BUSINESS 202 (Business Consulting) designed an assignment to help prepare students for their future working lives, requiring them to develop their skills in working as a team, communicating and collaborating in online mediums, research and application of their understanding, and project management practices. Students explored emerging technologies to create an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) presentation for a client. The experience gained from this assessment in VR technology has already proven to be of great interest by industry when students apply for internships.
Students in this course are given a scenario using real New Zealand-founded companies (which are changed every time the module is run). They must consider how the VR environment (Metaverse and Spatial.io)1 would be useful for the company, the pros and cons, and how the company might use the technology to conduct its operations.
By giving students a real business, they need to explore and research the industry and apply that knowledge to see if the metaverse and Spatial is useful to the company (or not). Teams must communicate this to their client by creating a presentation that evaluates the use-case of the technology. They must create and display presentation slides, work sheets (i.e. meeting minutes and project management charts) and objects in their virtual room to communicate this to their client, as well as customise and personalise the environment of the room.
The project management components are specified to focus the students’ efforts on the kind of objects they may wish to create for their presentation.
The Business 202 Assignment Project won Bronze in the Oceania category at the QS Reimagine Education Awards, 2022.
The Business 202 Assignment Project won Bronze in the Oceania category at the QS Reimagine Education Awards, 2022.
Assignment task
Immersive VR Presentation in Spatial (15%)
Imagine you have just been hired as a consultant for one of the big consulting firms. Along with some of the other new hires, your manager has assigned you to work in a team. Your team has been given the task of evaluating the potential use of Spatial.io by one of the firm’s longstanding customers – (a business).
Your manager has decided that the best way to explain the potential advantages and disadvantages of Spatial.io to (a business) is to give them a demonstration. She wants your team to create a virtual meeting room and within this room, display a presentation in the form of an immersive 3D gallery walk outlining the pros and cons of managing a project using Spatial.io. She wants to show your room to the client.
Although she hasn’t told you directly, as well as helping (a business), she actually wants to find out how good you are at managing a project and working in a team.
Businesses: Auckland Council Libraries and Museums, The Warehouse Group, Fonterra, Air New Zealand, Fletcher Building Limited, Allbirds.
Project Management: Task management (Project meeting notes), Project scheduling (GANTT charts), Project summary (Retrospective 4Ls framework).
Scaffolding new skills towards assessment
Tutorials in semester 1 took place online. Students used Spatial.io on their desktop, without the use of VR headsets. However, in semester 2, tutorials were held in the recently launched Te Ahi Hangarau Technology Hub within the Business School.
Very few students had ever used VR before prior to this course (approximately 1 student per tutorial), so it was a huge learning curve for students to try on the VR headsets for the first time and work in a VR environment.
To allow students to become familiar with the technology and practice their skills ahead of their assessment, students were given a demonstration of the technology by Creative Technologists from the Unleash Space team and given time to explore the VR environment in workshops (workshop size: 30 students). The BUSINESS 202 teaching team have VR offices where students can meet with them. Students started off using these VR offices, then began to create their own rooms, opening portals to and from staff VR offices.
Student feedback
Students were very excited to be able to explore the technology and were engaged during these workshops. They have given feedback that they have included their VR experience in their LinkedIn profiles and received a lot of interest from industries as a result.
About Business 202: Business Consulting
Business 202 – the Future of Work Module
Course information and teaching teams
Course: BUSINESS 202: Business Consulting
Academic teaching staff:
Course Director: Andrew Patterson
Course Coordinator: Dr Nina Brosius
The Future of Work Module: Prof Michael Myers and Saima Qutab (Module Lead) and Nevena Sekulic (Facilitator)
Competing Globally Module: Graeme Treasure (Module Lead) and Farzana Adeel (Facilitator)
Climate Change Module: Dr Dan Tisch (Module Lead) and Varun Bhardwaj (Facilitator)
Student numbers: 790
Delivery: Semester One, 2022 mostly online except for the last 2-3 weeks; Semester Two, 2022 on-campus and off-shore.
Aims of the course:
- Students apply multidisciplinary knowledge to solve complex problems and work on global grand challenges
- Interpret and present business information appropriately in a consultancy context
- Apply ethical principles in decision making in a business context
- Apply a project management framework to complete a complex task
- Learn how to communicate, consult and collaborate with others face to face and via online mediums
This course consists of 3 modules. The focus of this example is the Future of Work module, which covers:
- Emerging technologies, changing organisational culture and skills required for Future of Work.
- Online profiles for future careers.
- Project management of hybrid teams in virtual reality environments.
The skills students develop in this module are:
- Working in teams.
- Project management.
- Use of specialised technology, e.g. Spatial.io, Meta Quest 2 VR headsets.
As well as an assessment on creating a LinkedIn profile where students create their digital footprint for their future careers, students are given a scenario and must work in teams of 4-5 people to manage a consulting project and create an immersive VR presentation in the metaverse using Spatial.io (specialised VR technology).
- The Metaverse is an evolving spatial computing platform that provides digital experiences as an alternative to or a replica of the real world, along with key civilisational aspects like social interactions, currency, trade, economy, and property ownership. It can be used for collaboration spaces, remote work, and many other functions typical of real world working contexts. ↩