Exposure to reality online, virtually, or remotely
A virtual learning environment, comprising two websites of fictitious companies, in which students are assigned roles to complete realistic tasks collaboratively online
An online role play in which students need to negotiate changes to improve safety; staff and industry professionals volunteer to play various roles
A VR organization in which students can undertake a virtual work-integrated learning experience or simulation and apply their management and marketing knowledge skills to practice
A coordinated series of opportunities in which students, in essence, travel to overseas communities but from the comfort of their home.
A teaching method in which students repeatedly simulate the sequence of decisions that experts reach, partly to enhance critical thinking
Exposure to reality in person
A simulation that exposes para-medicine students to a road incident with multiple casualties
Seamless industry collaborations
A comprehensive initiative that embeds entrepreneurial principles in all university activities
A network of employers, universities, and other organizations that share data on which skills individuals or organizations should prioritize
An efficient suite of online placements with a community partner, around the sociological issues that affect Indigenous Youth globally
A virtual learning environment, comprising two websites of
fictitious companies, in which students are assigned roles
to complete realistic tasks collaboratively online
Flinders University developed two realistic websites that outline the policies, practices, and strategies of two fictitious organizations. The first organization, the International Development Organization, is designed to eliminate poverty in the Asia Pacific region. The second organization, Gender Associates, funds programs that support gender equality.
Students are assigned roles in the International Development Organization. They are informed that grant and research opportunities are available from Gender Associates. To benefit from these opportunities, the students collaborate on a virtual meeting platform—FLO Live—to complete realistic tasks in small teams, such as construct a white paper or undertake a gender analysis research project. The tasks were designed in consultation with many stakeholders, including multilateral development agencies, government planning authorities, business corporations, advocacy groups, and NGOs. FLO live enables the students to discuss ideas in small teams or larger classes, to edit documents collaboratively, and to use whiteboards to brainstorm ideas.
According to subsequent evaluations, the majority of students enjoyed the role-play, although some of the students would have preferred discussions in person. Students valued the opportunities to apply the principles and theories they learned in the classroom to a practical setting. Many students also liked the combination of synchronous collaboration, such as the virtual meetings, and asynchronous collaboration, such as the discussion boards, in which they could reflect on the insights of their peers more carefully.
Further learning
Mundkur, A., & Ellickson, C. (2012). Bringing the real world in: Reflection on building a virtual learning environment. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 36(3).
An online role play in which students need to negotiate changes to improve safety; staff and industry professionals volunteer to play various roles
At RMIT University, in Australia, students enrolled in the Bachelor of Arts (Criminal Justice Administration) complete a 50-day professional internship, in person, with the police, corrections, or other workplaces in the justice sector. In these internships, clients may be aggressive. Therefore, as part of this internship, students need to complete a OH&S risk assessment of the workplace.
To complement this activity, students also complete an online role play that revolves around OH&S and risk assessment. During this role play, students need to interpret data about risks and then to negotiate with managers, union reps, OH&S officers, and other stakeholders to advocate changes that could improve the safety of officers in the workplace, despite the expense of these changes. The conversations are conducted online. In reality, RMIT staff members, students, or even industry representatives volunteer to assume some of these roles.
Students are permitted to propose some of the suggestions they raised in their actual placement. After this role play, teaching staff and industry representatives deliver feedback—feedback that can both enhance the communication and negotiation skills of students as well as help these students address matters that transpired in their placement. Because the role play is online, however, students can be anonymous, sometimes diminishing their anxieties, and can also communicate asynchronously, granting these individuals more time to think carefully.
Further reading
Ogilvie, A., & Douglas, K. (2007). Online role plays and the virtual placement: Aiding reflection in work integrated learning. Refereed Conference Proceedings, ASCILITE, Singapore.
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A VR organization in which students can undertake a virtual work-integrated learning experience or simulation and apply their management and marketing knowledge skills to practice
Virtual Golden Foods Corporation is a virtual organization, accessible from the web, that fictitiously processes food and manufactures cans of food. The organization comprises many departments, such as HR, finance, accounts, marketing, and operations. The programmers used the Virtual Reality Modelling Language to develop this virtual organization. This virtual organization exposes students to a range of crises, in which they need to apply the skills they learned in management or marketing classes to address these crises. The visuals and sounds were designed to seem realistic, as if embedded in the organization.
