STUDENT EXPERIENCES

The power of experiential learning comes from four unique student experiences; each designed to enable students to achieve “day‐in‐the‐life” experience with live systems:

1. Student Desktops
2. LiveLabs
3. Interactive Scenarios
4. Immersive Learning Environments

As you can see in the graphic, each of these experiences provides an increasing level of sophistication while broadening the scope of content.

LiveLabs and the Student Desktop are vital experiential learning tools for Information Technology programs. Students matriculate further in the degree programs because they are engaged at a more personal level. Not only do they gain greater IT skills through enhanced cognitive encoding and practice, but they graduate fully prepared for valuable IT industry certifications: MCSA, CCNA, A+, and CIW. In the time it would take a student to receive on‐the‐job training, they can earn a degree and as much as 100 hours of hands‐on IT experience.

Interactive Scenarios and Immersive Learning Environments are the next revolution of experiential learning. These “Day‐in‐the‐Life” experiences start with a story. Students are given a real‐life context for an exercise, and guided through a virtual world filled with virtual people. This virtual world conveys to students that the skills they are learning have real world implications and real world applications. A question isn’t asked for its own sake, nor is technology deployed and configured for its own sake. It is this experience that brings relevance and authenticity to the scenarios.

Toolwire LiveLabs and Scenarios are:

• academically‐sound – built by experienced instructional designers
• ready to go – nothing to install or maintain
• integrated seamlessly into your curriculum and learning management system
• available anytime, anywhere via the Internet – with 24x7 customer service
• co‐created with your instructional developers for a unique student experience

Let’s take a closer look at Toolwire’s four unique student experiences.

A Closer Look at the Student Desktop

The Student Desktop is a fully functional Windows desktop built specifically for each student. The Desktop is available anytime, from anywhere via an Internet‐connected web browser. The web‐based Desktop includes all of the software applications, lab tools, and central storage required for a given course or an entire degree program (see the diagram to the right).

The Student Desktop includes a safe, personal, centralized online data storage facility. Each student will be able to carry their projects, programs, websites, and technology reports with them throughout their degree. In addition, students build experiential skills portfolios (or Gallery) to take with them after graduation.

The data storage capabilities of the Student Desktop are especially useful for IT related studies. A feature called “My Briefcase” allows students to maintain a centralized e‐Portfolio of their projects, programs, websites, and IT‐oriented reports. This portfolio is available for the duration of a student’s AAIT degree program and for 90‐days thereafter.

The Student Desktop data storage structure consists of:

• MyFiles: This is the primary, private, directory for all IT related student files. Students have read‐write control, can make sub‐directories, and upload and download to and from their client machine via the File Transfer Tool.
• ClassFiles: Class directories are private directories created when students log in to a class for the first time. Students have full read‐write control. The ClassFiles folder contains several course subfolders: Homework, Share, and Website.

A Closer Look at LiveLabs

LiveLabs are remote hands‐on laboratories with live equipment via a web‐based anytime, anywhere interface. “Live” Labs are advanced experiential learning activities in which students step through a series of guided actions, work with real‐world case studies, and actively control real equipment and applications in a distributed data center.

LiveLabs include case studies to develop the logic and troubleshooting skills necessary to solve day‐to‐ day IT challenges. For example, they may include:

• Live Hands‐on Access to Real Devices – a Flash‐based interface uses one browser window to access a lab guide, the custom‐configured topology or desktop, and multiple device Telnet consoles (see the diagram below).
• Challenging Lab Guides – students will enjoy engaging lab guides that help build experience by presenting them with real world challenges and performance‐based assessments.
• A Compelling, Personal, and Safe Online Experience – full administrative control of host servers, routers, switches, and applications. LiveLabs are firewall‐friendly and globally accessible.

In the complex and sophisticated world of networking hardware, practice is very hard to achieve. Toolwire has pioneered an “on‐the‐fly” automated lab configuration platform called the Dynamic Switching Matrix (DSM).

DSM technology can efficiently and cost‐effectively deliver complex multi‐device networking experiences anytime, anywhere.

A Closer Look at Interactive Scenarios

Interactive Scenarios are “day‐in‐the‐life” experiences that combine the instructional power of LiveLabs with the engaging authenticity of virtual worlds filled with virtual people. This virtual world conveys to students that the skills they are learning have real world implications and real world applications.

In these virtual worlds, students get to live the life of an IT professional, healthcare technician or business consultant. Within the Interactive Scenario, intelligent avatars engage with students using everyday office tools such as mobile phones, email, meetings and onsite visits. Students gather critical scenario data, solve business problems and interact with avatars through interactive responders. Interactive Scenarios include performance‐based assessments to track student progress. Some assessments require students to enter a live data center, while others involve consultant reports or ROI calculations. These experiential learning scenarios go a long way toward helping students attain a higher level of skills retention by making the learning experience as “real” as possible (see the diagram below).

Here’s a typical IT scenario: It’s your first day as ACME Inc.’s junior network administrator. You have just been promoted from the Help Desk. Your phone rings. It’s the Sales Director in Chicago with several new employees who need your help. During several virtual months, you will solve innumerable network problems presented in varying scenarios. Along the way, you will receive a promotion, move to Chicago, make new friends, and gain valuable experience in ACME’s live server room.

Other virtual world scenarios, students gather critical scenario data using playbooks, policy manuals, file folders, and conversations.

In addition, students attend meetings in conference rooms with co‐workers and provide interactive feedback to them via an intelligence responder. The information they gather is delivered in “business speak” and dynamically translated into IT tasks as “Notes” in their Lab Guides.

A Closer Look at Immersive Learning Environments

Immersive Learning Environments are at the crossroads of learning, embedded performance support, virtual reality, and gaming. It is very exciting to see this mix empowered for the sake of learning. In fact, these Scenarios align with the results of current research in the field of immersive education.

These Immersive Learning Environments represent the latest advance in Toolwire’s Scenario portfolio. Immersive Learning Environments engage students with photorealistic, three dimensional environments that combine video interaction and real world context to allow students to explore the material they have learned in a personal manner, making it more relevant to their life and enforcing key concepts.

Beyond the inclusion of video and three dimensional graphics, each Immersive Learning Environment is built around a series of assessed elements that clearly communicate the key aspects of a given course. In each of these scenarios, students are presented with multi-pathed learning options that allow them to explore and interact with their environment. Within each scenario, students are guided through the experience by “real-life” characters who deliver learning content, assess progress, and provide remediation. With each Immersive Learning Environment, assessments are integrated naturally into the flow of the storyline, thereby helping to preserve the student experience while allowing for a full range of contextually sensitive assessment types.

Students are given the opportunity to demonstrate a variety of skills through multiple assessment types, including: multiple-choice responders, short answer, drag-and-drop, single paragraph composition, and short essay, among others. Of course, to preserve the learning context of the Immersive Learning Environment, these assessment types are each couched in a real-world, scenario- specific manner.

As students engage characters in conversations, reply to emails, create charts, build presentations or take a conference call, their performance is always being assessed. Each of these student responses, are saved, stored and compiled into a single file for submission to the course instructor. At the completion of the scenario, this file is downloaded to the student’s desktop for submission to their instructor.

These custom created, course specific, Immersive Learning Environments represent a significant evolution in student interaction and experience.