The Value of Online Learning
September 30th, 2009
A colleague of mine recently sent me a link to the Mashable blog article that outlined “What is the Future of Teaching?” although I found the article very interesting my fear of college statistics class suddenly came rushing back to me. Here are the key points of the write-up:
According to the New York Times Bits blog, a recent study funded by the US Department of Education (PDF) found that on the whole, online learning environments actually led to higher tested performance than face-to-face learning environments. “On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction,” concluded the report’s authors in their key findings.
The report looked at just under one hundred studies that compared the performance of students in online learning environments (or courses with an online study component) to those who were given strictly face-to-face instruction for the same courses. What they found was that students who completed all or some of their coursework online tested on average in the 59th percentile, compared to the 50th percentile for those who received only classroom instruction, and that the results are statistically significant.”
So why bring up the haunting of college stats class? “While the study certainly provides a vote of confidence for online learning, it’s important to note that it doesn’t necessarily demonstrate that online learning is more effective as a medium than classroom learning. “In many of the studies showing an advantage for online learning, the online and classroom conditions differed in terms of time spent, curriculum and pedagogy. It was the combination of elements in the treatment conditions (which was likely to have included additional learning time and materials as well as additional opportunities for collaboration) that produced the observed learning advantages,” writes the authors of the report (emphasis theirs). “At the same time, one should note that online learning is much more conducive to the expansion of learning time than is face-to-face instruction.”
In other words: all things are not equal. Students spending three hours per day in an online environment under the guidance of a great professor are likely, and not surprisingly, going to be better prepared than those spending an hour per week in a classroom with a mediocre one. And because the study’s results were correlational and not causal, it is impossible to say for certain whether it was actually the online learning environment that caused better tested performance. We can conclude that those in online learning environments tested better, but not necessarily why.
Further, the meta-study did not look at enough K-12 research to draw any conclusions — simply because it doesn’t exist. Researchers warned that “various online learning implementation practices may have differing effectiveness for K–12 learners than they do for older students,” which seems plausible. A major part of the job of a good educator is to equip students with the necessary mental tools to be able to continue learning on their own. Those skills are likely to be less developed in younger students, making face-to-face teacher intervention more necessary.”
Online education is becoming more and more prevalent. A growing number of college campuses are offering online courses- hey who wants to get out of their jammies and pink bunny slippers to hassle finding a parking spot and carrying books to class when you can just login from your home computer?! In summary, the article outlined significant findings on the proven applications of online learning, although much like the article says “all things are not equal.”
Visual Purple Named as 2009 MT2 Top Training and Simulation Company
September 29th, 2009
The results are in and Visual Purple has been recognized as one of the top performers in the global simulation and training industry for the second consecutive year.
Military Training Technology is proud to announce the 2009 MT2 Top Training and Simulation Companies. The list’s companies are from around the world that have made a significant impact on the military training industry across the spectrum of technologies— serious gaming, live training, constructive simulation, modeling, virtual simulation and others. An impartial panel selected the winners from a very competitive group. Companies were selected based on various criteria, which in part, included total military sales, innovation, and program effectiveness. The 2009 submissions were especially competitive.
To learn more about the awards or view the awards list, click here.
The Makings of a Social Media Fruitcake
September 28th, 2009
My Grandmother used to be a fruitcake-making junkie each year when the holiday season rolled around- many friends and family would graciously accept then turn right around and regift “Grandma’s famous homemade fruitcake.” So this got me thinking- social media tools are a lot like a fruitcake. Although thought, care and a little love may initially be baked in, the end result is nuts and the weird fruit candy-like things. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. are the social media kitchens, but often at the end of the day, it’s still the same fruitcake!
Some almost relevant tidbits you might enjoy… Online communities and social networks are becoming more and more mainstream, a part of our everyday lives (both personal and professional). So here is a scary stat: With the ever growing size of Facebook’s 300-million active users, if Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth most populous in the world.
