Success and more success

On Monday and Tuesday 11 and 12 August all of the trainees were in Adelaide for their monthly meeting at the Adelaide Campus.  There are 3 trainees from the country areas of Mt Gambier, Port Augusta and Port Lincoln.  We planned to use these days to set up an "event" that would provide them with an opportunity to practise their customer service skills.  The computer room we needed to use at the Adelaide Campus was not available so we had to ask permission to use the room at the Noarlunga campus.  This meant that IT lecturing staff had to agree to move their classes into other rooms.  Stephen Donaldson again organised this for us and without his help and the goodwill of the IT lecturers we would not have been able to continue. 

To get the trainees to the Noarlunga campus we needed to book cars and then pick them up from the Panorama campus, drive to the Adelaide campus, collect the students and then drive to the Noarlunga campus.  We did this for both days.  I mention this as it highlights some of the extra work we needed to undertake simply because we didn't have ready access from our campus.  Also we wanted as many avatars to participate in the event for our trainees.  There were lecturing staff who had avatars but who had teaching commitments during the day.  One comment was that they could have supported us if they had access to SL from their desktop.

So...difficulties aside, we all got to the Noarlunga campus and the trainees logged back into Secondlife, literally like ducks to water. The event that we organised for the trainees was to take place in SL at the NMC Conference Centre on the Tuesday afternoon at 1pm.  The treasure hunt had given the students an opportunity to get to know the facility really well.  On the Monday we planned to continue with the treasure hunt and those who finished early could assist others.   Then we had a group discussion about what excellent customer service would look like and how it could be demonstrated in the virtual world.  For example, one of the points raised by the trainees was to 'show enthusiasm'.  They decided that when communicating with an avatar, stepping forward and greeting politely was one way of showing  enthusiasm.  The group discussion led the trainees to talk about using the NMC uniform, making sure that their avatars looked professional, as well as what language they should use and how they could 'value add'.

At about 12.45 on Tuesday the trainees noticed avatars teleporting into the centre.  So they immediately went to work and for the next hour and a half there was no sound in the room except for the busy tapping of keyboards.  The engagement was total and they were all performing really well - taking care of all who came their way.  They were sending IM's to each other to let the other know that someone was heading towards their booth so that they were performing as individuals and also as a team.  Some of the trainees had thought ahead and prepared a map so that they could give directions and they had photocopied this and provided it to the others - they also had each other's SL name and booth so that they could send IM's to help each other.

We were very fortunate to have made friends with other avatars (some of them quite new themselves) who supported us by coming into the NMC Centre and interacting with our trainees.  We thank those people sincerely because their presence made the experience so much more real for our trainees.  Michael Ewer, Principal Lecturer of Marketing at TAFESA - Adelaide Campus, provided an interesting twist for the trainees by coming into the centre in a wheelchair.  He then at various points around the centre got himself stuck at the stairs or behind desks and at one point he managed to fall out of his chair causing two of the trainees rushed to his aid. 

 The silence in the room as these interactions were taking place was palpable.  The trainees were totally engrossed in what they were doing and afterwards when I spoke to Joseph, one of the trainees, he said that although it seems like a computer game, he actually felt that he was there doing the work at the centre.

We felt that the trainees performed really well and that the day was a great success - not just for our project but also for the confidence of the trainees.  They had prepared so hard for this encounter and they were gratified by the success of the day.

 More Success

 Since our fantastic day at Noarlunga, we have found out that we have access to SL on the education server at TAFESA Adelaide South.  This is an enormous suprise and a wonderful breakthrough.  At the beginning of our project the situation was hopeless and had we not had the support of the IT program we would not have been able to continue.  Now we can use the education server to set up meetings with our trainees in their workplaces and support their studies.  Our next meeting is planned for 27 August and we are planning to get a group photo.  We are hoping that all will have access from their workplace by then. 

We do not have access from our desks because as lecturers we are on the administration server, however we have been told that ICT could find a way around this and we hope that they will.  This problem of access has been an all encompassing one and has taken time and attention away from the teaching which is what we are really interested in.

Posted at 08:00PM Aug 24, 2008 by Jacinta Ryan  |