keep their old ways of thinking and being--they are
compelled to change. Finally, there is an action phase where people decide to
do something. This could mean that you have to break off certain relationships
that don't fit your beliefs anymore; it could mean that you decide to make a
career change--action can take many forms. Also, the process itself may take a
long time. You could reflect on something for years before you are ready to
accept new beliefs and act on them.
Improve the
Individuals’ Relationship with Training.
Culture within any society is made up of
the attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterize it specifically
due to the people within each specific culture. Therefore, in order to change a
culture, one must change the people.
Unhappy
and Unmotivated individuals will not train well. In order to not only gain
someone’s attention but also to retain it, one must find the time to learn. In
combination with time, the ability to learn is a key factor. If it seems easy,
it is more than likely that the individual will have a less adverse effect to
it. These will not only motivate the individual but also create an in which an
entire culture is changed through the morphing of the people that make it up.
Another way to improve a
relationship to learning for someone is to recognize two things. First,
recognizing the barriers behind why an individual does not possess a good
relationship to learning and removing them, will enable a better flow of
information to the individual and ultimately enable a better association to
training. Second, recognizing factors that create desires in people and using
that knowledge to train individuals will also accelerate a better affiliation
to training and learning. These factors could include money, responsibility,
excitement, and self-worth.
Taking all these elements and
implementing them will make a person want to learn.
How do we make
our people "ready to learn".
If
someone is not ready to learn, the effectiveness of instruction is reduced. To
increase effectiveness is to make people ready to learn. A good education and
training program is holistic in approach and addresses the two important
aspects that affect employee performance and productivity. First, it must equip
employees with the tools of the trade. Second, it must create a workplace
culture of professionalism, loyalty, and commitment, and most importantly, warm
and open relationships among employees. The first aspect of education and
training – skills development – is easier to accomplish than the second aspect.
However, though the competency program might be appropriate, it can always be
undermined by unhappy and unmotivated employees. An education and training
program must be proactive and never reactive. Its main purpose is not to address
employee problems that might threaten the stability of the company. Rather, it
should be to transform its human resources into agents of development. Thus,
its formulation is participative with ideas from management and rank in file
employees incorporated in the final program.
Why do employees
want to learn?.
Patricia Cranton’s (1994) Three Perspectives of
Adult Learning suggest that actions and behaviors will be changed based on the
changed perspective (Cranton, p.730).
Her
first perspective, subject-oriented learning, states that the goal is to
acquire content (e.g. facts, problem solving strategies, practical or technical
skills). It is positivistic and most often meets the expectations of the
learner and is, therefore, comfortable. The key to this step is that the expert
makes the decisions, not the learner.
Her second perspective takes place
when an individual expresses a need to learn, looks to the educator for
fulfillment of those needs, and then proceeds to learn under the guidance of
the educator. In this perspective Canton calls the consumer-oriented learning,
the learner makes each decision about learning--for this reason, this kind of
learning falls under constructivism.
Finally,
her third perspective, emancipatory learning, is a process of freeing ourselves
from forces that limit our options and our control over our lives, forces that
have been taken for granted or seen as beyond our control. This kind of
learning is constructivist in nature and can be transformative. At times this
learning occurs independently of the educator; at other times it is fostered
deliberately. Unlike the other two kinds of learning, emancipatory learning is
often a difficult and painful process (Cranton, p.750)
Multiple
Studies have proven that adults think in different ways and it has been determined
that these types of learning ways can be divided into three separate learning
orientations. First, goal oriented
learners use education as a means of achieving some other goal. Second,
activity oriented learners participate for the sake of the activity itself and
the social interaction it provides. Lastly, learning oriented learners seek
knowledge for its own sake (Hughes 2005).
There
are generally six factors for learning participation (Abdullah et.al 2008):
1.
Social
Relationships: make friends and meet others.
2.
External
Expectations: complying with the wishes of someone else with authority.
3.
Social
Welfare: desire to serve others and/or community.
4.
Professional
Advancement: desire for job enhancement or professional advancement.
5.
Escape/Stimulation:
to alleviate boredom and/or to escape home or work routine.
6.
Cognitive
Interest: learning for the sake of learning itself.
Pedague vs.
Andragogue.
“I don’t want
education done to me…”
Andragogy
initially defined as "the art and science of helping adults learn”. The
term currently defines an alternative to pedagogy and refers to learner-focused
education for people of all ages. The andragogic model asserts that five issues
be considered and addressed in formal learning.
1.
Letting
learners know why something is important to learn.
2.
Showing
learners how to direct themselves through information.
3.
Relating
the topic to the learners' experiences.
4.
People
will not learn until they are ready and motivated to learn.
5.
This
often requires helping them overcome inhibitions, behaviors, and beliefs about
learning.
In
the information age, the implications of a move from teacher-centered to
learner-centered education are many.
Postponing or
suppressing this move will slow our ability to learn new technology and gain
competitive advantage. For example, how can we expect to analyze and synthesize
so much information if we turn to others to determine what should be learned,
how it will be learned, and when it will be learned? We must take it upon
ourselves to meet our learning needs and demand training providers do the same.
To know our demands, we must know how we process information.
Andragogue.
"Andragogy
is simply another model of assumptions about learners to be used alongside the
pedagogical model of assumptions, thereby providing two alternative models for
testing out the assumptions as to their 'fit' with particular situations.
Furthermore, the models are probably most useful when seen not as dichotomous
but rather as two ends of a spectrum, with a realistic assumption in a given
situation falling in between the two ends
Concept of the
Learner
During
the process of maturation, a person moves from dependency toward increasing
self-directedness, but at different rates for different people and in different
dimensions of life. Teachers have a responsibility to encourage and nurture
this movement. Adults have a deep psychological need to be generally
self-directing, but they may be dependent in certain temporary situations.
Role of the
Learner's Experience
As
people grow and develop they accumulate an increasing reservoir of experience
that becomes and increasingly rich resource for learning--for themselves and
for others. Furthermore, people attach more meaning to learning they gain from
experience than those they acquire passively. Accordingly, the primary
techniques in education are experiential ones--laboratory experiments,
discussion, problem-solving cases, field experiences, etc.
Readiness to
Learn
People
become ready to learn something when they experience a need to learn it in
order to cope more satisfyingly with real-life tasks and problems. The educator
has a responsibility to create conditions and provide tools and procedures for
helping learners discover their "needs to know." Learning programs
should be organized around life-application categories and sequenced according
to the learners' readiness to learn.
Orientation to
Learning
Learners
see education as a process of developing increased competence to achieve their
full potential in life. They want to be able to apply whatever knowledge and
skill they gain today to living more effectively tomorrow. Accordingly,
learning experiences should be organized around competency-development
categories. People are performance-centered in their orientation to learning.
Future State
We
must paint a yellow stripe down the center of our transformational super
highway. On the road to the future, we have three lanes of traffic, but
everyone can still follow the road thanks to the painted lines. Our
"paint" is mixed from Clear Vision/Mission and Objectives, and is
applied using Branding, Marketing(gorilla and traditional) Gorilla marketing in
a corporate office?? What if the Unreal villain walked the hallways, etc. Our
Missions & Visions as well as our introspection tell us that we must
transform and Process must permeate function.
There
are three Paths of Transformation:
o Corporate
o
Organizational
o Individual
Corporate and
Organizational Vision/Mission
amalgamated
cultural vision.
Competitive
advantage will be achieved by establishing a culture of learning comprised of
scientific leaders driving innovation and excellence through essential
partnerships founded on collaboration and trusted advisement
amalgamated mission.
Unparalleled
levels of scientific excellence and customer service will be delivered through
harmonized frameworks of delivery founded on expert methods, tools and training
Employee Vision
& Mission
Personal vision.
I
understand that innovation is the result of testing the boundaries of what I
know, and working with others who can help me surpass these boundaries. I will challenge myself to understand the
process that I am part of, and seek new ways to make valuable contributions to
my organization and the products that it produces.
Personal
mission.
I
will exercise all available opportunities to develop my functional abilities as
they pertain to the organizational framework of which I am an invaluable
part. Through continued personal
education and expert coaching I will achieve new levels of career fulfillment
while contributing to the business objectives of my organization.
Solution
Client
Research has yielded the following conclusion and requirements:
•
Employee
Behavior
–
The
VCE must be specifically goal oriented at first (e.g. attend a meeting).
–
Employees
do not have time to “hang out” or “vacation” in a Virtual World
•
Employee
Work-styles.
–
Our
target audience is very pragmatic.
–
A
VCE must offer value as a tool, not just as a toy
•
Quality
of Experience.
–
The
experience must be high fidelity and “real”.
–
The
experience should not be overly-distracting(a physical meeting room is not
distracting).
•
Available
Technology
–
Pre-built
worlds concentrate on scale, not the quality of intimate experiences.
–
We
don’t need a World day one, we need attractive, high performing Experiences.
Uptake on 3D immersive
environments in the corporate workplace will be driven by function, not frivolity.
