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TITLE : WSA Consulting Inc – Immersive Mobile Education Environment
MENTOR:
Steve Adolph
MENTOR contact:
OVERVIEW:
WSA Consulting Inc was founded in 1996 and is a boutique provider of consulting and training services for the software development industry. Our consulting practice is based on software process improvement using agile methods. We have an international client base which requires frequent travel to client sites. Travel is rapidly becoming expensive for our clients and inconvenient for our consultants, especially for our consultants with families. There is also a growing awareness that frequent air travel is not compatible with an environmentally aware life style.
We have considered providing e-learning or online courses for our clients, but most options we have seen are usually not very engaging being nothing more than automated delivery of power point slides with a voice over. We want to create a much more immersive and engaging experience for our clients. The rise of “social media” offers some exciting opportunities in this regard.
This is an exploratory project to explore the intersection between social media and corporate training. We are interested in creating a new content style, a community, a delivery style, and delivery platform that will create a more immersive and enjoyable online experience for customers opting for online training. With the rise of powerful PDAs such as the iPhone and Blackberry, delivery of content to mobile devices is an important aspect of this project.
PROJECT or Industry Area GOALS:
Goals to be developed with student group in relationship to product viability.
PROJECT or Company DESCRIPTION
This is an exploratory project into training and social media. All options are on the table for consideration. For example, one possibility for creating a more immersive and engaging training experience may be to explore the use of social networking sites such as Face Book or Second Life. What role can social text play in creating a shared experience? We are also interested in the ability to deliver content to mobile devices such as the iPhone.
We do have some specific areas we are interested in exploring:
- Engaging content style
- Delivery of content to mobile devices
- Create a common shared experience for those engaged in training perhaps by providing a collaborative environment.
While this is a “green field” R&D project, we are constrained by corporate objectives and at a minimum we must be able to demonstrate by the end of the 1st term an example of training content and a vision for a delivery platform (and possible demonstration).
We will be employing agile development practices to keep this project focused and on track.
ANY SPECIAL SKILLS REQUIRED:
It is desirable for students have some skill in the area of website development, animation, and video.
RESOURCES
To be determined in conjunction with team (e.g. Software, hardware, etc).