Indra leads a european R&D project that will allow teachers to perform hands-on training in a virtual 3d setting

Indra, the top IT multinational in Spain and one of the leaders in Europe and Latin America, is directing the SimAULA R&D project, which has the aim of developing a new training methodology for primary education instructors based on online practices in a 3D virtual world, adapted to the academic context of teaching and learning. In this simulation environment, existing and future teachers will be able to prepare lesson plans, teach the materials in virtual classrooms that will reproduce the behaviour of a class and interact with students-avatars.

The project will be primarily focused on the educational aspect since the main objective is for future teachers to be able to practice their teaching and management skills thanks to the simulations. To do so, SimAULA will use the knowledge of teachers as well as experts in psychology and pedagogy to define the behaviour model of virtual students and also to recreate valid situations from pedagogical and educational perspectives. The objective is to create solid behaviour models that are constructive towards education, and to provide interesting and efficient learning activities.

In addition, the most representative pedagogical strategies and situations for each country will be selected so as to display the circumstances that may be most conflictive and problematic.

From a technology perspective, SimAULA plans to develop a virtual platform with multiple levels of detail, accuracy and simulation of interactions between students-virtual agents. It includes the development of virtual agents that reproduce the behaviour of teachers, students or classes, the classroom's 3D design as well as learning tools such as blackboards or books. It will also define the appearance of avatars (children, adults, men, women, etc.) and how they communicate (tone, gestures and the way of expressing themselves verbally).

This innovative simulation system, based on the "serious game" philosophy, will create a simple and attractive interactive training experience for professors and allow instructors to put into practice their classroom teaching and management skills in a fun and secure educational game setting. The tool will also have a prototype with limited situations and scenarios, but thanks to its flexibility, it will be possible to load and create new scenarios by users.

SimAULA is funded by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Union as part of the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP). In addition to Indra, which leads the project through its Software Labs, other participants include Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Coventry University, University of Salerno, Sofia University and the Greek school Ellinogermaniki Agogi.

Multiple benefits for education

SimAULA will provide universities and schools with a training platform based on an advanced simulation system that will allow them to improve students' learning skills through virtual classroom activities focused on results.

On the other hand, professors have the guarantee of carrying out their lessons in a proper setting where they can measure the degree to which objectives are reached. SimAULA will also allow professors to test teaching ideas in order to see which combination of strategies best contributes towards student learning. This will help to improve teaching skills through critical thought, creativity and "learning by doing".

Large scale pilot

The project plans to develop a pilot this year in which 200 students and 60 professors from Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, Bulgaria and Greece will participate in their respective languages. After defining and developing the pilot sites, the users that have been selected will be able to use the platform to test and validate it.

This pilot will allow to verify the platform's usefulness and assess the impact of this innovative virtual focus in pedagogic and educational methodologies based on the learning results of students and instructors from various countries and education levels. The platform will also facilitate collaboration between teachers and professors of different levels and countries in terms of the hands-on training of teachers and the potential contribution of ICT.

Education solutions for the future

SimAULA reinforces Indra's extensive experience in the field of solutions for improving teaching, learning and eLearning systems. The best example of this experience is the “AGREGA” digital educational content project, developed by Indra as part of the Internet in the Classroom Programme and led by the public entity Red.es together with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Industry and the Autonomous Communities. The main objective of AGREGA is to make available to the education community digital contents that have been prepared according to standards, to promote a sustainable model for the generation and application of these contents for the classroom teaching and learning process, and also to promote collaboration settings for the teaching community.

The AGREGA project has received recognition in the silver category of the IMS Learning Awards 2009 for the "most striking use of technology to support learning." The success of this platform has led Red.es to sign a collaboration agreement with the United Kingdom´s Education and Research Network, "Janet", to provide the source code and the documentation of the AGREGA digital education content platform.

Indra is the number one technology multinational in Spain and one of the leaders in Europe and Latin America. It is