VCE Business
Tools
The following
tool set will be supplied to the client:
•
Virtual
Meetings
–
Establish
Proximity
–
Capture
Participant Focus
–
Efficiency
of Communication
•
Virtual
Assessments
–
Role-play
based usage of subject matter
–
Allows
review of ability to use information
•
Virtual
Teaching
–
Classroom
based
•
Active
participation increases effectiveness
•
Appeals
to Authentic Learning Principals
–
Game
based
•
Incredibly
engaging, makes them compelling to use
•
Conveyance
of subject matter is extremely efficient
•
Virtual
Chat
–
Replicates
“hallway encounters” to increase collaboration
–
Increases
frequency of Impactful encounters
•
Virtual
Simulation
–
Provides
realistic encounters with people and process with opportunities to learn how to
succeed
•
Virtual Games
–
Virtual
Process Orientation
•
Immerses
participants in a process oriented challenge that teaches the core business of
the client
•
Examples
of success include MIT, and Volvo
–
Virtual
Team Building
•
Re-enforce
the criticality of information sharing across functions
•
Examples
of success include: “Everest” from Harvard Business School*
–
Distributed
Innovation and Collective intelligence
•
Community
based problem solving
•
E.g.,
How do these three signals relate to each other – score points
•
Examples
of success include:
•
Microsoft’s
use of Community based bug-finding
•
Fold.it
uses a community-based model to solve biochemical protein folding challenges
–
Cultural
Indoctrination
•
Re-enforce
Vision, Mission, Objectives and Cultural beliefs across an organization that
physically separated
•
Examples
of success include: Sun Microsystems , “Rise of the Shadow Specters”
Why not a
Pre-packaged World?
Highly
skilled employees functioning in a very competitive industry need professional
grade tools that can provide immediate and obvious value. We can begin improving business results today
by ensuring that business participants have the very best tools in the
toolbox. A toolbox is stocked with
individual items that have been hand selected because they are the most
relevant, and the best. As an
alternative(and quite likely less expensive), the toolbox can be stocked at the
lowest common denominator tools to ensure that everyone has something, but
quite often most people will be left wanting tools that are more specialized
and precise.
Pre-packaged
worlds are built using lowest common denominator technology and are quite often
designed to be massively parallel, not to provide best of breed individualized
experiences. However, we believe that
skilled professionals need individualized experiences to enhance their everyday
participation in workflow.
Hospital vs.
Patient
Gaming
Engines have allowed the creation of digital virtual humans with a physiology
engines that include PharmaCo-kinetic drug models. They're biomechanically
correct. “Unlike when people are building hospitals in Second Life and everyone's
rejoicing because it's an architectural walk-through, gaming engines are being
used to create highly instrumented and engaging environments. You apply
a bandage and stick a needle in a patient, the patient will react, from a
physiological perspective, in an authentic way in terms of body size, etc.
This
level of instrumentation is groundbreaking. Instructors can also control the
physiology dynamically or let the physiology engine run autonomously. It can throw curveballs at medical students.
While we may not be looking to build realistic bodies for our client, we are
very much interested in the “art of the possible”, and building professional
grade tools that add value on the job.
Conclusion
Only
a small handful of non-government companies have realized that using Serious
Game technology to deliver highly focused business tools is the most direct
path to success. Far more companies are
still trying to understand why their Virtual World efforts are not succeeding.
The
key differentiator between a VCE Business Tool(VCEBT©), and a
Virtual World is that a VCEBT© targets tasks and activities that
need to be performed at a point in time. First, A VCEBT© is akin to
someone opening MS Word and type a letter. A Virtual World asks a user to
change everything about the way they do business.
Second, focusing
on key business tasks, and delivering a set of VCEBT©’s that can be
added to the business toolbox is a somewhat unique approach to Immersive
technologies. We are not fighting against the grain to change a person’s total behavior.
A collection of valuable VCEBT©’s that gain traction will create
pockets of business use and this is the first priority. VCEBT©’s that are proven to be
successful can be connected to form a cohesive VCE, this is the second
priority.
We
began this project thinking about what a “virtual world” might look like for
client. We found that it would be quite
feasible to build a “world”, but there were significant risks. Based on our research, we found that most
large (Fortune 500) companies that have used a well-known virtual world
provider, have achieved little or no success. Those that have achieved some
success have very different parameters than our client. What seemed to be missing from many corporate
initiatives into virtual worlds was a well-defined set of business
objectives. Everyone has a vision for
what they hope will happen in a virtual world, but quite often the vision does
not mesh with reality.
