Research shows that the most effective way to teach learners targeted skills is to put them in the kinds of situations in which they need to use them and to provide experts who are able to advise learners when necessary (Schank & Cleary, 1995). Through this process, learners come to understand how and why they should use these skills in the real world. Researchers at The Institute for the Learning Sciences at Northwestern University constructed the Live Goal-Based Scenario (Live GBS), an instructional method for professional training, a live variation of the computer-based Goal-Based Scenario (Schank, 1994) in which learners are engaged in pursuing a goal within a simulated environment in order to learn a set of target skills. Live GBSs immerse learners in live simulations of authentic cases that allow them to give open-ended, creative solutions to problems and provide timely feedback from domain experts acting as role players in the scenarios. More than 10 years of work developing Live GBSs has gone largely undocumented. This dissertation introduces a design methodology for Live GBSs of seven primary steps designed to provide a guideline for novice designers in an effort to help them construct and implement Live GBSs. Just as experts are needed within a GBS to advise learners, advice is also needed to provide information to novice designers. This dissertation provides a set of design principles extracted from lessons learned from successes and failures of Live GBS design that are needed to better inform the process of creating these simulations. This thesis includes case studies of three Live GBS designs with data gathered from personal experience as a Live GBS developer, testimonials from Live GBS design architects, content and skills experts for Live GBS curricula design, detailed field notes, subject interviews, observations of two Live GBS implementations by clients, and 42 hours of video. The concluding chapter suggests a link between how closely a Live GBS design embodies the design principles and the perceived success of a Live GBS

Last modified

• 05/07/2018

Creator

• Kimberli Aiko Macpherson

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/N2P68T

Subject

• Education and Social Policy - Learning Sciences

Keyword

• role play
• simulation
• case-based
• Goal-Based Scenario
• instructional design

Date created

• 2006-06-28

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright