Pedagogic theories influencing the design include:

• experiential learning;
• collaborative learning; and
• situated cognition.

ORIGIN OF THE LEARNING DESIGN
An online role-play/simulation "PollutSim" was first trialled by some of the development team in 1996. It has been progressively evaluated and adapted to suit new contexts. The current learning design was first implemented in 2001.

The original design was influenced by the following online social science simulations: Middle East Simulation (Andrew Vincent at Macquarie University); Project IDEELS and Project ICONS (University of Maryland).

TIMES THE LEARNING DESIGN HAS BEEN USED
This learning design has been implemented annually since 2001.

MODIFICATIONS SINCE FIRST USE
Changes since 2001 include a decrease in the number of individual assessment items submitted. It was found that too many assessment items detracted from the flow of activities. Multiple-choice quizzes were introduced to ensure participants had acquired the background information necessary to participate effectively, to help participants recognise some types of knowledge they had obtained and to provide immediate feedback for assessment.

An evaluation of staff-related academic and institutional issues that arose during the design and implementation of the project was undertaken. Issues related to shared assessment practices, student feedback and institutional resources arose. Changes include greater freedom for instructors to support their own students while still having an integrated approach. This was achieved by keeping persona comprised of students from one University/location but providing greater incentives for them to form alliances with students from other institutions.

DISSEMINATION
Previous versions of the current design have been used for Contaminated Sites Management involving scientistists and engineers , Environmental Engineering involving only engineers, and between Engineers and Political Science students. (See following sections for resources about these activities).

RESEARCH CONDUCTED ON THE DESIGN
Mekong e-Sim has been evaluated at all stages of its design and implementation. Student perceptions of their learning and responses to the e-Sim were evaluated using student comments in the debriefing essay, a paper-based student survey and focus-group discussions. This data is progressively being released through publications. See publications below for relevant citations.

Survey results indicated the following levels of student perceptions that the e-Sim:

• Developed an awareness of multiple perspectives on natural resource decision-making and development issues (91%).
• Contributed to the development of negotiation, and communication skills (70%).
• Assisted the development of knowledge about organizations in the region (94%); and the values and attitudes of personae (85%).
• Was enjoyable (68%).

Mekong e-Sim was intended to support students in understanding multiple perspectives associated with natural resource management. The extent to which students demonstrated this was evaluated through the examination of written assessment tasks that were designed to demonstrate student capabilities and understandings. Analysis of debriefing essays using the Biggs SOLO framework indicated that 75% produced multistructural responses to the problem providing evidence that Mekong e-Sim is effective in supporting students in learning about alternate perspectives on problems.

DESIGN EFFECTIVENESS VERSUS INTENDED OUTCOMES
The e-Sim design appears to be very effective at obtaining multiple perspectives on issues in a way that students can negotiate differences.

HOW LEARNER ENGAGEMENT IS SUPPORTED
Learner engagement is enhanced through the use of roleplay and the complex real-world scenarios. Learners assume a greater share of responsibility for what is learned and how learning occurs. Within the e-Sim, the learner controls the content and flow of messages by determining who they will interact with and within what context this will occur (email, forum, media release). He or she receives feedback from other participants based on those actions. The assessment of learner participation using a range of artefacts from their interaction within the e-Sim allows for this flexibility.

Comment from the Evaluation Team...

The evaluators of this exemplar concluded that this learning design implementation engages learners very effectively. The evaluation feedback is as follows:

"A role-playing simulation by definition provides opportunities for peer interaction and feedback. This particular case explicitly plans for reflection and consolidation and, within each of its phases, opportunity for learner control. It is not so clear what the specific learning goals are, beyond the broad one of exploring the situation and getting into it in depth…Also, there does not seem to be an attempt to use the real experiences of the participants: all are role-playing from the start."

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF LEARNING CONTEXT
Within the e-Sim all personae are based on real stakeholders impacted by decisions within the Mekong Region while the Forum events represent realistic decisions being undertaken by those personae. Many of the news events used to promote interdependence are drawn from actual media reports. The multi-disciplinary and cross-institutional backgrounds of the students involved in the e-Sim add to the knowledge richness of the activity. This provides a high level of functional reality for each persona and their interactions. The promotion of critical reflection using face-to-face debriefing sessions, online critical learning incident reports, debriefing reports and the use of an assessment based around higher order learning (e.g. SOLO) were designed to promote the transfer of any learning outcomes to other contexts.

Comment from the Evaluation Team...

The evaluators of this exemplar had difficulty gauging the extent to which this learning design implementation acknowledges the learning context because of their limited exposure to the details of the exemplar, that is, the information provided to them to conduct the evaluation. This is evident in the following comment.

"It is not clear from the site how the real cultural differences in the students are built upon, everyone seems to be told to role-play in the same way. Also, it is not so clear if the different groups really study their separate contributions; if not, each group gets to know itself very well but loses the chance of comparing its way of thinking with other groups. Were the groups formed of students all within one institution or across institutions? Also, it is not clear how much the participants had to bring in actual resources from the field (and build a group resource collection consisting of real artifacts) and how much they were using their imaginations. Is there a collection of real artifacts contributed to by all the groups? If not, this would have been a strong addition to the design. There does not appear to be an attempt to build on the actual circumstances of the students; again, it seems they are "role-playing" from the start with no explicit instruction to build on their real circumstances. "

HOW THE LEARNING DESIGN CHALLENGES LEARNERS
The use of role-play allows participants to gain a better understanding of their own and other participants’ perspectives. Structured opportunities for reflective practice in the e-Sim occur during the debriefing activities. This reflection can focus on a variety of issues, including the tacit norms underlying a judgement, the strategies behind an action, the feeling associated with an event or the specific role a person is trying to fulfil.

The learners assume a large degree of control over their interactions and the collaborative learning that comes from those interactions.

Comment from the Evaluation Team...

The evaluators concur with the designers - the learning design implementation does challenge learners effectively:

"A lot depends on how much their contributions and discussions are grounded in conceptual and real-life awareness and how much they are just role-playing. Also, there is not really a clear way to see the final results of the groups, so it is hard to say. But in general it is an immersive design that is certainly challenging."

OPPORTUNITIES FOR PRACTICE
The various stages of participant involvement in the learning design provide for increased levels of practice and participation in the participants publicly stating their views and shaping the way the issue is discussed. Feedback to the participants is available from other participants in response to their actions and from teaching staff.

There is a strong alignment between assessment and the performance of the participants in carrying out tasks during the activity.

Comment from the Evaluation Team...

The evaluators concluded that the learning design implementation does provide opportunities for practice effectively. They qualified their conclusion with the following feedback.

"There is certainly a lot of communication. How much feedback was given and when was not clear to see from the site. There was an overview of how points would be distributed per component, but it was not clear how these points would be further given within each assignment."