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SIIA uses EDRoom Online Discussion Service to Gain New Insights about Practical Applications of Gaming and Simulations for Classroom Learning
NEW YORK, NY (December 9, 2008) – The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA), a professional association serving the educational technology community, turned to EDRoom to gather critical information for an upcoming report, Best Practices for Implementing Games and Simulations in the Classroom. EDRoom’s online discussion space, available anytime, anywhere, enabled thoughtful interactions, and as a result, the SIIA’s EduGames working group gained a new depth of understanding about the practical aspects of using games and simulations as learning tools.
Education-market research experts from EDRoom Inc. worked closely with the SIIA working group to create a detailed discussion guide built around the outline for the report and then developed the panelist profile. The SIIA then secured a geographically diverse panel of seven district and school level administrators and teachers who matched their requirements.
During the weeklong online discussion, an expert moderator used EDRoom’s interactive tools to encourage participation and deepen discussion among the panelists. Members of the SIIA EduGames working group observed the session behind a “virtual one-way glass,” and were able to communicate privately with the moderator as to how the discussion was taking shape.
An SIIA working group member, Lee Wilson, president of Headway Strategies, organized the EDRoom panel. Wilson is a marketing and business development consultant to the educational technology industry. For many years, he has used traditional types of market research, such as focus groups and surveys, as part of his consulting work. This was his first experience using the EDRoom service. “If you are looking for blink feedback and/or people who need to react to something they touch and feel, then obviously face-to-face is better. But if you want more reflective feedback on digital content, then EDRoom is the way to go,” said Wilson.
Wilson decided to use the web-based EDRoom service because of convenience, the opportunity to eliminate travel expenses and recommendations from industry colleagues. “We got higher quality results than a normal focus group. Frankly, the results were better than I expected. By allowing people to answer over a longer period of time, to reflect and expand on prior answers, and requiring people to write responses, we got deeper feedback than I'm used to seeing in traditional focus groups. It was harder for an individual to dominate an on-line forum and easier for participants to contribute since they didn't have to travel and they could fit it into their schedule,” he said.
At the conclusion of the EDRoom session, Wilson received an exact written transcript of the discussion, making it easy for him to study the panelist interaction and reveal new information about this growing category of educational technology. “The goal of our SIIA working group is to understand and leverage the growth of the gaming and simulations industry segment. The information we gathered using EDRoom simply wasn't out there from other sources. There were some specifics about using games and simulations as supplemental learning tools that really surprised us,” he concluded. The report references broad findings from the EDRoom session, and also uses direct quotes from the transcript to illuminate key points.
About EDRoom
Launched in November 2007, EDRoom is an interactive online discussion service that allows participants to converse any time of day or night from anywhere. Publishers and developers of educational products and services have found that EDRoom’s convenient format and expert services uniquely deliver deep insight they can use to inform their product development, focus their sales and marketing strategies, and improve their communications processes. www.edroom.net
About SIIA
The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) is the principal trade association for the software and digital content industry. SIIA’s Education Division serves and represents more than 150 member companies that provide software, digital content and other technologies that address educational needs. www.siia.net/education.