A Case study strategy in immersive learning environments to develop business skills in foreign languages Martha Pilar Méndez Bautista Bogotá, Colombia [email protected] Abstract— This paper presents an immersive learning experience based on case study strategy to develop business skills in foreign languages held in the Online School at a Colombian University located in Bogotá and designed for undergraduate students of Modern Languages. The experience includes virtual world environments, technologies, and activities that support collaboration and enable the learners to be immersed and engaged in their learning experience through instructional strategies such as hands-on learning, simulations, group projects for the case study discussions. Keywords- immersive learning, case study, virtual world. I. INTRODUCTION One of the main goals of education is to integrate theory and practice through the application of learning and teaching strategies to link the real world and knowledge in an effective way. Case Study as a learning strategy provides learners with meaningful learning since the participants can be involved in the discussion of a case and the group process as well. This strategy supports the development of several cognitive processes such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of information. Besides, critical thinking, collaborative work, and decision making, creativity, and innovation are also developed by language learners. Providing students with immersive learning strategies give them the opportunity to be engaged in order to develop competencies and skills not only in Management but also in foreign languages. Human beings have the capability to perceive feelings and emotions through immersion and interaction that is why this experience includes several media and information resources based on hypermedia such as images, sounds, texts, graphics, and the space among others. To facilitate the immersive learning process and the case study approach, the experience was set in a Virtual world platform, SECOND LIFE. Regarding Second life as a virtual world , it becomes a virtual resource since it is likely to provoke in individuals sensations of real spaces as a result of an artifact creating a sensitive reality and validation of cognitive structures. In such a situation, the individual has the opportunity to construct his own knowledge. The use of virtual reality has reconfigured university education as new technologies bring new network structures facilitating new connections among people. Virtual reality operates through the Internet and is characterized by non-presentiality. This kind of education takes advantage of the technological development to start working on Virtual Reality (VR) as learning mediation for immersive learning practices and in this project,based on case study. II. RESEARCH PROBLEM This project emerges from the demand of creating learning experiences adapted to the students’ needs to acquire business skills using foreign languages through opportunities given by immersive learning and case study. It is also a way to create and foster pedagogic models at both institutional and national level to contribute to the education of multilingual citizens in business contexts. The students belong to the online virtual program of Modern Languages whose context is business and organizations and who must possess business skills needed to perform their role in multicultural organizations where being skillful is a must in the growth of a company. Thus, they are expected to be skillful in business issues through a diversity of situations according to expectations for Modern language professionals in organizational environments. As part of the e-learning process to develop the expected professional competencies, the students are provided mainly with a LMS system virtual room, which contains all resources and tools to develop cognitive processes and competences by means of learning strategies and tasks that include synchronous and asynchronous interactions. The Blackboard Collaborate™ platform is also used to create a space for synchronic meetings as tutorings and Live learning. The creation of new learning environments and the application of virtual tools open new possibilities to approach and execute teaching practices. (Batista, E. 2000). In this experience,the learners´ business and foreign languages competences are supported by virtual tools through interaction and collaborative work, and at the same time those virtual tools offer flexible time and space giving the learners opportunities to configure their own learning process in an immersive experience through Virtual Worlds(VW) with a case study approach. This research had several stages in which the first one was an analysis of the related information in order to support the case study strategy in immersive environments to develop business skills. In the second stage, the virtual reality scenarios were designed to be implemented in a third stage which finally led to the evaluation of the results regarding the learning experience. III. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK A. Case study The case study is a learning strategy in which the learner faces the description of a specific situation that proposes a problem. This problem must be understood, evaluated, and solved by a group of students through a discussion process. Fry et al (1999) describe case studies as complex examples, which give an insight into the context of a problem as well as illustrating the main point. For this project, case studies are defined as student-centered activities based on topics that demonstrate theoretical concepts in an applied setting. This definition of a case study covers the variety of different learning structures EAN University uses in its e-learning programs ranging from short individual case studies to longer group-based activities. The learning tasks for this immersive learning experience are based on case studies which the students must work on in different sessions. First of all , they search information about the case study to support their decision making, then they negotiate possibilities to solve the problem. They take part in a situation that poses some questions and participate in role playing or discussions developed based on choices the students make. Finally, they hold conversations in English or Portuguese to show their points of view and the result of the case study activity. After the students fulfill the learning tasks ,as part of the whole process they are evaluated by identifying performance and roles they take and the discussion they have using the foreign language according to some criteria in terms of the “product” they have as evidence of their learning. B. Immersive Learning Environments Immersive Learning Environments (ILE) are viewed from the constructivist theories of learning since they develop cognitive processes, cognitive and communicative competences on a meaningful and reflexive learning basis that allows the learner to self-direct and self- manage his own learning process. Immersive learning gives learners a sense of "being there" even when attending a class or training session in person is not possible, practical, or desirable, which in turn provides educators and students with the ability to connect and communicate in a way that greatly enhances the learning experience. Briefly, immersive learning (IL) is defined in terms of simulations or serious games as “optimized blend of simulation, game element, and pedagogy that leads to the learner being motivated by and immersed into, the purpose and goals of a learning interaction. (Wexler, S., Corti, K., Derryberry, A., Quinn, C., & van Barneveld, A, 2008, p.3).Technology has contributed to mediate learning using virtual reality. Using Virtual Reality (VR) permits to have students connected and construct their own knowledge in scenarios where individuals do not need face to face interactions to get engaged and immersed in learning activities. VR also supports autonomous learning, self- directed and collaborative learning. Virtual Reality (VR) appears to offer educational potentials in several areas such as data gathering and visualization, project planning and design, design of interactive training systems, virtual field trips, and design of experiential learning environments. VR also offers many possibilities as a tool for nontraditional learners, including the physically disabled and those undergoing rehabilitation who must learn (or relearn) communication and psychomotor skills. ILE and VW are designed to immerse and engage students in the same way that today’s best video games do with players. Immersive Education and Virtual Worlds support self-directed learning as well as collaborative group-based learning environments that can be delivered over the Internet or using fixed-media such as CD-ROM and DVD. Considering the need for setting the immersive environments to develop the case study strategy and provide the learners with possibilities to gain business skills in English, an analysis of the appropriate architecture for virtual world scenarios and surrounding environments was done by means of photographic, iconic, and documentary resources. Once the virtual recreation of those scenarios was done, their animation was developed adding texts images sound, hypertext among other devices including the avatars. All of them were related to business contexts to hold this immersive learning experience. C. Virtual scenarios The virtual scenarios (VS) are dynamic and 3D-simulations provided by a computer with