Dealing with conflict, redundancy and omission: developing professional skills using experiential es

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Dealing with conflict, redundancy and omission
developing professional skills using experiential
e-simulations

• Jacob L. Cybulski
• Centre for Business Research
• Deakin University
• October 2006

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Abstract

• Development of practical knowledge and skills
  requires students undertaking real work, facing
  real people and solving real problems in their
  selected profession.
• Placing students in an external organisation
  provides the maximum opportunities for confident
  learners to gain practical experience.
• Placement does not easily yield to teaching large
  classes and off-campus students, and allows
  little control of educational outcomes.
• Subjecting students to tasks carried out within
  the safety of a well-controlled simulated
  environment could sometimes provide better
  outcomes.
• This presentation provides an overview and
  explanation of educational strategies and
  simulation technologies that can facilitate
  learning of professional skills.
• A case of an information systems student project
  will be used to illustrate the challenges and the
  benefits of the adopted strategies and methods.
• Demonstrations of virtual interviews will provide
  opportunities to discuss various design aspects
  of interview-style experiential simulations.

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Interviews and Games in RE

• Ability to elicit information systems (IS)
  requirements is an essential skill of any IS
  professional.
• Role-playing games have been recognised as an
  excellent method of teaching students the
  fundamental skills of requirements elicitation.
• To this end, the focus is being placed on
  students performance in client-developer
  communication in meetings and interviews.

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A Story of Despair and Salvation
Educational Pre-requisites
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Simulated InterviewsPros and Cons

• Advantages include
• are interactive, stimulating and enjoyable
• allow single-user or team interaction
• provide realistic scenarios
• facilitate controlled and predictable outcomes
• promote trial-and-error learning in a risk-free
  setting
• reduce face-to-face time and teaching resources
• provide the basis for further discussion.
• Disadvantages include
• they are expensive and time-consuming to build
• often context and discipline specific
• may require extensive technical skills
• focus is on non-volatile concepts and ideas.

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Can We Compete with Games? Circumscribed Reality

• Simulations of circumscribed reality attach
  onlykey aspect of authenticity to its objects
  and environment
• They sacrifice some degree of reality, but never
  cross the threshold of acceptability to the
  learner
• They tend to beinteractive, real time and cast
  live people
• Media form and interaction are simple for the
  user, andcomplexity is created in the mind of a
  learner
• Simulation is part of alarger framework with
  many aspects of learner's experience
• LiveSim with FAB ATM

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Getting the Message Across

• Break cohort silos
• Campuses - Mix
• Melbourne
• Toorak
• Geelong
• Online
• Modalities - Mix
• On-campus
• Off-campus
• Unit Levels - Mix
• Masters
• Honours

• Sourcing knowledge
• From project - Leading
• From conducted tasks
• From undertaken research
• From team members
• From received documents
• From tutorials - Complementing
• From initiated project tasks
• From other team members
• From lectures - Supporting
• From case studies
• From demonstration
• From methods and theory

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Knowledge Fun-nelProject with Simulation

• From Fuzzy
• Introduction virtual meeting (Team Work)
• Research exploring a problem (Self Study)
• Brainstorm exploring solutions (Team Work)
• Backgrounder glimpse of reality (Class / DSO
  Simulation)
• Interview fact gathering (Computer
  Simulation)
• Analysis reconciling views (Team Work)
• Validation confronting reality (Class / DSO
  Simulation)
• Reporting specifying a solution (Team Work)
• To Formal

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LiveSim FAB ATMProject Objectives
In FAB ATM simulation students interview two
(simulated) representatives of their client
organisation, i.e. Paul and Mary, with an aim to
determine ATM system requirements. Interviews can
be conducted individually or in group. In each
case obtained information is presented from a
different viewpoint. Students need to identify
redundancies, conflicts and to reconcile all data.
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LiveSim FAB ATMDuring an Interview

• The simulation is used to confront students'
  imagination, preconceptions and ideas with
  reality
• In the process of conducting an interview
  students
• Plan an interview
• Ask questions
• Listen
• Observe body language
• Take notes
• Work with incomplete data
• Work under pressure of time
• Work collaboratively

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LiveSim DemonstrationFirst Bank of Australia and
its ATM Project

• Start
• Mary
• Transfers
• What else?
• Paul
• Transfers
• What else?
• Both
• Transfers
• What else?
• Validate Card
• Insights
• Complementarity
• Conflict
• Omission
• Awareness
• Auto Exit

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LiveSim FAB ATMAfter an Interview

• Several sources of information give unique views
  of the same problem - they need to be reconciled
• Students own view (Self - Research)
• Other students view (Team - Brainstorm)
• New employees view (Joseph - Backgrounder)
• Managers view (Mary - Interview)
• Developers view (Paul - Interview)
• Experienced employees view (Neil - Presentation)
• In the process students need to determine
• How to capture, condense and analyse the
  collected data?
• Who can be trusted, on what topic and why?
• What to do about overlapping and conflicting
  information?
• What can be done about missing information?
• How to present and validate the collected
  information?

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In Students WordsPositives and Negatives

• Overall, this assignment has been a change from
  any other assignment, in terms of interacting
  with clients in a computer simulated environment.
• The interview CD is really a very good idea,
  which offered us a virtual interview environment
  via multiple media technology.
• The interview stimulation program did offer us a
  chance to be a part of interview, to touch it, to
  feel it and to experience it.
• The actual interview simulation session was very
  informative and convenient allowing some
  flexibility in the actual interview technique.

• The interview transcripts were actually hard to
  produce, given the speed at which the
  interviewees talked at, and the limited knowledge
  we had on the subject.
• Some questions were too generic and did not add
  value to the interview.
• Interviewing was a bit hard as the CD didnt
  answer most of the questions that we came up with
  during brainstorming.
• The most difficult part was consolidating the
  interview transcripts.
• I also found the interview tool limiting, in that
  it did not really allow us to display any of our
  skills in interviewing.

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In Teachers WordsHave we done it better?
by Being Told
by Teaching
by Observation
Lectures Seminars
by Doing
by Discovery
Projects Assignments
Tutes Workshops
by Collaboration
by Playing
by Communication
LiveSim facilitates learning by
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LiveSim Future WorkMarketing and Research

• Adoption for teaching and learning
• evaluation of completed simulations
• workshops for simulation design
• adoption across Deakin courses.
• Assisted debriefing of students on their
  performance
• activity and issue tracking
• problem detection
• active assistance
• suggestion on improvement.
• Assessment support
• online quizzes for automatic (and self-)
  assessment
• links to assessment database
• support for project markers.
• Improvement of technology
• support for play-and-deploy simulation design.

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Features and Futures
FAB ATM
Getting Framed
The new technology fully developed at Deakin is
available to help you create simulations which
are unique in their look, feel and educational
approach. So, use it!
Mods and Rockers
Client View
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Questions?
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Notes