Recording of the session from AACSB's Online Learning Affinity Group on Thursday, March 17th at 12:00 pm CT on Next Gen Learning with Wharton Interactive’s Games-based Courses. This session featured Sarah Toms, executive director of Wharton Interactive as she shared about Alternate Reality Courses (ARCs), entire classes delivered in a highly engaging game. Even though this initiative launched last year, tens of thousands globally have completed a Wharton ARC, including students in higher-ed and those already in the business world.

Wharton Interactive is on a mission to radically transform and democratize education with the most innovative educational games on the planet.

Why does innovation like this matter? Traditional education doesn’t tackle the complexity of real life or provide ample opportunity to practice in-class lessons in the real world. But in the right kind of game—an ARC game—learners get to play the starring role in their educational journey. Immersed in a realistic narrative where non-player characters pose challenges, players are guided through making complex decisions. ARCs also provide individualized analytical feedback to the learner every step of the way on how well they are performing.

Wharton Interactive is experiencing explosive growth because their ARCs deliver a giant leap forward in next gen experiential learning … and this team is only just getting started.

Bio

Sarah is a serious games expert and demonstrated thought leader in the educational technology field, fueled by a passion to find and develop innovative ways to make every learning environment active, engaging, more meaningful, and learner-centered. Her drive to modernize, transform, and democratize education led Sarah and her team to co-invent Simpl.world, an open source simulation framework. She has spent more than twenty years as a leader in the technology sphere, and was an entrepreneur for over a decade, founding companies that built global CRM, product development, productivity management, and financial systems. In addition, Sarah is coauthor of The Customer Centricity Playbook, the Digital Book Awards 2019 Best Business Book. And she is dedicated to supporting women and girls in the technology field, cofounding WIT@Penn, and through her work with the Women in Tech Summit and techgirlz.org. Follow her on twitter at @SarahEToms.

“Wharton Interactive is pioneering radically new approaches to how we educate - letting learners engage in their learning journey in fundamentally more meaningful ways."