In one of the pilot studies, about 15 or so students attend a theater in which they are exposed to this virtual organization on a large screen. Each student is assigned a role, such as sterilizer worker, sterilizer supervisor, warehouse supervisor, and production manager. Some problem unfolds in the organization. The students then discuss how they would respond to these problems, comparable to Hypotheticals, the TV series that Jeffrey Robertson facilitated. In this instance, however, the program that underpins the virtual organization generates the crises, although the teacher moderates the discussion among students.
Over 80% of students enjoyed or greatly enjoyed the experience. The majority of students felt the experience improved their skills in decision-making, risk-taking, and problem-solving.
Further reading
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Godat, M. (2007). Virtual golden foods corporation: Generic skills in a virtual crisis environment (a pilot study). Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 16(1), 67-84.
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Yahaya, R. A. (2006, July). Assessing the effectiveness of virtual reality technology as part of an authentic learning environment. In Sixth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT'06) (pp. 262-264). IEEE.
A coordinated series of opportunities in which students, in essence, travel to overseas communities but from the comfort of their home.
Because of globalization, the capacity of employees to interact effectively with diverse communities has become increasingly pivotal. Oakland Community College have introduced a program that helps students develop this capability. The college has introduced virtual exchanges in which students receive some of the benefits of cultural exchanges and overseas study but from the comfort of their home. In essence, students travel to other nations online. That is,
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students watch videos and experience online classes in which they are exposed to diverse cultures, values, and norms as part of the course
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students communicate with peers, businesses, and communities from other countries, ultimately to instill an appreciation of diverse cultures and a sense of social responsibility.
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for instance, students attend virtual classes with peers from India and, together, collaborate on a series of problems or activities.
Further reading
This website on other examples of virtual exchanges
A teaching method in which students repeatedly simulate the sequence of decisions that experts reach, partly to enhance critical thinking
A private university in western United States applied a technique, called decision-based learning, to teach mathematics in one course. In essence, students are exposed to a decision tree. This decision tree summarizes the key choices that a specialist on the topic might reach to solve a problem. To illustrate, as the yellow pathway in the photograph that accompanies this case study shows, data analysts might first decide whether they need to compare groups, such as males and females. Is so, the analysts might then need to decide whether they want to examine multiple outcomes at a time. If not, they might next decide whether they need to control variables, and so forth. However, rather than describe the entire decision tree holistically
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The instructor first presents only one problem to solve. The instructor then applies the decision tree to solve this problem—but only presents enough information to justify each choice.
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The instructor then applies the same procedure to solve additional problems, seeking the contributions of students to reach each choice
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Once the students are familiar with the decision tree, the instructor gradually removes branches and presents more problems. The students must thus internalize the decision tree to help solve these problems
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Finally, the instructor presents some problems in which the choices are ambiguous. The students must thus adapt the decision tree to help solve these problems
Research showed this technique does not only enhance learning but also improves critical thinking in general. That is, the technique shows how specific principles or choices are relevant only in particular conditions—at specific points in the decision tree. This capacity to apply principles only under specific conditions enhances critical thinking. Decision-based learning can also be applied to any topic.
Further reading
Plummer, K. J., Kebritchi, M., Leary, H. M., & Halverson, D. M. (2022). Enhancing critical thinking skills through Decision-Based Learning. Innovative Higher Education.
A simulation that exposes para-medicine
students to a road incident with multiple casualties
Soon before they graduate, students enrolled in paramedicine at Charles Sturt University participate in a road incident simulation. In this simulation, a bus collided with a car. The 20 or so victims include babies, children, and pregnant mothers, afflicted with injuries that range from mild wounds and nausea to severe amnesia, amputations, or even fatalities.
