Mobile Immersive Learning

Mobile Immersive
Learning
A White Paper
© 2013 www .daden.co.uk

Who are Daden?
 Immersive 3D learning and visualisation
specialists
 Founded 2004, but experience since late 1990s
 Times Higher Education Winner 2009
 US Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge winner 2010
 Nearly 50 projects in immersive environments

Introduction
Most work on immersive environments to date
has been on desktop systems given the need for
good graphics capability
Smartphones and tablets now have the power to
render good immersive environments
Tablets in particular offer a screen size which
suits the immersive experience
This means that we can now put rich and
engaging immersive experiences literally into the
hands of the learner

Virtual Geology
● Combines a variety of modelling
techniques including aerial radar and
photography, photogrammetry, and
manual building from site visits
● As well as“real world” tasks, users can
also do things which are not possible in
real life, e.g.flying over the landscape,
and even bringing up a slice of geology
through the landscape.
● Implemented on PC/Web and iPad
● Whole app includes 6 sites, providing 6
nice “bite-sized” piece of learning.
● Even when used on the real landscape
the app provides students with
additional context and functionality that
can further enhance the learning
experience.
● Developed for the Open University
● Lets students go on a virtual field trip,
roaming over 100 sq km of the English
Lake District,
● Examine detailed models of rock
outcrops, and pick up specific rocks
scanned at an even higher level of
detail at particular sites of interest

Immersive Learning
Immersive learning is a type
eLearning where the user
feels that they are “in” the
learning environment.
They are not just clicking on
menu options or watching
bits of video, but feel as
though they are in the
house, on the street,
entering the hospital, and
typically performing a task
as they would in real life.
But beware virtual classrooms built just to deliver Powerpoint, video and
other VLE content in!

Benefits of Immersive Learning
 Deliver better understanding and learning: Learning by
doing and within the real context
 Improving retention: Spatial, visual, audio and other cues.
Virtual muscle memory
 Reducing costs: Especially travel and set-up
 Doing the impossible: And highly uneconomic, unsafe or
impractical (eg closing sites, high risk etc)
 Gaining a subjective view: Putting yourself in other
stakeholders positions
 Changing learner dynamics: Harder for individuals to
dominate the experience
 Supporting distance learning: A richer social environment
than a chat room, and ideal for collaborative remote learning

Avatar or no Avatar
 Does the user actually need to see, or be represented
as, an avatar in order to be immersed?
 If the environment and navigation is effectively
designed then an avatar is not necessary
 Many users find avatars a stumbling block to
immersive learning – so no avatar may increase
usage
 Keyboard-less/mouse-less navigation will be an issue
on mobile platforms – so again removing the avatar
might improve the user experience

Mobile Learning
 Mobile Learning (or m-learning) is typically defined as
computer based learning (or eLearning) away from the
desk and desktop (also referred to as untethered).
 Computer delivered mobile learning has been around
since laptops in the mid 80s – but this was really just
portable eLearning
 Phones and smartphones have encouraged a more
“bite sized” and serious gaming approach to learning
– but hampered by small screen size
 Tablets now offer a near ideal mobile immersive
learning environment

Bereavement Training
● We have also completed health trainers
for other hospitals and the medical
departments of universities on topics
ranging from paramedic training and
patient transfer procedures to running
tests in a pathology lab.
● All these apps would work well as
Mobilescapes, since again they have a
bite size format and could be used on a
tablet device either in the evenings or
on the way to work, or potentially to
refresh procedures even on the ward.
● There could also be a role in using them
to walk stakeholders, particularly
patients and next-of-kin at the bedside,
through upcoming procedures
● Developed nursing staff (and other
stakeholders) at NHS University Hospital
Birmingham
● Takes the student through the procedures
to be followed when someone
(expectedly) dies on the ward.
● Even though the patient is just a game
character students still felt a sense of
loss when she actually dies.

Mobile Learning Context
 Informal: Learning may take place on a sofa, on the bus, in a coffee shop
for as long as the learner wants to learn
 Unplanned: mLearning is often unplanned, some spare or dead time that
can be filled
 Short duration: mlearning sessions are usually relatively short; minutes,
not hours.
 Cluttered environment: Competing with other media, noise and people
 Ad-hoc space: Fine motor control and complex interfaces a problem.
 Unobtrusive: Less obtrusive than laptops and interaction with others still
possible/encouraged
 Just-in-time: Ideal for just-in-time learning, whether on the job at the work
place or for revision on the bus on the way into school.
 Connectivity: The mobile device may, or may not, have an active wireless
link back to the network – although without it synchronous learning with
other students is, of course, not feasible.