What
we have discovered is that there are two primary reasons why our client should
get involved with Virtual Reality: 1) To develop a set of readily usable
business tools. 2) To become fluent in a technology that will
quite likely have a very prominent role in corporate life in future years. Our belief is that the best way to
future-proof our client’s organization is by doing far more than
experimentation in the hope of future relevance; we need to build a foundation
of experience, and a track record of acceptance to provide our pathway into the
future.
References
Abdullah, M et. al. (2008). Motivating Factors
Associated with Adult Participation in Distance Learning Program. Retrieved on
August 28, 2009 from http://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ies/article/viewFile/629/604.
APQC. (n.d.). Retrieved August 28, 2009, from http://www.apqc.org/portal/apqc/site.
Attwell, 2004, E-Learning and
Sustainability. Retrieved on August 28, 2009 from
http://lefo.net/lefo_sustainabili
ty_graham.htm.
ty_graham.htm.
Cranton, P. (1994). Self-directed and transformative
instructional development. Journal of
Higher Education, 65(6), 726-744.
Cranton, C. (1994). Understanding and Promoting Transformative Learning. San Francisco.
Jossey-Bass. 3-21.
Crawford, C. (2004, July 14). A-Ritzer-Encyclopedia.
Retrieved September 28, 2009, from SagePub:
http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/5222_Ritzer__Entries_beginning_with_A__%
5B1%5D.pdf.
5B1%5D.pdf.
Gallager, W. (2009). Rapt: attention and the focused life. NY, NY. Penguin Publishers.
Hughes, B. (2005). Indentifing
attitudes and detering factors toward continueing education among certified
athletic trainers. The Internet Journal
of Allied Health Sciences and Practice. 3 (1) Retrieved on August 28, 2009
from http://ijahsp.nova.edu/articles/vol3num1/HUGHES.pdf.
Kraut, R. E., S. R.
Fussell, et al. (2002).
Understanding effects of proximity on collaboration: Implications for
technologies to support remote collaborative work. Distributed Work. P.
J. Hinds and S. Kiesler. Cambridge, Massachusetts, The MIT Press.
Virtual reality. (2009). In Merriam-Webster Online
Dictionary. Retrieved August 26, 2009, from
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/virtual reality.
Additional Reading
Bailenson, J.
et. al. (2008). The effect
of interactivity on learning physical actions in virtual reality. Media
Psychology, 11(3), 354-376.
Galbraith, M. (2003). Adult
Learning Methods: A Guide for Effective Instruction. Malabar, Florida: Krieger Publishing Company.
Katsionis,
G. (2008). Personalized
e-learning through an educational virtual reality game using Web services. Multimedia Tools and Applications,
39(1), 47-71.
Kausler,
D.H.. (1999). Adult learning and development: Perspectives from educational
psychology. Contemporary Psychology, 44(1),
46-47.
Knowles,
Malcolm. (2005). The Adult Learner, Sixth Edition: The Definitive Classic in Adult
Education and Human Resource Development. Newark, NJ: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Lee, D., et.
al.. (2000). Assessing adult learning preferences
using the analytic hierarchy process. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 19(6), 548-60.
Llyod, J et.al.
(2009). Equivalence
of Real-World and Virtual-Reality Route Learning: A Pilot Study. Cyberpsychology and Behavior, 12(4),
423-427.
Marienau, C.,
et. al.. (2008). Educator as Designer: Balancing Multiple
Teaching Perspectives in the Design of Community Based Learning for Adults. New Directions for Adult and
Continuing Education, 188, 61-74.
Merriam, S.B. (2008). Third
Update on Adult Learning Theory: New Directions for Adult and Continuing
Education. Jossey-Bass.
Merrill, B.
(2001). Learning and Teaching in Universities: perspectives
from adult learners and lecturers. Teaching
in Higher Education, 6(1), 5-17.
Monahan, T.
(2008). Virtual reality for collaborative e-learning. Computers and Education, 50(4), 1339-1353.
Nelken, M.
(2009). Negotiating
Classroom Process: Lessons from Adult Learning. Negotiation Journal, 25(2), 181-194.
Pratt, D. (1998). Five Perspectives on Teaching in Adult and
Higher Education. Malabar, Florida: Krieger Publishing Company
Rose, F.D.
et.al. (2000). Training in Virtual Environments. Ergonomic, 43(4), 494-511
Schmidt,
B. (2009). Implementing the Virtual Reality Learning Environment Second Life. Nurse Educator, 34(4), 152-155.
Stolovitch,
Harold. (2009). Telling ain’t training.
Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press
|
|
|
||
|
|
|||
Xie, B. (2007). Information
Technology Education for Older Adults as a Continuing Peer-Learning Process: A
Chinese Case Study. Educational Gerontology, 35(5), 429-450.
Key Terms and Definitions
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment