This blog was written by Marta and myself. Click here to access the blog: Virtual Learning Assistant: Using empathetic design to create change. We would appreciate your feedback prior to December 5th, so we can begin Part B of our assignment. Thank you in advance for your assistance!
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December 2, 2019 at 8:38 pm
Hi Eunice and Marta
It is obvious that you spent a lot of time in your design thinking process. I think your idea for a Virtual Learning Assistant is fantastic and as I was reading your blog, I began to visualize how this prototype could be used in our municipal leadership learning modules. In the blog you referred to self-determination theory and the fact that motivation is intrinsic as it addresses the three major needs of learners: competence, autonomy, and relatedness (Chen, 2007). From a leadership learning perspective this is critical and two of the features of your VLA prototype address autonomy and relatedness. Specifically, your prototype includes a discussion hub to post questions, comments, as well as a network to chat with classmates/peers and instructors to respond to work related issues. Our leaders need an easy method to post questions and obtain feedback and this prototype addresses their needs. Your prototype promotes the research conducted by Bernstein, Shore & Lazer which suggested that learners need to discover on their own, share experiences, and collaborate solutions (2018). We currently lack an ‘easy access’ learning medium. Your VLA prototype answers our needs. Technology lives at a leader’s fingertips and this prototype provides a quick, clear and concise method of learning new information while collaborating and sharing with colleagues.
References
Bernstein, E., Shore, J., & Lazer, D. (2018). How intermittent breaks in interaction improve collective intelligence. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(35), 8734 LP – 8739. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1802407115
Chen, K.C. (2007). Self-determination theory: implications for motivation in online learning. In T. Bastiaens & S. Carliner (Eds.), Proceedings of E-Learn 2007–World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education (pp. 6745-6750). Quebec City, Canada: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/26853/
December 6, 2019 at 10:54 am
Hi Caroline,
Thank you for your feedback and insight. Having an easy access point and having enough time has been one of the biggest hurdles that we have when rolling out a prototype like this. Often our learners provide us with evaluations and tell us how useful it was, but there is very little way for us to follow up and see how they are doing 3 months after the training. We wanted to develop something that could foster a strengthened approach to support their learning. I’m glad we were able to provide you with some nuggets of good ideas to bring back to your municipality! Thanks for stopping by and reading our blog.
Cheers,
Eunice
December 6, 2019 at 2:32 pm
Hello Eunice and Marta, Virtual Learning Assistant (VLA), great topic of discussion. No matter how good the training and facilitation is, it’s the follow-up and retention of that time and resources spent makes a world of difference. You hit it on the nose when you mentioned features of the VLA to reinforce via short exercises, automated prompts Q & A’s etc. Also, access to networking opportunities before, during and after training sessions is a sure way of handling any kind of resistance right off the bat.
Virtual Assistants (VA) do offer huge potential, but it’s not enough just to introduce one and think that productivity and performance will go up, costs come down, and training becomes irrelevant. To get the most out of a Virtual Assistant you need to prepare. It’s not a case of installing it and they will use it.
Anyone reading the popular media might easily conclude that AI will transform the workplace, but often in ways that pose a threat to jobs. There’s a widespread notion that many tasks will be automated, and there’ll be no place for humans.
This is one of the challenges, I do foresee by using this app. I think the challenges itself represent an opportunity as well.
That needn’t be the case. Much of the promise of AI is about relieving employees of the repetitive, drudge work and freeing them up to be more creative and to perform to their real potential. So, while from a budgetary point of view, AI might represent cost savings, from a more general performance point of view it’s about enhancing an organization’s capability by a better, more efficient division of labor between the Virtual Assistants and the humans. That’s the message which needs to send to organizations and institutions.
Also, Virtual Assistants offer great potential for placing learning directly in the workflow, providing information and training at the point of greatest need. But again, it’s not just about installing a VA and switching it on. You need your L&D people to plan for this by providing training content in a format that’s more accessible to a VA. Chunking content, considering microlearning opportunities, making your resources open to searching and interrogation by a VA is vital.
Intelligent reuse and repurposing of content can bring real benefits and make training more relevant and give it greater impact. With the right intervention from L&D, learning and training using a VA become more effective.
References
Boden, M.A. 1990. The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms. Weidenfield and Nicholson, London
Ferrucci, D., Levas, A., Bagchi, S., Gondek, D., Mueller, E.T. 2012. Watson: Beyond Jeopardy!, J. Artif. Intell.
Riedl, M.O. 2016. Computational Narrative Intelligence: A Human-Centered Goal for Artificial Intelligence. In Proc. of CHI 2016 Workshop on Human-Centered Machine Learning