Immersive Virtual Environments to Facilitate Authentic Education in Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Abstract

This chapter will cover our current research concerning developing and trialling immersive environments as an innovative and authentic approach to teaching and learning in Logistics and Supply Chain Management, incorporating seamlessly integrated assessment and feedback. Developed educational and assessment tools will allow students to demonstrate that they have successfully applied theoretical knowledge in real contexts and developed appropriate skills before entering the workforce. Greater authenticity allows students to experience different roles and exposes them to multiple business cases over supply chains that, in reality, span the globe. The project addresses the inauthentic pedagogical approaches in current classroom and distance-learning environments, and will propose a methodology that utilises existing technologies. The simulation will combine emerging technologies to represent multiple problem dimensions into one space; enabling students to observe, engage, interact, and participate in self-guided or group-based learning scenarios; receiving instant, multi-perspective, media-rich feedback to support their learning; and enabling further iterative scenario-based training.