‘Ask the Expert’ webinars by Tata Interactive Systems: 6th February by Manisha Mohan

As a part of free-for-all ‘Ask the Expert’ webinars by Tata Interactive Systems comes a session on the 6th February by Manisha Mohan- Senior VP- Design & Animation in which she will talk about how Animation and 3D Virtual Worlds can enhance learning engagement and effectiveness.

Manisha Mohan

AnimationXpress.com brings you a quick conversation with Manisha Mohan to get a detailed insight of the aspects that will be spoken about in this webinar and she starts the conversation with us by saying, “The boundaries between education and entertainment are blurring – and there is a need to make learning content more and more engaging for learners.”

Hi Manisha, before moving onto the details of the webinar, can we know the roles that you have played at Tata Interactive Systems?

I have been in Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) right from the beginning of my career.TIS is an e-learning company – where animation plays a very important role. I started as a designer and an animator working on  old packages such as 3D Studio and Animator Pro– and over the years played several roles such as heading the design team, being a business head for the K12 (the work we did for schools worldwide) division and I currently head the Animation Studio within TIS.

At TIS, I look after design and animation and head the Animation Studio at Tata Interactive Systems. We typically use animation for education and training and do a wide range of interesting projects for diverse customers such as pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, cruise liners, universities, schools, manufacturing companies etc across the globe.

You will be talking about how Animation and 3D Virtual Worlds can enhance learning engagement and effectiveness- Can you elaborate more on this subject?

The boundaries between education and entertainment are blurring – and there is a need to make learning content more and more engaging for learners. People love to watch films and play games – therefore now expect the same level of engagement when they are undergoing a training or educational program. Animation has the capability of cutting across geographical boundaries, as well as of making complex subjects more understandable and palatable. My webinar would focus on the advantage of using animation and 3D virtual worlds in education and training – and highlight some case studies of projects we have done across different domains. These products have helped people learn better and many of them have won international awards.

Webinar Starts  7.30 pm Indian Standard Time on 6th February, Clicking Here to Register !

Why do you feel this topic should be spoken on?
There is a lot of awareness of Animation and Gaming in the Entertainment domain, however less so of animation in the educational domain. We at TIS believe that the quality of our animation gives our learning programs a competitive edge, and is also widely appreciated by our customers worldwide. On another note we have some very talented animators working with us – and this domain offers alternate and exciting career opportunities designers and animators.

How has Animation & 3D inspired enhanced your learning engagement in your view?

I will be sharing examples during my webinar, however to share one with you –we have used Maya and Unity 3D to create a virtual retail store in Canada where new recruits (Associates) in the company can explore the store environment and identify problems and link them to business impact issues. For example too many people queued up to buy an item could be caused due to the fact that the person at the counter is not trained properly, and may result in loss of sales if people get impatient.

Since typically people who work at counters in a retail store are young – they also play a lot of games. They much prefer a format like this – as opposed to learning concepts in a classroom or from a textbook.

We got an excellent response from the learners in this case in post program survey results, 90% of new Associates attributed their increased comfort level with running a store to the virtual walkthrough. Additionally, overall they had increased their speed to productivity on the job by 3-6 months.

This program also won the Brandon Hall Gold Award for Virtual Worlds last year.

What is your main focus with this session?
My main focus is to create awareness of the role of animation in the learning domain. This webinar is a part of a series focusing on learning trends, and the use of 3D virtual worlds for education and training is certainly an important industry trend.

How will you explain this concept to a novice?

The webinar will not be too technical in nature – since the audience is from very diverse backgrounds – while I would be willing to answer technical questions if they come up. Even a novice would have watched some of the amazing animation films like Kung fu Panda, Happy Feet or would have played games like Need for Speed.  The goal is just to help them see the advantages of using the same medium in an educational context.

How will the attendees benefit from this webinar?
The audience that have signed up so far range from training managers of companies worldwide, practicing designers and animation students. I am sure they will have different take-aways from the session. It might prove useful for training managers to see this as a potential way of engaging their employees further in learning, or for animators and design practitioners to see this as a potential domain to explore as a career opportunity.