International Instructional Consulting

Experiential Learning Curriculum Development and Resources

In May and June 2010 I had the opportunity to partner with a consulting firm, Leadership Development International (LDi), in their effort to develop experiential learning curricula for one of their international clients: the Higher Colleges of Technology--Fujairah College in the United Arab Emirates. This partnership resulted in several projects designed to reach the HCT-FC mission: to develop dynamic citizens through the education and training of students via experiential leadership curricula. My research culminated in a mixed-reality project and presentation "Using Second Life--HCT Presentation," which I researched and co-delivered with Rochell M (Rachelle Munro in SL), a virtual world consultant and instructor at UT Tyler. Our project's lead consultant for LDi, Dr. Tom R (DrTomRLionheart in SL), set up the meeting and managed the technical aspects of our presentation in the UAE so that our clients there could view the presentation and interact with Rochell and me.

What were our presentation objectives?

To demonstrate how experiential learning objectives could be demonstrated by using virtual world technology.

What is a mixed-reality presentation?

This type of presentation merges the real "physical" world with that of a virtual world for audiences who are present in either. In our case, Dr. Tom R met with "real life" clients in the UAE to set up a meeting where the technological interfaces would be available (i.e., PowerPoint and Second Life, including voice) and where the clients could easily interact with the presenters (Rochell and me) from our remote locations: College Station and Tyler, Texas. Dr. Tom R set up the presentation facilities and moderated the presentation in the UAE/HCT meeting room AND in the virtual world, Second Life. On the other side of the globe (back in Texas) Rochell and I met DrTomRLionheart in SL (we coordinated with Dr. Tom R via Skype). We delivered our presentation to our UAE client at 7 a.m Texas time (4 p.m. UAE time) in order to accommodate the meeting schedule of the UAE client.

What did this presentation require?

This presentation required that we fully understand our client's culture and their pedagogical objectives as well as understand the scope of the technology we were demonstrating. Therefore, our research had 4 key objectives:

  1. Learn as much as we can about our client, including cultural norms and expectations

  2. Learn our client's pedagogical expectations of the proposed curriculum for leadership training

  3. Select the best media for meeting our client's objectives (we chose PowerPoint and Second Life)

  4. Determine how Second Life could be implemented to help the client accomplish their instructional goals

Keeping our clients' goals at forefront of our research, we chose sites in SL that would best demonstrate how virtual world technology could help them meet their teaching objectives. Our sites included places that would highlight the interactivity SL encourages as well as the content available on various topics, such as Bloom's taxonomy. Our presentation AND delivery also required that we understand the culture of a client in the Middle East. Therefore, we considered several important facets including our avatar's dress and mannerisms, the destinations of our tour, the language we would use to conduct the tour, and the limitations of the technology to provide the kind of conservative environment in which most Middle Eastern students, especially female, are accustomed.

What did we deliver?

Our deliverable included 2 parts: (1) a slideshow presentation that describes what SL is and how it can be used to facilitate higher-level learning objectives, and (2) a tour of SL sites that demonstrate how virtual world technology can be used to meet their specific leadership initiatives.

What additional resources am I preparing for LDi?

Currently I am cataloging experiential learning activities to be used by teaching faculty at the schools with which LDi has partnered. This "catalog" requires that I describe each activity in detail, including topic or purpose, the skills met in Bloom's taxonomy, the time required to complete the activity, etc. The goal of this research will be to facilitate a database of experiential learning activities where users can search via key words or topics, taxonomy, required resources or facilities, and more.