Esimulations for blended learning in professional education: capacity building, knowledge transfer and dissemination

Abstract

A two-year collaborative project by Deakin, RMIT and Charles Sturt universities aims to build in each institution, the academic and professional staff capacities for developing and using a form of online, goal-based, role-play simulation (eSimulation/eSim). While the project embraces 'knowledge transfer', 'capacity building' and 'embedded dissemination', a greater challenge is transforming perceptions of eSims in blended learning contexts to improve flexible learning designs across the higher education sector. The project addresses the need for coordinated research and development in the field of eSimulations in Australian higher education. It aligns the educational, technical, evaluation and research strengths of the three parties to build academic and professional staff capacities for the 'local' development and use of an already successful approach to simulating 'professional workplace experiences' for student learning. This poster presents the ALTC Competitive Grants Program project (2008-2010): 'Building academic staff capacity for using eSimulations in professional education for experience transfer'. The project's website is http://www.deakin.edu.au/itl/insims/altc-project/