Summary:

This episode of Simulation Pulse dives into the key takeaways from the first annual XR Summit hosted at Western Technical College (WTC). The event brought together a vibrant group of XR innovators, predominantly active Acadicus users from the Wisconsin Technical College System. Bill Ballo (Madison College) delivered a standout keynote, sharing his personal journey and emphasizing that success often comes from navigating failures—a message that resonated deeply with educators embarking on their own VR adoption paths.

A central theme emerging from the Summit was the powerful sense of community and a strong desire among attendees to collaborate more closely, share resources, and compare notes. This highlighted the organic network forming around Acadicus. Jamie Howell (WTC) offered a particularly apt analogy, describing many VR applications as “canned soup” – simple and ready-to-use. She likened Acadicus, however, to making “gourmet soup,” where educators have the tools and ingredients (the extensive content library and intuitive scene editing capabilities) to customize and craft specialized learning experiences, while still having access to ready-made scenarios if needed. This perfectly captured the platform’s core value of flexibility combined with a rich, shared content ecosystem, such as the OpenRN scenarios discussed by Kim Ernsmeer.

The Summit also underscored the practicality and accessibility of Acadicus. Bill Ballo, for instance, seamlessly logged into his own Acadicus environment from WTC’s lab, demonstrating how users can access their customized content and familiar tools from anywhere. Discussions among experienced faculty and sim lab coordinators revealed a sophisticated understanding of VR implementation, moving beyond basic controls to share nuanced best practices. It was clear that these “power users” are leveraging Acadicus to its full potential.

Presentations like Carly Brady’s (Madison College) on funding a VR lab, and Kevin Dean’s (WTC) insights into their program, provided valuable, actionable advice for institutions at all stages of VR adoption. The recurring idea of overcoming geographical barriers to share simulations and expertise further emphasized VR’s transformative potential. Ultimately, the Summit felt like an early Acadicus user convention, showcasing a community actively solving real-world educational challenges and pushing the boundaries of immersive learning, all supported by a platform designed for both robust, off-the-shelf use and deep, creative customization.

Episode Highlights:

The “Gourmet Soup” Analogy for Acadicus’s Flexibility:

Jamie Howell (WTC) provided a memorable way to understand Acadicus’s dual strengths:

• Jamie Howell (via Jon’s recap): “…she talked about as if it’s cooking like making a soup… there’s a lot of VR applications that are like buying a can of chicken noodle soup… but she likes to make a gourmet soup and make it customize it and make it special and add her own special ingredients and that a catechus is a way to do that… we also have the Campbell soup if you just want to run an off-the-shelf simulation…”

  • This illustrates how Acadicus offers both ready-to-use simulations and powerful customization tools, allowing educators to tailor experiences precisely to their needs.

Bill Ballo’s Keynote: Success from Failure & Connecting with Educators:

Bill Ballo shared his personal journey to inspire and reassure educators:

• Bill Ballo: “…the whole idea of the keynote was you know success from failure… What I get from a lot of faculty is this feeling as though they just don’t know what to do and they can’t do it… And so what I wanted to do was instead of just you know coming in and saying ‘Here’s all the cool stuff we do.’… no of course you aren’t and that’s okay That’s fine you shouldn’t be… it took me 10 years at the two-year college to get my degree…”

  • This highlights the importance of acknowledging the learning curve with new technologies and fostering a supportive community where educators feel comfortable sharing their challenges and growth.

Strong Community & Desire for Collaboration Among Acadicus Users:

A dominant theme was the interconnectedness of the users and the potential for greater collaboration:

• Jon: “…one of the themes that kept coming up over and over and over is how do we work together more… it really seemed like uh a missed opportunity to not be more interconnected and comparing notes and sharing resources…”

  • This points to the organic growth of a user community eager to leverage shared knowledge and the platform’s collaborative potential, such as sharing scenarios and best practices.

Sharing Resources & Overcoming Geographic Boundaries:

The power of VR to share valuable training assets was a key discussion point:

• Jon: “…Madison College has built a lot of content in a catechus And uh one of the cool things about the the system is that that content is shared with all the other schools… Anybody that has a headset just put on a headset now you’re at the birthing simulation… once you put the headset on you can be standing face to face with Jamie Howell running a paramedic mass casualty scenario from hundreds of miles away…”

  • This showcases how Acadicus facilitates the sharing of valuable simulation resources, making specialized training more accessible and breaking down traditional geographical limitations.

Ease of Access & Platform Familiarity:

The ability for users to access their familiar Acadicus environment from different locations was noted:

• Bill Ballo: “…I walked in and it was like ‘Okay yeah here’s the headset Here’s the here’s the computer I’m just going to log into my catechus stuff and we’re off and running.’ So I didn’t have to be in my home lab… I was standing in Jamie’s lab and I was going through all of that…”

  • This underscores the user-friendly nature of Acadicus, allowing educators to seamlessly transition between different physical lab setups while retaining access to their customized content and tools.

Funding VR: Starting Small & Demonstrating Value:

Carly Brady’s presentation offered practical advice on securing funding for VR initiatives:

• Jon (recapping Carly’s talk): “She started out you know working with Bill on something you know much smaller bite-sized pieces that address very specific needs… demonstrated the use of it on a very small level… to really build the case for the value that it provides… The why was established before the how.”

• Bill Ballo (on administrative buy-in): “…our provost at the time was was uh Dr Terrina Bachan and she is very very very big into golf… Carly and Allan brought a headset in and had loaded a golf game onto it… So the key is you have to find out what the area of interest is for the person that you’re going to be pitching this to…”

  • This provides actionable insights for institutions looking to fund VR labs by emphasizing a strategy of starting with targeted projects, demonstrating clear value, and understanding stakeholder interests to gain buy-in.

Student Demand & Evolving User Base:

The increasing expectation from students for VR in their education was highlighted:

• Jon: “…It’s the students The students are expecting it Like our students are demanding this… when they see the way things are done in simulation they know that if this was in virtual reality it would be you know there would be different benefits to it… the younger students coming in just they get it They already know how to do it and they’re just ready to go…”

  • This signals a growing trend where student familiarity and demand for VR are becoming significant drivers for its adoption in educational programs.

The Power of In-Person Connection & Community Building:

Despite the virtual nature of the technology, the value of face-to-face interaction was evident:

• Jon (quoting Jamie Howell): “…no we’re going to get everyone together in person We we really we need people to connect and build community… when we were there in person I understood the wisdom of that because it really did get people to join in person in a way that we we just wouldn’t have connected that way virtually…”

  • This reinforces that while VR offers incredible tools for remote interaction, in-person events play a crucial role in fostering deeper connections and community within the user base.

High-Quality Customer Support as a Key Differentiator:

The positive feedback regarding Arch Virtual’s customer support was noted:

• Jon: “…people were very impressed with the quality of our customer support… if we get a customer if we get a support ticket it is all hands on deck Like we all are looking at that and making sure that we get that resolved as fast as we can…”

  • This highlights the commitment to user success and the responsive support system as an important aspect of the Acadicus experience.