Interactive Training Blog

I recently attended a webinar put on by Training Magazine Network featuring Clark Aldrich on “The Unifying View of Highly Interactive Virtual Environment (HIVE) Learning.” I wanted to take a moment to highlight a few of the key take aways for those that were not in attendance.

One of the first questions that Clark asked was: “What is the relationship between virtual worlds, games and simulations and when should each be used?” This resulted in some confusion, and even led to further confusion when screen shots were presented. Clark would show a screen shot of a virtual world, game, or simulation and each attendee would enter a text response as to what they thought the screen shot represented. For the most part participants were able to differentiate each one (but note there still were a few confused people out there) and I must admit even one of those screen shots made me scratch my head. Why? It was just a pool with a float in it and 2 lounge chairs beside it. What did this represent? (Where I would rather be, well, yes). But back to the topic at hand: Was it an image from a virtual world, game or simulation? Mr. Aldrich further went on to explain that it could be any of the three depending upon what elements were added in. For example, if you added a volleyball net and some people playing volleyball it would be conceived as a game. However, if one added in a lifeguard then it may be represented as a possible training simulation. So you get the point. Each has its own unique attributes that define it. They are interconnected to some degree (each are unique but similar to one another).
Educational simulations=Less flexibility
Virtual worlds=More flexibility

But this circles the question: How big is the blur between these (virtual worlds, games and simulations) and what specific attributes define each? Well let me highlight some defining features of virtual worlds that were brought up in the webinar:
-Synthetic
-Ability to interact with objects
-Own set of rules

A few metrics outlined to evaluate success in a virtual world:
-Involvement/ engagement
-Learning
-Performance of tasks
-Navigation
-Retention

Clark Aldrich also suggests that: All environments should have self-paced introductory levels: Utilization of a light game to get the user comfortable with the environment. A lot of organizations are so focused on investing in expensive virtual world platforms that they forget that content is key (and this holds true with all training)! Also, he is seeing a transition occurring from the age of linear content to the age of dynamic content.

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