Fail Safe

by Cameron D. Crowe, Toolwire EVP Sales and Marketing

Like it or not, we’re in an age when any Twitter post or viral video can be picked up by news organizations and become the lead story. Opinions and ancillary information quickly become accepted as fact. The current economic downturn has led recent college graduates to question the value of having invested time and money into a degree that, so far, has not led to the career track they felt they were promised. Their Tweets and youtube.com videos are front and center in various news reports.

So, what is the Return-on-Investment (ROI) of a Higher Education? This was the question Jeff Selingo, editorial director of The Chronicle of Higher Education, posed in a recent article.

As the research in his article bears out, Higher Education is unquestionably linked to greater long term financial success in life. But as the economic landscape shifts, those in Higher Education understand that to continue offering degrees that provide graduates the expected value, instructional methods must adapt with the times.

What is it that prepares graduates for the ‘real world’ they face upon graduation? What can schools offer to give them every possible advantage?  Simply stated, one of the greatest potential takeaways from a Higher Education experience is the opportunity to “fail” in a “safe” environment. This is best accomplished via real-life contextual situations through the use of immersive learning environments.

It is a commonly held understanding that many of life’s greatest lessons are the product of mistakes. But here’s the problem:  In many situations in the real world, mistakes can be extremely costly and there is no second chance.

At Toolwire, we have been developing immersive learning environments for several years across a wide range of subjects including Business, Health Care, Engineering, and Humanities to name a few. These immersive learning environments provide students opportunities to develop critical thinking and decision making skills in safe, low-stakes environments. Our latest learning solution, Toolwire Learnscapes, are rich media instructional tools combining course content and learning objectives with engaging storylines that unfold within photo-realistic worlds.

Toolwire recently had a discussion with a business school interested in Learnscapes and how the school could better prepare graduates for today’s job market. During this meeting we discussed how interviewing is one of the essential skills students need in order to translate the value of their education into a desirable full-time job. The resume and degree open the door, but it is still up to the graduate to perform in a stressful and unfamiliar situation.

The problem is that teaching students how to interview within a classroom setting only goes so far. Interviewing is a skill best learned from practice and experience. Think about how valuable it would be if business schools were able to provide students real-time access to immersive learning environments designed to help them practice their interviewing skills.

Toolwire Learnscapes employ an innovative Instructional Design known as “Natural Assessment”.  Designed according to pre-defined learning objectives, these multi-path virtual scenarios subtly provide course concepts to students in contextual situations. Students who demonstrate mastery of core concepts progress the story; however, students who struggle are subtly remediated to new scenes that provide additional information in order to reinforce key course concepts.  Typically, a 15 – 30 minute Learnscape contains 1 or 2 primary learning objectives.  At the end of each module, student assessments are saved and forwarded to instructors, thus allowing them to follow-up with an additional round of student feedback and guidance, if necessary.

Consider how costly it is for students who fail to secure their dream job because they haven’t had enough interviewing practice. In his article, Selingo says schools are increasingly at risk of becoming “punching bags” by those jobless students who blame their alma maters for not doing enough to prepare them for a successful transition from the classroom to the workforce.

As institutions seek ways to leverage new technologies to deliver value to students, Toolwire Learnscapes offer students a compelling way to experience the real world so that once out in that world, students have the competitive edge that only experience and confidence can bring.