Episode Summary:

Carly Brady, a key strategic leader, and Bill Ballo, the XR Center Manager from Madison College, discuss the operational strategy behind their successful, multi-disciplinary XR program. They detail their “library” approach, using Acadicus as a foundational “rock” while integrating over 30 other applications to serve diverse programs. A key focus is their new initiative to use VR to solve a specific student retention problem in a difficult cardiac course, aiming to generate hard data on efficacy to justify further expansion.

Highlights:

• Madison College has successfully scaled its VR initiative from a small pilot to a full XR Center supporting 32 distinct academic programs.
• They are actively pursuing a data-driven research study to prove VR’s impact on student success and completion rates in a high-failure cardiac course, directly addressing a presidential initiative.
• Carly strongly advocates for the “You need a Bill” model: hiring a dedicated XR manager is critical for success, as tasking already-strapped faculty with running the technology will lead to failure.
• They use a “Build vs. Buy” strategy, leveraging the Acadicus platform to create custom solutions for specific curriculum gaps that off-the-shelf apps cannot fill.
• The combination of a strategic leader (Carly) and a tactical operator (Bill) is presented as a key formula for successfully operationalizing and scaling an XR program.

Topics Covered:

• Operationalizing and scaling an XR Center from pilot to college-wide service.
• The critical importance of dedicated staff vs. relying on faculty.
• Strategy for proving ROI and efficacy to senior administration (“stickiness” and completion rates).
• The “Build vs. Buy” decision-making process for VR content.
• Using a “library” of applications with a foundational platform like Acadicus.
• The accessibility advantages of PC VR for students who cannot use headsets.
• The vision for involving students in content creation and XR center operations.

Quotes:

“I always say Acadicus is the rock, right? So, they’re the foundation… If I have somebody coming in for a demo… I can always go back and default to Acadicus so that they can see you know what is possible in VR.”

“We’re hoping that we can do like a small little kind of research study and see if we can’t move that needle on the success rates of of the this one class that is not allowing students to complete. And so I think if we can even just get one story like that, I think that’s going to help move us forward.”

“You don’t need to train your faculty. You shouldn’t try to train your faculty because you will get you will fall flat on your face every time. I guarantee it. You need a Bill.”

“It’s so hard to find a platform that can incorporate all of that. And that’s why something like Acadicus where I can grab that heart and I can use that and I can explain all of those things I need to explain in a relatively easy and you know not time consuming or budget consuming manner.”

“What I love about PC VR is if a student can’t go in a headset, we can still give them an experience on the computer with the standalone. What’s the alternative? There isn’t one.”

“We’re not going to invest in it unless they’re invested in it, right? So, like Karolina had this great idea and and okay, but are you going to use it? and she was committed. And so then we get committed too.”

Featured Content:

• Platform as a Foundation: Acadicus is used as the core “sandbox” platform, especially for medical programs, to build custom scenarios when off-the-shelf apps are unavailable or too expensive.
• Heart Model: Specifically mentioned for the planned research study in the cardiac respiratory class to help students visualize abstract concepts and improve pass rates.
• General Medical/Healthcare Content: Used as the starting point for programs like Nursing and EMS.