E-Learn

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Immediately following ModSim, I found myself in Orlando, Florida, attending the E-Learn Conference. My first visit to E-Learn was in 2004 and at that time it left me with a good impression. I remembered a small group of military attendees and discussions about SCORM. There were numerous research findings pertaining to Distance Learning also….

So whatever then happen to E-Learn in 2010? I found very few research papers or empirical studies reported. Besides the keynotes and a few nicely written concept/theory papers, majority of what was presented ranged from ‘sales pitch’, to product talks, to ‘this is what our school dl programs looks like’…. There were so few sessions that intrigue my interests… particularly after a very fruitful ModSim. But what should I think when I started hearing from other participants about how they find the conference to be lacking in research presentation? (Ouch!) 8-O

I do remember a second call for paper… but was there a third? Should I have taken the cue for that to be a sign of ‘lack of participation’ from other fellow researchers, and that many lesser than par papers were accepted?

I don’t have the answer to that. (As a side note, I heard last year’s E-Learn at Vancouver was great, so is it Orlando, US, 2010 economy? Or what?)

Luckily, I did discover two gems from the conference, so maybe it is not so bad. (Am I correct, Mary?)

What’s more interesting is that both gems are making the same demand of me… and will in fact help create a new area in my current research. I look forward to that challenge. As usual, don’t want to talk about it yet, until things are well establish. So stay tune if you want to know.

virtual training

virtual training

MODSIM

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I have been wanting to attend the ModSim (Modelling and Simulation) World Conference for over 2 years now. But when I finally made my way there, I found myself surprised by what I found!

Besides the good stuff, planning, and the heavy concentration of right people… there are a few Good’s and Bad’s worthy of mention…

First the GOOD’s: The conference is populated by a lot of engineers (with good measure of software and computer engineers thrown in). Best of all they speak my lingo: ID (instructional design)! Not only do I understand exactly what they mean, they too, understand my research and why I pursue performance assessment with SG and VW.

So, once again, I have found validation and credence of my research among the homeland security, and defense folks. Why here and why not education (where I am housed)? Is it because of the need for en masse training? Is it because training/education is taken being seriously due to possibly life threatening situation by these groups (rather than the public education)? I wonder.

Next, the BAD’s: Where are the Instructional Designers and Instructional Technologists I knew? Are they too busy arguing if we should be called Learning Technologist or Instructional Technologist?

I am afraid our field will soon become irrelevant if people who are involved stop being creative, and quit inventing new and useful thing to benefit those around us. When was the last time IDT people fixed something together or report creating a new Learning System? What scares me is that over the last few years (as I review papers for conferences), I found extreme constructivist educators insisting we should hear from their students because “their students know so much more than them (or us)…” and higher institutes that boldly proclaim their PhD students “no longer do their own data analysis”… So no more Expert/Novice, no more doing your own work? Do PhD students farm out their data analysis work nowadays? No wonder ‘so few’ in education understand the need for analysis and performance assessment in ‘virtual learning’ using SG/VW.

When will the educators and instructional design technologists, wake up? Do people realize that software engineers are taking and owning instructional design, soon?

As for ModSim, I will be returning because it invigorate me. There are stuffs out there for me to learn and things I can teach others. Collaboration opportunity abound!

Learning Analytics

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Here’s a new word for you: Learning Analytics (LA)

  • According to Wikipedia, LA is “the use of intelligent data, learner-produced data, and analysis models to discover information and social connections, and to predict and advise on learning.”
  • According to EDUCAUSE’s Next Generation learning initiative, LA is “the use of data and models to predict student progress and performance, and the ability to act on that information.”

George Siemens explained that the EDUCAUSE definition is intended to work within the existing educational system, rather than to modify it, where his definition (=Wikipedia)  has to do with using (data and analysis results gleaned from) LA to restructure the process of teaching, learning, and administration.

In George’s mind, LA is very much related to Web analysis, (educational) data mining and tools like Google Analytics.

LA begins by collecting data off-put by users (typically, data trails generated through mouse-clicks, click-through, recommender systems), and storing that data for drill-down analysis. The LA approaches try to make sense of learner activity (through attention/focus heat maps, social network analysis, and so on) and using the findings to take actions for curriculum mapping, personalization and adaptation, prediction, intervention, and competency determination. Put in another word, it involves some kinds of (learning) traits profiling, so that we can better understand the learners to affect their learning.

It is the same for Performance Trails. Except that in Performance Trails, the learning system in question is neither the existing education system, nor the Intelligent Learning Systems (ILS). It is the 3D virtual environments so commonly found in games and virtual worlds.

