One of the most significant challenges Knock faces is overcoming the traditional approach to education. While the value proposition in CapsimInbox is there, it’s more difficult to overcome hurdles on changing the existing system and adopting new technology.
Many of the Vietnamese students Knock works with lack quality resources. Chalkboards decorate classroom walls, instead of projectors with dancing images. University libraries may not be bigger than a cubicle. Photocopied textbooks are from decades ago. It’s common for high schools and universities to have a limited number of laptops for their student body.
“It’s a different world,” Knock said.
But once you get a few educators on board and willing to embrace simulation learning, “they will eventually all pile in,” Knock said. Capsim’s intuitiveness makes the learning experience worthwhile for students and professors willing to take a bet.
They “inhale and exhale in the exam room,” Knock said. “They aren’t asked to think critically.” The Inbox tool closes the gap by providing students with choices.
“It’s novel. It’s completely new. And students have never seen anything like it,” Knock said.
The choices provided in existing CapsimInbox microsimulations weren’t typically structured in an Eastern cultural background. Knock took the initiative and built something his students can personally relate to in an authentic and familiar context—a hierarchical structure with a stronger team emphasis.
Instead of throwing students into a corporate office situation, they introduce them to organizing a school camp, something they attended during their final year of high school.
The science of learning tells us it’s easier to breach students’ learning in the classroom with familiar technology as a vehicle. That’s why Capsim created a tool that most can recognize: email inboxes. Knock was attracted to CapsimInbox because email inboxes are a recognizable tool to everyone–a more approachable way to introduce students to technology.