AR Spark Planning

To lead AR programming, particularly in a community college that is launching XR training for the first time, program champions must have a unique vantage point, with influence spanning across the institution, including workforce development and career services, support services, senior-level leadership, and faculty in relevant departments (e.g., art and design, marketing, computer science, etc.).

We found that successful program champions held the following or comparable titles, including but not limited to associate vice president of strategic partnerships; workforce solutions liaison; director of workforce innovation and strategy; program services coordinator for business, design, and workforce; and chief academic officer. Program champions who serve the community college in a senior leadership position should ensure that their capacity will allow for the day-to-day leadership required.

Most critically, program champions cultivate support for programming among relevant departments, which necessitates an introductory knowledge of AR so they can communicate its value and describe the use cases. Champions also lead marketing and recruitment efforts (see more information in our recruitment section) and work with instructors to manage program logistics, develop curriculum, launch the program, and coordinate the closing event. And while costs will depend on numerous factors specific to each college, we suggest that, in developing and managing a budget, program champions identify $15,000 for initial programming, which includes allocations for learner incentives (e.g., stipends), first-time instructor preparation, and closing event prizes.

Program Champion Profile: Sandra Brown, liaison of Workforce Solutions at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College (SKCTC)

Due to Brown’s position on SKCTC’s Workforce Solutions team, her holistic perspective of the college and established relationships with relevant faculty, local employers, and local policymakers allowed for a robust recruitment strategy, incorporating learners from across a wide spectrum of the local community, from local companies looking to upskill employees to full-time students seeking new challenges.

“This training allowed the AR cohort a unique opportunity to develop knowledge, apply their creativity, and to raise awareness of this emerging skillset. The course content allowed participants to use their untapped potential to develop a competitive edge among their peers through new knowledge, creativity, commitment, and personal design.”

— Sandra Brown

To choose the best instructor for the AR training, program champions must identify teachers who have technical knowledge and pilot program experience and who are comfortable being early adopters. Because there is often very little context for AR training among community college staff, particularly in colleges exploring XR for the first time, the instructor must possess a willingness to embark on an exploratory experience with learners.

Fortunately, AR training platforms such as Meta Spark share similarities with existing training platforms in educational tracks such as graphic design and coding, which provides a technical foundation for qualified first-time instructors.

Additionally, program champions do not have to find a single individual with all of the recommended qualifications. Several of our partners employed a “team teach” model, pairing instructors based on complementary skill sets. For example, at Isothermal Community College, a graphic design instructor worked in tandem with an IT/web development instructor.

An instructor or team of instructors should possess the following skills, experience, and traits:

Technical knowledge—Instructors with UX design, graphic design, and coding backgrounds had the most immediate success with the Meta Spark AR platform.
Graphic design platforms share certain functionality similarities with Meta Spark. Our partners indicated that, though the training technology differs, instructors with UX design backgrounds are adept at conceptualizing final products in a way similar to AR developers, which helps learners visualize end projects as they learn. And because Meta Spark includes key portions related to JavaScript, the coding skill set is valuable for first-time teachers.

Pilot program experience—Instructors must demonstrate comfort with troubleshooting in front of a class and adjusting coursework mid-programming.
Early adoption mindset—Those eager to be on the leading edge of education who possess a passion for preparing students for jobs of the future, a necessary trait for a first-time AR instructor.

To lead successful implementation, instructors should home in on key responsibilities throughout the programming. Similar to the role of program champions, instructors must familiarize themselves with AR and its value to either a wide variety of fields or a specific educational track, depending on the recruitment plan. An instructor cannot thrive in pilot programming with technical knowledge alone; learners need this additional AR context throughout the coursework to inspire continued engagement. Instructors must also learn the chosen AR training platform (e.g., Meta Spark) and incorporate any attached platform curriculum into their own voice and teaching methods. And because learner attrition is an ongoing concern for any new tech program, first-time instructors need to be particularly attentive to evolving learner needs, providing ongoing learner engagement strategies.

As a general method for program improvement, instructors and program champions should stay in touch throughout programming, preferably on a weekly basis, with post-training sessions to make course adjustments based on learner and instructor feedback.

Instructor Profile: Michael A., Director of design at Heady; Instructor at Kingsborough Community College

Michael A.’s years of UX design experience provided him with a strong technical foundation for approaching the Meta Spark platform. His background afforded him insight into how AR should be framed for first-time learners, both in terms of sourcing tangible use cases to communicate AR’s potential and cleanly framing the core competencies for learners through a user-friendly course site. His previous experience with pilot programs gave him the skills and temperament needed to troubleshoot when technical issues arose during class.

“Learning augmented reality is not about keeping up with today's trends; it's about understanding and shaping the digital experiences that will become tomorrow's norm. The future is being invented before our very eyes and advanced tech is now more accessible than ever. Not only are we able to use experiences that leverage advanced tech, we're able to build experiences that leverage advanced tech - like augmented reality. Let's build!”

— Michael A.

Regardless of the type of platform selected, instructors must place AR within the larger context of potential career paths before launching into technical instruction. Instructors who deliver direct AR use cases in an engaging way will see greater program retention. On day one of programming, Isothermal instructors delivered a zSpace demo of AR’s use in construction project management as a sample of its potential, and program champions believe this led to greater retention.

In selecting an AR training platform for creating immersive experiences that can cater to a wide group of learners, program champions and instructors should seek a hub that centers an entry-level experience to accommodate those students who do not possess a technical grounding or in-depth knowledge of graphic design or IT. The platform we used, Meta Spark, incorporated the majority of the elements necessary for first-time learners. The platform includes an attached curriculum, “AR in a Box,” which comes with engaging video modules, lesson plans for instructors with sample talking points, and sample homework assignments. As noted earlier, instructors must still make any attached curriculum their own: both Isothermal Community College and Kingsborough Community College instructors restructured AR in a Box around projected core competencies students received through the training.

An added benefit of Meta Spark is that it allows users to export AR products easily, providing learners with the ability to complete a portfolio of projects once programming concludes. Additionally, the attached platform certification, the Meta Spark Creator Professional Certification Exam, can serve as a motivating factor for engagement and retention. However, even with a beginner-friendly platform such as Meta Spark, basic tech skills coursework must accompany any AR programming. For example, Mott Community College marketed its training to non-credit learners, most of whom did not have experience with tech education; the instructor, Kyle Williams, needed to incorporate foundational lessons on basic technology terms (e.g., the differences between JPEG and PNG files), along with elementary lessons on coding.

Additional Notes – Intra-System Consortiums

For community colleges that lack the resources or capacity to launch a program on their own, forming a consortium with multiple schools and program champions may be an option. The Colorado consortium of schools in our pilot leveraged one another’s funding and perspectives to source instructors and recruit learners across a wide expanse of the Denver metro region.

Our partners noted the following necessities for effective consortium program planning:

Establish a RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed) matrix, with clearly defined roles for each program champion and their respective instructors; colleges can share instructional staff and funding, but program champion roles should not overlap.
Conduct weekly town halls with instructors and program champions that incorporate the feedback of all participating staff.

Each college should still have in-person options for the convenience and educational experience of learners, even if virtual instruction is conducted as a larger group.