Internet Learning Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 2014 | Page 41

Internet Learning
Video 1. A timed theater lighting simulation that would
allow students to diagnose lighting system problems
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96amweDM6Xo
Early on, I was called upon to help
solve instructional problems brought to me
by faculty that required students to learn
complex procedures or analyze a situation
and act accordingly. I quickly became efficient
at developing truly engaging tools that
helped reduce the key barriers to learning
for which faculty and administrators were
seeking technological solutions.
These unique educational problems
rarely lent themselves to “point-and-click
the answer” solutions. Multiple-choice activities
were only an extension of “pointand-click.”
In fact, the byline of my learning
activities blog was “Multiple Choice is
Boring.” I was in a professional role where
I could approach a learning problem with
whatever I could dream up, and each solution
provided an opportunity to push the
boundaries with how each activity could be
employed to enhance the educational goals
and student outcomes.
In 2005, a faculty member in a theatre
department approached me to create
a timed theater lighting simulation that
would allow students to diagnose lighting
system problems without hurting the theater’s
equipment or themselves. I developed
a photorealistic simulation of the theater
for which students could navigate and find
a non-working light and fix the problem
before the show started. The result was students
having substantially more opportunities
to practice learning this important skill
they needed (see Video 1).
In another example, I was asked by a
biology department to design a fetal pig dissection,
to allow online nursing students to
be able to dissect a photorealistic fetal pig.
The costs associated with bringing online
students into a lab, having clean, sharp instruments,
and storing pig fetuses, and dealing
with the sour smell of formaldehyde was
no longer an issue. In addition to making
the learning experience more convenient,
students were able to practice the dissection
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