During this simulation, students assume the role of victims of a road incident, paramedics, police officers, and team leaders. As paramedics, the students need to apply the clinical skills they learned during their course to assist the victims and to respond appropriately. The victims need to be extricated from the wreckage before they receive immediate medical attention and then transport to the relevant services. Because of the number and diversity of roles, the students also need to demonstrate leadership qualities, such as how to manage limited resources, and other capabilities as well.
Further reading
A comprehensive initiative that embeds
entrepreneurial principles in all university activities
To position Sheffield Hallam University as an institution that improves productivity, supports business, attracts investment, and ultimately enhances the economic growth of the region, the university embedded entrepreneurial principles throughout the curricula, research programs, and regional partnerships. For example, since the appointment of an inaugural pro vice-chancellor of business and enterprise,
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every academic department established an employer advisory board to secure work experiences, enrich learning, and adjust the curriculum to be compatible with future workplaces
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all 350 undergraduate courses were transformed and now include mandatory work experiences or work placement and other opportunities to learn about enterprise agreements
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students provide free consulting services to local businesses and communities on many projects, contributing over £5m to the local economy during the last seven year
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students who complete sandwich placements—placements that last over 6 months—receive an additional professional diploma
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the incubator lab was extended and delivered 133 workshops, 485 appointments with students and graduates, and 56 new trading businesses, often to facilitate start-ups
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all these initiatives operate in a coordinated fashion
Further reading
A network of employers, universities, and other organizations that share data on which skills individuals or organizations should prioritize
Many individuals are uncertain of which skills they should develop to secure rewarding jobs. Many tertiary education institutions are uncertain of which skills they should teach to attract students and to help these individuals secure their desired jobs. And many employers are not sure how to evaluate which applicants will benefit the organization in the future.
To address these concerns, individuals and institutions need to access skills libraries—that is, repositories of skills that employers are seeking in the future, often derived from job postings and other information. In addition, they need to access skills data, such as the number of job seekers who have developed these skills. Actually, organizations do collect and store these data. However, these data are seldom shared and accessible to many individuals or institutions.
The Open Skills Network was established in 2020 to overcome this impediment. Western Governors University was central to the formation of this network. This network is a coalition, comprising hundreds of education providers, over forty employers, and many other stakeholders including policy makers. The primary objective of this network is match individuals with relevant education and career opportunities. To achieve this goal, the network share skills libraries and skills data.
Further reading
An efficient suite of online placements with a community partner, around the sociological issues that affect Indigenous Youth globally
One of the challenges around placements and work-integrated learning revolves around efficiency. Staff might need to negotiate with an industry partner over many hours but still manage to arrange only one or two placement opportunities. RMIT, a university in Australia, designed an arrangement, with a partner organization in Canada, called UGTS or Unique Get Together Society, that can be readily extended to organize many placements simultaneously. UGTS is a community organization that conducts research and implements programs to support Indigenous youth in Canada.
The arrangement comprised several distinct features that enhance efficiency. First, the students, who were enrolled in youth work, completed the placement online. The placement lasted 10 weeks. The benefit of online placements is that, in the future, the same model, such as the training, can then be replicated and applied in many locations.
Second, although students could undertake a range of projects, depending on their interests, these projects tended to comprise a particular sequence of activities, all revolving around community action research. Students would first identify the needs of a specific cohort, such as young Indigenous people with a disability, propose an initiative to address a key need, plan this initiative, evaluate the program, and reflect upon this experience. All students, therefore, could receive the same inductions and training but nevertheless assist diverse stakeholders. During this induction and training, the students learned about project management, digital etiquette, and other relevant skills.
Third, RMIT choose an industry partner, UGTS, that can accommodate many diverse placements, but with similar activities. The reason is this partner
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assists diverse segments, such as youth with disability or youth in foster care
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therefore, needs to conduct many research activities or assessments to understand the distinct needs of each segment—and to develop programs that accommodate these needs
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needs to evaluate this diversity of programs
Fourth, students explored a global issue: the challenges that young Indigenous people experience. In this instance, the students could learn about similarities and differences in the experiences of young Indigenous people across nations. These insights enabled students to understand some of the conditions and circumstances that affect the wellbeing of these Indigenous youth. Because some facets of this issue are global, the placement can readily be extended to other nations and partners.
References