So in reality it’s fitting how the term ‘fruitcake’ can also reference a crazy person. Every time I see the commercial for Verizon selling phones where the parents and kids are on the back porch and Dad is tweeting: “Sitting on the back porch,” I chuckle to myself about how true this is with some social media updates today. Although I have carefully handpicked the people I follow on Twitter I still see random tweets like “sitting on the plane waiting to take off” or “going out to Mexican food with the girls.” Although these tweets do depict an activity- are they really relevant? I tend to want to follow people that have the same interests as I do- although I have not met most of them face-to-face I can tell a little bit about them just in the way that they tweet. So on a whim I decided to try posting a ‘pointless’ tweet and see what the reaction was. Although there was no reaction after I pressed the ‘tweet’ button, I felt like I had jipped my followers (sorry, loyal followers!)… Here I was, yet another person in cyberspace that had posted a tweet with no real value and was in fact, pointless…who knows I’ll probably see it re-tweeted soon…wish I liked fruitcake…
“- Link to”
YouTube Visual Purple Verizon commerical- Twitter Updates and Facebook
Speaking of Virtual Worlds…(Week of September 21-25)
September 25th, 2009
A weekly wrap-up on what’s going on within the Virtual World sphere and beyond! Click on any of the below titles to read the full story.
NSF Funds Study of Virtual Worlds Value to Businesses
Microsoft’s Virtual World Presence Moves to ReactionGrid
What the US government is doing in Second Life
Attacking the Myth that Virtual Worlds Damage Social Interactions
Let’s Define Collaborative…
September 24th, 2009
There currently are a wide variety of 3D virtual collaboration solutions on the market today, such as Qwaq (now Teleplace). This being said collaboration is touted as adding in a new element/ layer into the virtual world. Collaborative environments are primarily utilized for geographically dispersed work groups- they can be funner than a WebEx meeting or a non-interactive conference call. This ‘collaborative’ method of interacting is said to allow for full user immersion. Although collaborative environments do bring a live element of interactivity to the space, I see them as potentially causing a layer of distraction to the user. Many types of bells and whistles are utilized in collaborative environments such as these: video and voice messaging services including shared whiteboard capabilities and program sharing.
Can collaboration happen in single-player interactive virtual environment? You bet. Especially when non-player characters (NPCs) are utilized within the environment. They provide meaningful and realistic interaction. Engagement is key here- whether through actual real-time interaction with others or interaction with a NPC.
Could interaction in a virtual world change how we function in the real world? Are VoIP and text chat really a necessary component of successful virtual world training? One might argue that collaboration can hurt virtual environment participants by overwhelming them in an already complex environment. Do collaborative environments help or hurt the user to stay on task? Hmm, with today’s complex UIs, I am compelled to say hurt.
3D TLC Panel Announcement
September 23rd, 2009
Ed Heinbockel has confirmed to be on an industry panel at the upcoming Engage! Expo entitled “Vendor View: Collaborating to Cross the Chasm.” Join Ed on Thursday, September 24th from 4 to 5 pm.
What’s the session all about?
Thinkbalm has identified a number of barriers that need to be overcome to enable increased adoption of immersive technologies in the workplace. You can view and download the PDF of the ThinkBalm’s analyst report: Crossing the Chasm, One Implementation at a Time here.
Tony O’Driscoll will moderate a panel discussion with CEOs from the vendor community to understand what are planning to do from a technology roadmap perspective to address these issues so that we can collectively drive increased adoption and get across the chasm.
Tony O’Driscoll, Professor of the Practice, Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business (moderator)
Chris Badger, VP of Marketing, Forterra Systems
Ron J. Burns, CEO, ProtonMedia
Ed Heinbockel, President & CEO, Visual Purple, LLC.
Howard Mall, VP of Engineering, ECS, Inc.
The Next Generation of Trainees
September 21st, 2009
Are we listening to today’s learner? With new (and ever younger) talent entering today’s workforce, does this change training demands? Why yes it does! Bridging the generational gap is at the forefront of many training directors’ minds today- how to mix ‘old’ and new technologies in order to make all trainees happy. And we all know that a happy trainee is a trainee that adds value to an organization. The key to this is to make training informational for the younger generation (and not too remedial), live up to their digitally demanding expectations, while currying favor with the older generation that may be less familiar with today’s ever-evolving training technologies.