Mobile Learning Advantages
 Informal & Unplanned & Ad-hoc: The learning can
take place when and where the student wants,
covering what they want (or need) and for as long as
they have.
 Short duration: It can be squeezed into short periods
of otherwise dead time
 Unobtrusive: It can take place whilst other things are
going on – and even whilst still interacting with the
physical world
 Just-in-time: The learning can take place immediately
before the user needs the knowledge

Mobile Immersive Learning
With powerful tablet computing devices such as the iPad it is
finally feasible to consider creating mobile immersive learning
experiences.
 Can have almost all of the features of an
immersive experience: large, detailed
and graphically rich environments,
virtual characters to interact with,
complex simulation logic, and avatars (if
required) to control.
 Potentially bring all of the benefits of
immersive learning to the mobile user,
and those of mobile learning to the
immersive experience.
 Need to be mindful of the limitations of
devices and context, but also leverage
the unique affordances of both.

Mobile Immersive Synergies
As well as the more generic benefits of mobile and
immersive learning the areas where the benefits are
potentially the most synergistic are:
 Using the immersive environment to revise/learn tasks
immediately before they need to be done in the real
world
 Using the immersive environment to explore the
history of the site or location around you
 Stand in the physical location whilst using the virtual
environment to test ideas and plan for future activities

Apollo 11
● Visitors dressed in spacesuits
● Overlay shows exact tracks followed by
the astronauts
● Head-Up Display shows the actual
photos (and even videos) taken from
where the learner is, helping to place
material in context
● Exercise has just the right structure to
work as an immersive mobile learning
application, bite sized chunks or longer
exploration
● Could also be used as a collaborative
exercise in the classroom – with each
student (or group) having their own
device to put themselves on the moon
● Developed for North Lanarkshire
Council
● Innovative vLearning application to
showcase the capabilities of immersive
environments and encourage STEM
education
● Fully immersive exploratory
environment that linked existing archive
material to a context rich environment.

A Challenging Environment
 Does the clutter and busyness of the local environment combined
with the reduced screen size and limited user interface of the mobile
device reduces the level of immersion that the user experiences –
and hence, perhaps, the quality of the learning?
 We have not been able to find any empirical studies on this, but you
need only look at the people on a bus or train looking at their devices
with their headphones plugged in to see how immersed they can be
in relatively passive media (eg video) within such environments.
 However such experiences have three major features:
 The amount of user interface interaction is limited
 The experience is compelling, driven by a strong narrative (or
melody)
 The users wants to see them

Designing the Experience
This suggests that when designing a mobile immersive learning
experience we should pay special attention to these areas:
 Focus the learning on what users will really want to do
 Ensure that navigation and interaction is as simple as possible – this
may well suggest that micro-control of avatars is not the way to go on
mobile devices
 Ensure that the experience and narrative drive of the learning is as
compelling as possible.
One possible way to enhance the immersive experience on mobile
platforms is more use of audio.

Tuning the Experience
So when developing a mobile immersive learning application, how should
we look to tune the immersive experience so that it works best within a
mobile environment? These are some of the points that we think should
be considered:
 Navigation: Support point-and-click navigation as well as direct
avatar control, and no-avatar modes
 Duration: Keep short – 5 to 10 minute segments
 Audio: Use sound – both foreground and ambient
 Content: Make self-contained as the user may not have access to
other books or resources
 Save Points: Since sessions might be interrupted have the
equivalent of save points that let the user save their current
position/state and restart later
 Narrative: Make sure there is a strong narrative that keeps the user
engaged despite other distractions

A Typical Mobile Immersive Design
 The option of avatar or avatar-less (point & click) modes
 An initial briefing segment, possibly 2D (as the app is designed to be stand-alone)
 A number of “nuggets”, small learning exercises suited to short duration learning
windows
 Simple navigation using large, touch-screen friendly, buttons
 A low interaction “guided mode” for use whilst learning or revising with significant (or
even variable) scaffolding, and a “freedom mode” when practising or assessing
 “Serious game” elements such as scores, countdown timers etc as required to
potentially increase motivation
 Virtual characters to explore the social dimensions of a task, but with option driven
dialogue rather than the free-text dialogue we typically use in desk based immersive
applications
 Embedding of existing learning assets – eg documents, video etc – since we cant rely
on links
 Review and confirmation of learning stage – again possibly in 2D
 Automated posting of results to a learning management system (LMS) or Virtual
Learning Environment (VLE), possibly with some form of store and forward to cope
with sessions completed when out of communications.

