Bringing 'second life' to a tough undergraduate course

Bringing ‘second life’ to a tough undergraduate course Cognitive apprenticeship through Machinimas Nona Muldoon, Jennifer Kofoed Colin Beer & David Jones

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Today’s presentation

Focus on outcomes not process

Process presented in July at FBI, available at http://cddu.cqu.edu.au/index.php/CDDU_Presentations

Today is about…

the idea of ‘practice fields’ in the classroom

how Second Life Machinima helped make this happen

impacts on students’ active engagement

Further research

Perspectives on learning

Perspectives on learning L&T approaches in accounting education Learners are taught in abstract and decontextualised form  little or no opportunity to develop graduate skills and attributes  ignores the interdependence of knowledge and cognition

Perspectives on learning Accounting educators’ challenge Provide learning experiences that demonstrate the authethic practices and values of the profession.

Perspectives on learning Situated cognition Learners are empowered to “learn knowledge and skills in context with the way knowledge will be used in real life ” (Collins, 1988, p.2)

Workplace environment Complex problems Dilemmas are ill-structured Collaborative Self-directed

Workplace environment “ Cognitive apprenticeship methods try to enculturate students into authentic practices through activity and social interaction similar to that evident in craft apprenticeship” (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989, p. 39)

Learning environment as practice fields Practice fields Contexts in which learners can perform and practice the kinds of activities they will encounter outside of formal learning environment (Barab & Duffy, 2000)

Learning environment as practice fields

Cognitive apprenticeship & practice fields Ownership of the enquiry Support the learners rather than simplify the dilemmas Work is collaborative and social Learning context is motivating Opportunity for reflection Coaching and modelling of thinking skills Dilemmas are ill-structured Engagement in domain related practices

Technology & the design of practice fields

Knowledge must be learned in context, but that context can be a virtual surrogate of the work environment (McLellan, 1996)

Second Life… what is it about?

A type of multi-user virtual environment

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Affordances of Second Life

SL makes it possible to create interactive learning experiences

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It can leverage aspects of authentic learning conditions

Learners can interact with digital artifacts and communicate with other learners, as well as computer-based agents

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Second Life – ideal for authentic contexts

But…. steep learning curve

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Why Second Life Machinimas?

Hardware issues

Bandwidth issues

Cognitive load issues

Extraneous cognitive load loading learners with unnecessary information  split attention effect  diverts attention away from the direct object of learning (Pollock , Chandler &Sweller, 2002)

Hardware issues

3D graphics

CPU

Memory

Disk Space

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Hardware issues

Bandwidth issues

Fast Internet connection required

Organisational Issues

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Hardware issues

Bandwidth issues

Cognitive load issues

New Environment

A lot to learn

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Why Second Life Machinimas?

How we brought ‘second life’ to the course

Method

Summary of major findings

Results: Final grades T1 2008 Campus AF NS DE RO F SE P C D HD Grand Total BDG 1 1 5 3 10 BNE 1 2 4 7 2 16 FLEX 3 2 1 9 15 12 5 47 GDC 2 1 3 6 MEL 4 4 2 2 35 28 3 78 MKY 6 3 2 11 NZDS 2 2 ROK 8 3 2 13 SYD 1 4 1 5 1 54 60 12 1 139 Grand Total 4 7 13 1 9 3 112 123 39 11 322

Results: Final grades T1 2008 The greatest part of the experience for me was feeling like we were a real audit team, learning together and conducting the audit together. Campus AF NS DE RO F SE P C D HD Grand Total BDG 1 1 5 3 10 BNE 1 2 4 7 2 16 FLEX 3 2 1 9 15 12 5 47 GDC 2 1 3 6 MEL 4 4 2 2 35 28 3 78 MKY 6 3 2 11 NZDS 2 2 ROK 8 3 2 13 SYD 1 4 1 5 1 54 60 12 1 139 Grand Total 4 7 13 1 9 3 112 123 39 11 322

Active engagement , e.g.discussion board interaction Overall I have been very pleased, even impressed, with the work and commitment students are putting in during class time… AIC Lecturer/Tutor Discussion Board Posts Team 1 Team 2 Team 3 Team 4 Team 5 Team 6 Team 7 Team 9 Team 10 Teaching team 56 Audit Partner 166 Audit Manager 2 Flex students 1,315 127 98 111 110 173 392 138 159 7

Audit Team 6 Audit Team 10 N = 5 N = 6 Posts = 392 Posts = 7 Weeks = 1-13 Used tools outside Bb, e.g. MSN

Curriculum alignment = active learning

“ I could appreciate how the weekly group tasks were building towards the assessment…”

“ I have enjoyed the learning process while working within an audit team. Each weekly review tasks was relevant to the subject and was a stepping stone to the end goal.”

“ I have never learnt more in a subject and truly appreciate the structure of the course.”

Entire course site access T1 2007 – 187,689 – 630 students T1 2008 – 232,106 – 322 students Machinima access Crebel Machinima = 2.011 Sealant Machinima 2.1 = 954 Sealant Machinima 2.2 = 1,098 Sealant Machinima 2.3 = 1,068 Study Guide access Module-based = 1,398 Entire Study Guide = 215

Real world problems  transformative learning

Future research – ‘perspective transformation’

“ I am the first one to admit that the thought of working in an audit team…was a little daunting and I thought at first totally unreasonable and there is no way this will work but I have to admit that it did and it’s given us the experience or the feeling of what it would be like to work in an audit team.”

“ The group work. I don’t like being dependent upon someone’s performance for my grade. I don’t like having to do more work to cover for lazy students.”

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