“One of the most prevailing and misguided excuses for inertia: “We have mature employees who wouldn’t embrace new learning approaches.” Why have I NEVER heard someone from a company that actually uses social networking and virtual worlds express this concern? The reality is that older workers are usually the most enthusiastic users of social media, virtual worlds and podcasting. Join our weekly Train for Success meetings in Second Life and the average age is probably around 50. Here are my top-three theories why mature workers embrace next gen learning:
1. Mature workers have a greater network of colleagues to draw insights from. Social networks are designed for those of us who need to stay in touch with our college friends and professionals colleges from years past. The fastest growing demographic of Facebook is women over 55.
2. Older people enjoy being a young avatar in Second Life with a full set of hair and the body of a 19-year old.
3. Older people have spent decades in asbestos homes gulping Aspartame sodas, and it’s beginning to take its toll. They can’t concentrate on boring lectures, they need learning that is fun and engaging! ”- According to a recent ASTD article.
A lot of organizations claim that they find some resistance initially with older generations for implementing new and innovative training methods. Sometimes referred to as the “Digital natives vs. Digital immigrants” a digital divide is created where the key is to bridge the generational gap that is now transforming many organizations training initiatives. Let’s define: Generation Y’ers. Gen Y can be defined as employees born between 1981 and 1995. They are extremely tech savvy, allowing them to easily pick up new methods of training.
From an article posted on ZD Net Asia :
“What is different about the way that they think?
The eight norms of this generation are:
1. Freedom of choice. Choice is like oxygen. I had three media choices as a kid. There is also freedom of mobility. The goal in the past was to have one job for your whole life, where today in the U.S., by the time they’re 27 they’re on their third job. Freedom is a huge norm.
2. Customization. I never got to customize TV. You can change your world today, with your screensaver, your blog.
3. Scrutiny. They are a generation of authenticators. A picture used to be a picture. You see a woman on a magazine today, and you wonder how she’s been photoshopped.
4. Integrity. It’s just not true that this generation doesn’t care. Youth volunteering in the U.S. is at an all-time high. And specific activities. They care about the world, about social justice.
5. Collaboration. Everybody collaborates, but these kids are natural collaborators. When I grew up, everything was a hierarchy, and I was used to being broadcasted to. One-size-fits-all. School and lectures and my parents broadcasted. Now there’s a huge clash. These kids are sharing information, peer-to-peer, that’s how you spend your time, instead of being a passive recipient.
6. Entertainment. They want to have fun. Having fun with a product or service is more important than what they do. Having fun in your first job is now more important than how much you get paid. The kids have got it right, learning and work can be the same thing.
7. Innovation. The speed of innovation when I was a kid was glacial. Today, people demand new improvement.
8. Speed. They want things to happen fast and quickly.”
Is learning and adapting to new technologies really a generational thing? I think that no matter what one’s age- anything is possible. So here’s to embracing new (and old) types of learning technologies across the great generational divide. And now onto training technologies that satisfy Generation Z; or otherwise referred to as ‘Millennials’…
Speaking of Virtual Worlds… (Week of September 14-18)
September 18th, 2009
A weekly wrap-up on what’s going on within the Virtual World sphere and beyond! Click on any of the below titles to read the full story.
Minnesota College Offers a Degree in Second Life
Second Life farmers’ market gets real with home deliveries
Growth forecasts for the Virtual Worlds sector
South Dakota State University Adopts Second Life
The Medaverse – Medicine and Virtual Community Merge
6 out-of-this-world Government sites in Second Life
Technology: Virtual World Technology for Augmented Reality
Emulating Human Voice-overs with TTS Voices
September 17th, 2009
By Rudy Helm, Audio and Quality Assurance Tech, Visual Purple, LLC.
This is a follow-up that I promised in the last paragraph of my last blog entry, ‘Can Robots be Funny?’ This blog entry will not only perform the follow-up but will also segue nicely into my new topic, a topic that shall wait until the conclusion of this blog to introduce. Anyway, I had proposed this scenario: say we have a cinematic cut-scene where there are several actors in the scene (or trailer), but let’s say our budget can maybe only afford one human voice-actor. So, you’ve recorded your one human voice actor doing each role of the entire cast. Next, we use the techniques discussed in my aforementioned article to create an ensemble of TTS actors and sync their synthetic voices to the phrasings and expressions of your human model. Not only that, we will deploy only 1 TTS male voice and 1 TTS female voice to cover our entire casting of 7 characters (that’s 3 adult males, 2 adult females and 2 children)! These tasks we’ll accomplish with a suite of video and audio editing software (markup languages not being practical for trailers, etc).