Virtual Library of Birmingham
● Since May 2013 the Library staff have
had access to the physical library
● They report a real sense of deja-vu;
they already know the space intimately
since they've been working in its virtual
twin for over two years.
● Quite apart from the value of a portable
model which could support contractor
and stakeholder discussions a mobile,
immersive version of the Library could
now be combined with augmented
reality technology for use in the physical
build to create a true mixed-reality
experience – letting the library staff
approach book, customer and building
management in whole new ways.
● The new physical Library of Birmingham
opens to the public in September 2013
– a fuller case study will be available
then.
● Developed for Birmingham City Council
● Since January 2010 the library staff have
an an immersive 3D model of the library
that they've been able to walk around and
change.
● Used for a wide variety of tasks from public
education and liaison with sponsors to
planning and agreeing tasks and
equipment placement with contractors.
●

Single or Multi-User
 Until recently the majority of mobile games, and certainly mobile
learning experiences were single user.
 However immersive environments are often at their best when in a
multi-user, synchronous learning mode
 Just as the widespread availability of WiFi and 3G is making multi-
user mobile gaming a reality, so to can we now think about multi-user
synchronous mobile learning in immersive environments.
 Multi-user does require a degree of learner/tutor co-ordination, to
ensure that people are in-world at the same time
 There is a difference between multi-user and collaborative simulation
 A mult-user simulation could allow users to see each other
but not be able to effect other players environments and
learning pathways
 In a collaborative simulation everyone can effect the same
environment so that tasks can be shared

Potential Applications
 Mobile immersive learning could be applicable across a whole range
of learning situations.
 The learning tasks which are probably best suited to immersive
learning are:
 Those which have a strong spatial component, or can be
represented as such
 Those which have a strong social/collaborative component

Potential Applications
 Areas in which we think mobile immersive learning
could be particularly strong include:
 Vocational task trainers, in areas from health
and care to utilities and transportation
 Emergency planning
 Maintenance and health & safety
 First responder skills training
 Virtual fieldwork (eg geography, geology, even
biology!)
 Virtual history & heritage

Platforms
 A mobile immersive lerning application could potentially be delivered
on any mobile device with a suitable screen and set of controls.
 In practice we find that iPad (or even iPad Mini) sized devices are
better suited to the richness of an immersive environment and the
finer control sometimes required.
 We can easily generate an exercise that will work on an iOS or
Android device, as well as on PC/Mac, and in the browser, the
biggest differences being that the tablet versions need a user
interface optimised for touch rather than mouse and keyboard.
 It is possible to run the applications on smartphones, but significant
thought needs to be given to the design of the user interface at that
scale.

Disaster Management
● Since Superstorm Sandy we've been
working with the team at NYC OEM to
put the managers back through the
simulation to help prompt the lesssons-
learned from the storm, and to identify
possible future improvements to the
simulation.
● One potential issue with the original
simulation was its length – it could run
to over 5 hours when taken in one go.
● However within that there were 5 distinct
phases and around 60 learning
vignettes.
● Broken down into bitezise chunks it
would be a lot easier for individuals to
run through the vignettes during
commuting down time – even though
there is still a case for a synchronous,
collaborative virtual exercise as well.
● Developed for the Office of Emergency
Management in New York City – 2 years
before Superstorm Sandy
● Immersive training exercise to teach
emergency managers how to set up and
manage a hurricane shelter – providing
emergency accomodation and services to
those effected by a hurricane.

The Benefits
The benefits of mobile immersive learning are of course fundamentally
about being able to bring the benefits of immersive learning to a mobile
user. Expressed in terms of the potential/example application areas
identified above this could mean:
 Letting a nurse or care worker rehearse a task for the next day whilst sat at
the kitchen table whilst the kids play around them
 Letting an emergency planner review procedures and options after they've
been deployed but during the “down” time between a “warning” and an
actual incident
 Rehearsing a maintenance task from inside a warm van or crew room
before having to head out into the wind and rain
 A first responder refreshing their skills ready for an exam whilst their vehicle
is parked up waiting for tasking
 A geography student doing a virtual field trip from the comfort of their
favourite sofa
 A history student touring a virtual historical site whilst on the bus on the way
in to college

Mobilescapes
 Mobilescapes are Daden's mobile immersive learning
environments developed to meet your mobile training
needs.
 Drawing on our extensive experience of creating PC based
Trainingscapes for clients in the UK and abroad,
Mobilescapes can provide a variety of engaging,
immersive experiences for your users, delivering the
features and benefits described in the preceeding pages.
 Mobilescapes can be delivered on iPad or Tablet devices,
and equivalent environments can also be delivered in a
PC/Mac web browser or as downloadable/installable
applications on a desktop computer.
 For more information on Mobilescapes please contact us
at info@daden.co.uk.

White Paper
The full white-paper is
available for download:
http://www.daden.co.uk/
daden-releases-white-
paper-on-mobile-
immersive-learning/

Web: www.daden.co.uk
Email: info@daden.co.uk
YouTube: www.youtube.com/dadenmedia
Twitter: @dadenlimited

Mobile Immersive Learning

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