Simpact Interview

At NexLearn, we get the opportunity to work with a number of great clients including large government agencies and small, single-person training departments. In this issue of Simpact, we highlight an organization that has partnered with NexLearn to develop several successful e-Learning projects.

Name: Rev. Donn Alan DeHart, MM, M.Ed., MCE
Title: Director of Course Development, Project Manager
Organization: Reformed Theological Seminary, Virtual Campus

Simpact: In a few words, describe your organization for our readers.
DeHart: Reformed Theological Seminary, Virtual Campus, offers a master’s degree (MA Religion) for accredited, graduate-level theological training via a program of distance learning, accessible to students anywhere in the world.

Simpact: What types of educational programs had your organization offered before incorporating immersive learning simulations?
DeHart: We have been a fully-accredited (by The Association of Theological Schools [ATS] and The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools [SACS]) Virtual Campus since 1999, authorized to offer the MAR degree 90% through distance, with a three-day on-campus Orientation at the beginning of the program and a three-day on-campus Integration at the end. Most of our courses begin as “piggy-backs” on the course offerings of our six residential campuses, although several have been produced strictly for Virtual. We used tapes and notebooks for twenty+ years, then began to use SABA Centra as a media platform to webcast our live courses to students around the world, with two-way audio and video…Two years ago, we put our entire course curriculum up on i-Tunes-U, (http://itunes.rts.edu/.) where we are about to experience our 2,000,000th download.

Simpact: Once you made the decision to use immersive learning simulations, what goals did you hope to achieve?
DeHart: To provide learners with a consistent learning experience, based on well-defined goals and objectives, that helps them achieve content mastery through guided application and interaction.

Simpact: Describe some e-Learning courses your organization has implemented.
DeHart: We have worked with several different vendors, producing tutorials, with varying results. Over the last three years, we have worked with NexLearn to produce, first, an interactive tutorial on Writing the Thesis, which has been a real lifesaver for us, as we have now graduated 60 students, all of whom have written a thesis. Secondly, we produced an interactive tutorial for our course Pastoral and Social Ethics. This one has ten social simulations, which the students interact with after they have listened to the lectures and done the assigned readings. It really helps “put the rubber to the road,” so to speak, as the students apply what they have just learned in their lessons to real-life scenarios. Just recently we also finished interactive tutorials for the courses, Christian Apologetics and History of Philosophy and Christian Thought, where students can virtually interview the Apologists and Philosophers they are studying about to get their takes on certain issues.

Simpact: What changes to user participation have you seen since implementing immersive learning simulations?
DeHart: The simulations have already attracted a larger number of students to take the courses. We even have some students who have been idle for a while coming back for these. They seem to be paying attention and learning more.

Simpact: What feedback from users have you received since implementing immersive learning simulations?
DeHart: The students love them. The most common reaction I am receiving is “WOW! This is fantastic!” And the average grades are considerably higher!

Simpact: What do you consider to be the main advantages of immersive learning simulations?
DeHart: Number one: Consistency in presenting the information to the students, especially with the Thesis Tutorial. Right after we finished that one, we had seventeen students sign up to do their theses. If we had to do them individually, like in the past, that would have killed us. You can only say the same things so many times to so many individuals before you start to wonder, “Did I already say that?” Then you start leaving out important stuff and the students suffer. That tutorial saved our lives.

Number two: You can do so much more with immersive learning. As an administrator, I love the automated exams and grade books, as well as having all of our course materials right there in the Virtual Classroom for the students to access, 24/7, from anywhere in the world! But the simulations really drive home the full import of what we are trying to teach by forcing the students to apply the truth and principles of what they are learning, to real life scenarios, in a totally non-threatening atmosphere.

Number three: Using this structure, we can now update information, resources and even particular lecture recordings, as needed, thus greatly reducing the need to completely recapture and develop new courses as often.

Simpact: What characteristics did you demand that your e-Learning/immersive learning simulation provide?
DeHart: Scorm-compliant packages, created and fully-usable in Moodle LMS and teaching to existing standards of RTSV.

Simpact: Did you face any barriers when implementing your e-Learning strategy? If so, what were they and how did you overcome them?
DeHart: The very nature of what we do, as a virtual campus, demands constant change. In fact, it seems that has been one of our only constants in the 11 years I have been here. It’s like changing a wheel on a wagon as it is rolling downhill. Some people don’t like change. I am sure that some people would like us to offer our courses on 8-track tapes. And so a small number of folks didn’t like this new way of doing things – at first. But once they saw all the benefits, the vast majority of them came around and absolutely fell in love with it.

Simpact: Based on your own experience, what advice would you offer someone just beginning the process of developing their organization’s training strategy?
DeHart: Carefully think through what you want to do and what you want your end product to look-feel-function like. If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there. Once you have some ideas as to what you want, then you can start to determine how you want to get there. Of course, working with an experienced and competent team like the good folks at NexLearn can make all the difference in the world. We have worked with other vendors and NexLearn is head-and-shoulders above the rest. It was still a lot of hard work, but they made it fun!