Industry
Dream Corp Alternate Reality Game
Run as a demonstration for Elliot Masie's Learning 2008 conference, the DreamCorp Alternate Reality Game (ARG) provided an introduction to cross-media training and employee onboarding. The game involved several challenges on three different tracks: Compliance, Leadership and Flexible Workforce. Players took on the role of employees at fictional company DreamCorp and worked, sometimes alone and sometimes in cooperation with fellow players, to solve puzzles and complete the assigned challenges.
Portions of the game were offered through multiple avenues and media formats: printed materials (e.g. pamphlets and newsletters), emails, text messages, in-person interaction with METIL team members acting as DreamCorp employees, and a bonus task offered in Second Life.
Industry
Microsoft Mobile Course
and IVR Sales Materials
METIL was tapped by Microsoft in order to assist them in developing a mobile learning strategy for their SMSG team. The team was also involved in two quick-win outgrowths of this developing strategy: a port of existing e-learning materials onto mobile devices and an IVR accessible reference source for Microsoft sales personnel.
As smart phones become more common and mobile web browsing improves, the need for mobile access to learning and training materials is more in demand and has greater impact for business professionals. We took Microsoft's existing web courses and created a SCORM-compliant mobile web template. This allows the content from Microsoft's web courses to be easily repurposed (requiring only some modifications to media assets) for mobile access with full progress tracking and scoring.
Sales professionals in particular have a strong need for on-demand, mobile access to refresher materials on their product line. Driving, however, provides challenges to many methods of delivering mobile content, such as apps or mobile web access, due to limiting ability to look at the device's screen; this is especially true now due to stricter hands-free laws in many states. In order to allow simple, hands-free access to sales data, we developed a voice recognition IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system that allows sales professionals to navigate Microsoft's product information library and select audio for listening.
Go for the Green
Go for the Green is a mobile web game, developed for The Willis Organization, that uses a golf theme to reinforce key sales concepts. Nine holes of the golf course are mapped to nine steps in the sales process, with each hole presenting several questions and feedback items related to that particular step. Users attempt to complete the full course by answering all questions and avoiding common "traps" in the sales process.
By using streamlined mobile web development rather than creating a specific game application, we are able to deliver this content to a wide range of user devices including iPhone, Blackberry and various Symbian and Windows Mobile platforms.
Second Life Accounting
METIL assisted Dr. Steven Hornik of UCF’s College of Business with updating and expanding his use of Second Life in his accounting courses. METIL deployed a system, using Daden Limited’s PIVOTE technology, which allows for independent student orientations covering all the tools used within Second Life for the course. The automated orientation system reduced student usage questions by 50%. To further facilitate student assistance, METIL implemented an SMS gateway that allows students to pass messages through from Second Life chat to text messages sent to the instructor or TA, and allows the instructor to respond back to Second Life.
METIL also developed guided interactive exercises to teach the Assets = Liability + Equity equation; a secondary implementation of the guided exercise tool was developed for mobile web so students could access it outside of Second Life as needed. Student performance using these methods increased by one letter grade in a course with 800 students.