Virtual World (VW) is a synthetic three dimensional universe that is accessed over a high speed internet connection. You are represented in this world by a 3D Avatar, a puppet if you like.  You control everything your avatar does.  You can make your avatar look like whatever you want, give it nicer clothes, and so forth.  But playing grown-up Barbie dolls isn't the point, at least not for the serious business of training.  In VW your avatar can move and interact with other people.  It can go places, see things, be seen, talk and hear, both via typed instant messages and via real voice.  It (you) can view presentation slides and movies and participate in large or small group activities and discussions.  Places in a virtual world can be created to be and do anything, limited only by the technology, the programming language behind it and the creativity of the people using it.  Our concern is how to use it to teach the interesting topics that we specialize in, process improvement.  I'll write more about this later...

Why do training remotely at all? 

We do some of our classes remotely, all of them live, via Webinar connections and conference calls.  We've done these for two years.  These have been a technical success but an emotional letdown.  When we do a class using webinars, students from all over can all attend one class without anyone having to travel.  That's a good thing.  It makes it possible to have a specialized class like the ones we do when it might otherwise be impossible.  We can't afford to fly to Chicago to teach Lean to three people.  But if we teach Lean remotely, then those three people in Chicago can attend, as well as a few in Boston, Dallas, New York, Cincinnati, you get the picture.  All of a sudden, a critical mass can be made possible and best of all, nobody has to go out in rush hour traffic or fly anyplace. 

What is missing in a Webinar delivered classes?

Webinars are hard to engage your emotions and some people don't really have a sense of 'being someplace' because they feel alone in a webinar class.  Sure they can hear the instructor but just a voice.  No video.  OK, I'm not that good looking so when I'm the instructor maybe you aren't missing much but it seems that as human beings we need to see someone as well as hear them no matter what they look like.  It's just more natural that way.  And when we are not in active class, the class sort of 'disappears'.  Nobody talks to anyone else because there is no effective way to do it.  In a real class you chat with your neighbor, perhaps find out a little about them.  Maybe discuss the class and see if you both understood something the same way.  Some chat with the instructor, perhaps to help understand something they didn't get during class.  We tell them to always stop and ask questions but you don't always do that, preferring the relative obscurity of a personal chat?  People who are familiar with webinars often tell me that they prefer an in-person class over a webinar class because they feel that social interaction is so important that 25% or more of their learning, and even more of their emotional payoff from the class, comes from interacting with other people.  Webinar delivered classes are relatively simple to do these days and almost anyone can attend them but do suffer from these drawbacks.

Doing a class in a Virtual World has the potential to add the missing sense of place and connectivity with people and emotions.  Without going into the details, let me just tell you that you would attend a VW class like you would attend a webinar, from your home or office at your computer.  No travel.  But unlike a webinar or other type of remote training, in a VW classroom you would see the classroom.  You could look around.  You can pay attention to the instructor or not just like in a real classroom.  You would see your fellow students.  You could meet them and talk with them before class, at breaks, have lunch with them, linger with them after class, go have a cup of coffee with them later, etc.   And when I say you can talk, I mean talk.  Using your own voice via a standard headset.  It's is shockingly realistic.  You could lean over during a class and ask your neighbor if they know what the heck we are talking about.  If you are late for class we'll all know it because we'll see you walk in late.  You get the idea.  What this allows us to do is to add the missing parts of a real classroom back into the virtual classroom, thus making it as rich an experience as the real ones are and still keeping the benefits of place and travel flexibility.  You can see why I like the idea.  On top of all of this, virtual worlds make it possible for us to do some things that are impossible in a live setting.  I'll wait until actual classes to reveal these.

Are there drawbacks to attending a class in a Virtual World?

Sure there are drawbacks to everything.  The specific ones here are that you need more computing horsepower than most business applications require, most notably a good video card and more memory, and like a webinar, a high speed internet connection is mandatory.  For effective voice you need a headset attached to your computer's audio card.  That has a different connection than a headset you might use for a telephone.  If you have kids at home who play 3D video games or if you play them yourself, you may already have what you need. For all PCs other than laptops, the upgrades are easy. For laptops the only upgrade that is often possible is more RAM.  Many business oriented PCs can do these classes with what they have but others require upgrades.  The only way to know for sure is to test it.

The VW environment is more complex so the learning curve for how to get around in a virtual world is steeper than the learning curve for attending a webinar.  We will be working on ways to handle this as we progress with our plans.

Finally, the VW environment is so varied and rich that some people have a tendency to fall in love with it or get kind of addicted to it.  This would only happen if you leave our classroom environment and explore the VW world we are in.  I expect many of you to do exactly that.  Just don't forget when class times are and come back!

We plan to use the Second Life virtual world for a series of free seminars on a variety of subjects, some related to what we teach an others just because they are interesting or we talked someone into doing it.  Some will be beta test of future VW classes.  If you are interested in attending one of our free virtual world seminars and want to join early and explore, you can use this link to go there.  It's free to join and explore.   I recommend that you NOT join any of their communities to start with, simply choose the 'skip this step' button, sign up and get oriented at their 'orientation island'.

http://www.secondlife.com/join/?u=46d504a5262b46b98d778f265cc27d24

We plan to hold free one hour seminars in Second Life approximately once a month during 2008 to demonstrate the technology, to learn ourselves, as well to explain various subjects.   Although the seminars are free, registration is needed since we have a class size limit and have to send you detailed information well ahead of class.

Enrollment for the free seminars are on our course calendar page here.

Virtual World course technology and logistics

In order to participate in a Second Life Virtual World course you must have a free Second Life account and be able to get around enough in that world to get to our class.  As part of the registration process, we will give you a link to the classroom.  Use the link above to join Second Life, choose an Avatar (the virtual 'you') and then send us the name of your Second Life Avatar.  We will invite your Avatar to join our classroom 'Group'.  You must accept that invitation to attend.  From there, you will receive other instructions.  If this sounds intimidating to you, we have a limited number of pre-made accounts and avatars which we will lend students just for their class.  Let us know if you want to do that. You will need to surrender that account immediately after the class so we can re-use it for the next class.

Virtual worlds require a certain amount of computing horsepower to use.  Three factors are important. 

1. You must have a high speed internet connection.  No exceptions.  DSL or Cable are fine.

2.  You must have enough RAM memory.  I don't know much is enough but it's safe to say that if your computer runs sluggish in the real world, forget the virtual world.  I have 3 GB in my 2 year old PC and it works fine with that.  It barely worked with 1 GB. RAM is about $50 per GB now.

3.  You must have a good enough video card.  The Second Life web site has a list of video cards that work.  Too much for me to repeat here.  Many standard home and business PCs have substandard video cards which won't work, or which will barely work in Virtual Worlds, which uses lots of 3D graphics.  You have to just try it and see.  If you were thinking of sprucing up your computer anyway, now is a good time to replace the video card.  I've been told but can't confirm that the Ge Force 6200 video card is the cheapest one which will work.  It's about $70.  If you have kids that play video games on your computer you are probably already just fine.  Laptop video cards are usually not upgradable so if you use a laptop, just try it and see.  If the video card is adequate but performance is sluggish and you have room for more memory, that might take care of it.

Are you still here?   Good!  Enroll for a free presentation here.