ALA

A new resource is paving the way for learners to undertake risk-based learning using virtual technologies.

The Virtual Experience of Risk-Based Learning (VERBL) online resource presents the vocational education and training (VET) sector with an exciting opportunity to take up emerging virtual technologies as a viable learning platform for future risk-based learning.

While the workplace is widely recognised as the best place for delivery of VET, the opportunity for effective training in competencies involving elements of risk to learners is limited.

VERBL Project Sponsor Brad Beach of GippsTAFE said it was not practical to create an actual emergency for students to manage because there were obvious risks to the students, their learning institution and other people involved.

“However, you can take a competency such as Manage a real-life emergency and put it into an immersive e-learning technology,” Mr Beach said. “That way, you can have a simulated emergency where you have real people operating their avatars within a virtual environment and eliminate the risk to those individuals.

“This project not only looked at how to eliminate physical risks, such as those associated with managing the scene of an emergency, but also the psychological risks where it was not practical to take students into work environments, exposing them to those risks.”

The VERBL online resource suggests ways immersive technologies, such as virtual worlds, can be implemented in risk-based learning in the future. It also includes three case studies that revolve around learning in the disability, alcohol and other drugs, and mental health sectors.

The project particularly focused on psychological, behavioural and emotional risks which are difficult to achieve within the classroom environment, as is assessing learners’ management and coping skills.

Mr Beach said one of the key benefits of the project was the development of the VERBL model, which provides a mechanism for organisations and teachers to evaluate what would be suitable competencies to fit within immersive e-learning environments.

The virtual world, Second Life, was selected as the platform for testing the use of a virtual experience to facilitate risk-based learning.

Teachers and students involved in the project trials and development of the VERBL model all reported positive outcomes and benefits to learning in terms of understanding the dynamics of, and developing competence to manage, a range of workplace risks.

VERBL was developed by GippsTAFE in Victoria in partnership with SwanTAFE in Western Australia, with funding from the national training system’s e-learning strategy, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework).

For more information about the Framework, its products, resources and support networks, contact: (07) 3307 4700, email: enquiries@flexiblelearning.net.au or visit: http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au