Guardian! (I made this)

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There is no secret that I have been working with Neverwinter Nights (1 and 2) since 2006. Our NWN1 mod, “Arecibo Valley” was debuted at the AECT 2006, while “Saving Adryanee” received its share of the 15-min fame as a Finalist at the 2nd Serious Games Showcase & Challenge! So what have we done with NWN2 since it’s release in 2006 and 3 expansions later?

I am sad to report that NWN2 was much harder to mod. There were a lot of changes in terms of how the WYSIWYG modding tool “mold” landscape – its more like working with Playdough. Many of my team members (including me) faced problems with “exterior” landscaping, to say the least.

A series of other obstacles: such as incompatible graphic driver released by nVidia (breaking up the graphics, or black screens), and various patches that break plug-in hak pack, etc., made our jobs that much harder. Did I also mention the horrible camera system implemented in NWN2?

We never really give up on NWN2 though. To show my support, I have my research assistant ported IT Tracer over to the new game engine. I also tried teaching a game modding class with it, being careful to steer clear from asking students to make outdoor areas. I have even created a full tutorials for the modding class. This Spring, I finally completed the tutorial mod: a simple 1st level, Bard’s Tale-ish story. I had a lot of fun making The Problem in the Cellar, and my students enjoyed it. One of these days, I may just release it to the NWVAULT community for their rating. Well, may be.

The upcoming MODSIM conference gave me some extra motivation, because I really wanted to showcase a V-Lab product there. So, (drum rolls, please) I am happy to announce that a new NWN2 mod has been completed!

Guardian: A new Neverwinter Nights 2 game module by Dr. C. Sebastian Loh

Guardian: A new Neverwinter Nights 2 game module by Dr. C. Sebastian Loh

The Guardian was completed around end of August, but the bug elimination process took another 3 more weeks of our time. During that period, my team tested the mod a good 8-10 rounds, and I am confident that about 98% of the script errors and ‘bugs’ have been eliminated.

The game mod contains just one single jungle area — a rather difficult scene to mod using NWN2 because the “trees” made much demand on both the game engine and CPU. Luckily I now have an Intel i-7 in the office, and a AMD quad core at home. About the storyline, I am sorry I can’t give it away just yet, because it is also a mod 4 research and I will be collecting data with it. Suffice to say that the mod has a ‘military twist’ aimed squarely at pleasing the crowd at MODSIM World Conference. ;-)

I doubt data collection will be completed by the time the conference comes around, but I should have some data to show.

In case you are going to the conference, I won’t really be showing the game mod, Guardian. Instead, I will be showcasing the Performance Tracing Reporting Assistant, (Performance Tracer, or PeTRA). The game mod is a means to the end. I promise to tell you more about what all that means in the near future. Stay tune.

Habits developed through Virtual Training

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USA Today (Aug 31, 2010) has an article titled, “Simulator Training Flaws Tied to Airline Crashes” (original article):

Simulators revolutionized training starting in the 1970s by allowing airlines to train pilots almost exclusively on the ground. However, as realistic as they may seem, simulators are only as good as the data used to program them. Current simulators aren’t accurate when a plane goes out of control, which has prevented their use in training for the leading killer in commercial aviation…

More than half of the 522 fatalities in U.S. airline accidents since 2000 have been linked to problems with simulators, devices that are used nearly universally to train the nation’s airline pilots, the records show. Simulator training is credited with saving thousands of lives. But the problem, according to National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) case files and safety experts, is that in rare but critical instances they can trick pilots into habits that lead to catastrophic mistakes. (emphasis mine)

Cockpit Simulator (Internet image)

I will be speaking about the same issue at the upcoming MODSIM World Conference, in Hampton, VA. While virtual training Environment (including the flight simulator) can certainly help organizations mitigate training costs, fatal errors could creep into the system, if the training process is not performed correctly – whether through the fault of the simulator (as said in the article by USA Today), an oversight of the trainer, or missed errors of the trainees. Once the habits set in (through many hours of virtual training), it will become even costlier for organizations to “retrain”, which will involve, first, the unlearning, and then new learning. This does not even take into consideration of changing “ingrained” habits (i.e., entrenchment).

An on-demand, ad hoc, action reporting system is thus very important. If there is a way to monitor what trainees are doing within the environment, the data collected could be subjected to further analysis. (Many current systems refer to virtual flight time, assume that more hours spent on simulators equate longer and better training. Few have an analysis or assessment engine built into the system.)

The data obtained from the assessment engine will provide various data visualization possibility to the trainers/trainees/administrator (anyone within the training-assessment line-up). Under trained eyes, a trainer could potentially pick up anomalies before the “mistakes” become entrenched. It is much cheaper to correct mistakes early than late.

The assessment system I have in mind? » Performance Trails (the framework) and Performance Tracer (the tool).

MSWord: Simulator Training Flaws Tied to Airline Crashes.docx