Designing Case-based Learning for Virtual Worlds

August 24-25, 2006
Stanford University-Wallenberg Hall

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Evaluation Summary

35 participants from the disciplines of medical and nursing education and research and related business groups attended the workshop, including 9 from SUMMIT, 6 speakers and several Korean guests who observed via live web broadcast.
15 participants completed an open-ended evaluation form at the end of the two-day workshop, resulting in a response rate of 58%.

Participants’ comments are summarized below:
1. What did you find most valuable about the workshop?

• Six liked the networking and group interaction
• Five liked Jeremy Bailensen’s presentation
• Three liked Lou Halamek’s presentation
• Three liked getting “hands on” time with the Virtual World simulations
• Three liked seeing “examples of a range of Virtual World simulations, such as OLIVE and Second Life”
• Two liked the “good content—very informative”; “broad scope”
• One liked “learning a new vocabulary about Virtual Worlds”
• One liked “the exercise on designing a game”
• One liked “the application to the medical field—ER and OR”

2. What did you find least interesting or unclear?
Nine of the 27 made specific comments:

• “Goals and objectives of the work groups”
• “Clarity on how to use Virtual Worlds optimally in health care”
• “Goals and usage of simulation tools (OLIVE)-not enough information for effective use”
• “Felt that Forterra’s OLIVE was a selling ploy”
• “More info on how commercial games could help us learn about learning”
• “Half Life presentation”
• “Medical talk because that’s not my field”
• “There could have been better continuity among sessions”
•  “Finding stuff in the binder-electronic version of binder would be good”

3. Did you feel actively involved in the workshop?

• 11 of 27 participants said “Yes!” and added, “plenty of opportunity to interact”; “good group mix”; “enjoyed the Q&A”
• “No, too much lecture and not enough group work involvement”
• “More educational engineering rather than medical aspects”

4. What have you learned that you can use in your work?
Six of 11 comments were about Virtual World simulation development:  

• “Better understanding of sim interfaces, capabilities and resources required”
• “Steps and process needed to create Virtual Worlds and team training”
• “Simulation options and other ideas like player avatars, scripting, etc.”
• “Different game engines, but would have liked to get pros & cons for each engine”
• “The non-technical things involved in setting up a good simulation”
• “Importance of target audience-younger people more trial and error/self problem solvers”

Additional comments:

• “New challenge will be how to optimally integrate teaching in Virtual Worlds”
• “Role of VR immersion in being an alternative/next generation in simulation research”
• “That there are others in academia that want to do what I am considering (game simulation projects)”
• “Possibility of broadcasting medical sim workshops”
• “Debriefing-Halamek’s discussion”

5. What follow up questions do you have?

• “Would like to see a grid with sim options-hardware needs-costs, etc.”
• “What each game engine is best used for”
• “When to use a 3D Virtual World vs. a 2D game using programs like Flash”
• “Some desired time lines for getting a simulator going”
• “Contact information for everyone”
• “Want to be informed of future workshops”
• “Further expansion of these kinds of workshops towards Surgical VR”
• “How can I make use of opportunities at SUMMIT”
• “Should I check the blog on the website for more community feedback”
• “How to apply some of this info in my research project”

6. Suggestions to improve the workshop: Two people commented positively, saying “It was great—(not enough time)”; and “Excellent organization of these workshops”

Suggestions were:

• “More time for hands on”
• “Would have liked to have experienced the different game engines”
• “Plan a workshop on teaching debriefing”
• “Allow us to create virtual worlds such as with Second Life”
• “Concentrate on each person developing a game & facilitate that from beginning”
• “More structured break out sessions”
• “Provide a written overview of the sim development process explaining how individual topics are related”
• “More tutoring for Forterra platform—some frustrated participants”
• “Headset not functional/absent”
• “Lag time during breakout while computers being set-up”
• “Would really like speakers to remain for conference”
• “Cordless microphone was a nuisance and hindered free discussion”