Interactive scenarios are the next revolution of experiential learning. One key differentiator between an interactive Scenario and a “lab” is that a lab exists in a vacuum. In the latter case, students are asked to perform tasks or answer questions without regard for context or relevancy. Little thought is given to who might ask the question or which of your co-workers would request a particular task. This is not very realistic. In addition, even less thought is given to the business reasons behind each request.
Scenarios, on the other hand, start with a story. Students are given a ‘real-life” context for the 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; real world applications. A question isn’t asked for its own sake, nor is technology deployed and configured for its own sake.
Good stories come from our own experience. It is this experience that brings relevance and authenticity to the scenarios.
“A Day in the Life”
In Scenario 1, for example, it is your first day as Northwind Trader’s Jr. Network Administrator. You have just been promoted from the Help Desk. Your phone rings. The Sales Director in Chicago has some new employees who need your help.
Over the next 17 Scenarios, several virtual months will pass, and you will solve innumerable network problems. Along the way, you will get a promotion, move to Chicago, make new friends, and gain tremendous experience in Northwind Trader’s live server room.
Virtual World – The Scenario Experience
In our Virtual World you get to live the Virtual life of an IT Pro / Developer / Consultant. Your virtual world consists of several environments: a workspace with virtual locations, a meeting place (e.g. a conference room), a live server (Technical Scenarios), and a consulting report (Smart Scenarios).
Each journey into this virtual world starts in your office (as depicted below). From there, the real fun begins. You may take a trip on the road (with your Mobile PDA) or stay in the building and attend a meeting in the conference room. From time to time, you may even want to meander into the break room, or enjoy lunch at a local virtual restaurant.
Within the virtual workspace there are office tools and information items that you can interact with. Intelligent Avatars will engage with you using everyday office tools such as desktop phones, cell phones, eMail, and a pager. In addition, you can gather critical scenario data using playbooks, policy manuals, file folders, and conversations. Finally, shortcut links are provided to simulate web pages or network shares.
In addition to the proactive data gathering, you will attend meetings in conference rooms with several co-workers and provide interactive feedback to them via an intelligence responder.
The “Live” Data Center
Once you are ready to solve your “Day-in-the-Life” problem in a live environment, it is time to enter the “Live” Data Center. Each MODL Scenario includes administrator access to a remote hands-on lab environment with live equipment via a web-based anytime, anywhere interface. These LiveLabs are “live” because the equipment is real. Now your students can have all the benefits of traditional classroom labs from the comfort of their own home or office. Furthermore, they can access the equipment when it is convenient for them and build authentic solutions to real-world problems. Some define “labs” as merely access to equipment. In MODL Scenarios, we define “labs” as experiential learning in which a learner steps through a series of guided actions, works through real-world scenarios, and actively controls live equipment. Now that’s what I call “practice”. Check out the MODL Live Data Center in the figure below.
MODL Scenarios 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 border on “virtual info-edutainment”.
