HIGH QUALITY/LOW COST

Challenge: Learning Design

In the beginning of a project several important decisions are made. What should the system try to teach? What situations will it present? What are the best practices to be included? What are common mistakes to allow? What tutoring will it include? Each of these decisions informs the next. The problem is that it’s all too easy to lose sight of them as the simulation gets developed. Through each step of the process, decisions made earlier get re-visited, until the end product is a muted version of what was originally intended. It’s a lot like the game “post office,” where people line up, a story is told to the first, and it’s repeated down the line. By the time you’re done, you can’t recognize the original story.

EB’s Solution: EB addressed this issue by doing a deep analysis of what decisions need to get made to develop a simulation and when. EB incorporated this decision-making process into its authoring environment. What you want to teach is defined first, followed by best practices and mistakes. These then get assigned to situations in a way that ensures adequate coverage. Authors develop the simulation content in a series of small steps, instantiating the best practices and mistakes at each step. In this orderly scheme, authors never lose sight of what the simulation needs to accomplish. And, changes in scope are easily identified and addressed.