First, listen to this excerpt where you will hear the human model’s VO.
Now listen to the same animation again. This time however, the audio you hear is our TTS VO.
Recall that from my earlier blogs, the tasks included lengthening or shortening the TTS vowels and syllables to match those of the human model. See Figure 1.
Figure 2- Next, view the whole enchilada, as it were, this time with the entire cast of male and female TTS voice-actors doing their stuff, including a crowd sound effect for the background restaurant ambience:
“- Link to”
YouTube Visual Purple
Figure 3-Window dressing
Sound effects! Well, if you missed my previous blog (remember the talking fish?), you should visit it to read a discussion on sound effects. The background sound effects help the ambience place the scene in a more immersive environment, doesn’t it? And then there’s…
MUSIC! That’s right! Here’s where I depart for now from my series of blogs on TTS voice-actors (‘bout time isn’t it?). Background music can be an additional sweetening, adding greatly to your scene. “But wait!” you may be saying, “I thought the focus of this exercise was our tight budget!?”
You are so correct. How about copyright free, royalty free music? I’ll explore that a bit more later, but now let’s have a look and listen to this scene, but rendered with (royalty free) background music. This is a restaurant scene, and many restaurants provide music for their clientele, right?
Figure 4– Complete scene rendered with TTS voices and background music
“- Link to”
YouTube Visual Purple
Now see how effective the music was in providing a more pleasing restaurant ambience? In fact, without the music, the scene was rather sterile, wasn’t it? Even with the ambient crowd chatter in the background it was stale, but the music made the scene, well, …right!
Conclusion
Whenever you can afford real actors, do it! But when budget screams for relief, maybe try some of the things I have offered in these blogs about synthetic VO.
And algorithmic music? Yes. Algorithmic. Why not opt for copyright free, royalty free music since we have the opportunity and whenever it’s appropriate to our project, not to mention our budget. In fact, that will be the topic of my next blog, “When Your Musician is a Robot (Can Automated Composers Write Good Music?)”. We’ll demonstrate various musical styles and include movie clips for you to view so that we can hear the background music in context. Stay tuned!
Navigation in Virtual Worlds- From Simple to Complex
September 15th, 2009
Ever heard the question posed: Do virtual worlds come with instructions? Virtual environments can present complex challenges to those entering for the first time. A big barrier to entry for training in virtual worlds is the belief that they are difficult for the user to navigate. I have witnessed first-hand turning the reins over to a virtual world newbie and observing their actions. In observation it appears that some navigation actions are intuitive, while others are not.
While Second Life may be one of the most complex virtual worlds to figure out- potential virtual world adopters need to realize that not all virtual worlds are made to have so many user options. Although the option to “teleport” is quite fun- is it really necessary in a serious virtual world for training? Probably not. So what are the key functionalities needed to navigate within a virtual world- obviously the arrow keys are high on the list and a “jumping ability” might be fun- so let’s add in the spacebar function. For the most part “basic” avatar movement remains consistent between virtual worlds while other movements are exclusive to different virtual worlds. We won’t even begin to explore gamer interface expectations here. Let’s save that digital dumpster dive for a future post…
So does a new user really need training to navigate a virtual world? Just like the learning curve of navigating the world wide web- now users have a new learning curve- navigating virtual worlds. Entering a virtual world can be perceived as a daunting task for those unfamiliar with common navigation. Kind of like driving to an unknown place without the benefit of a GPS. A roadmap to the navigation of virtual world use may be helpful. I have seen even well-versed virtual world users become lost when attending Second Life events and tours- it always seems that the group looses a few along the way- due to no clear path of navigation. The sooner we can employ basic design principles and standards to virtual worlds, the sooner we can attract a broad demographic.