DeakinSims, Award for Programs That Enhance Learning

DeakinSims team: Disseminating innovations in digital role-play simulations for educating professions (Innovation in Curricula, Learning and Teaching)

Synopsis

Deakin University initiated a major innovation program framed around goal-based, role-play digital simulations (e-Simulations/ eSims) for educating the professions, sustaining this during the last 10 years (2001–2011). The e-Simulations are designed to enhance student learning in a range of professions and are delivered in multiple blended learning contexts with online student tracking for assessment and evaluation. As virtualised experiential learning, e-Simulations encourage students to learn new skills by reflection-in-action on the tasks in meaningful situations. Simulating the settings of human interactions in professions such as in health, business and law helps learners to develop professional 'soft' skills. The e-Simulations innovation program required from central divisions the delivery of coordinated design, development, production and evaluation services to University teaching staff. The innovation has been accompanied in cases with significant changes in curriculum and assessment design. A range of internal institutional grants stimulated the program in phases that culminated in securing a national Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) competitive grant in the 'educational technologies innovation' category in 2008. The educational features of the e-Simulations and the enabling technical architecture have been distinctive, indeed, a unique development undertaken by the University, and now shared through the Australian higher education sector and internationally.

(Team): Stephen Segrave, Associate Professor Dale Holt, Associate Professor Jacob Cybulski, David O'Brien, Judy Munro