Xtranormal Learning for Millennials: An Innovative Tool for Group Projects

Encouraging students to actively engage with course material is an ongoing challenge for many management educators. One common tactic is to use various technologies that allow tech-savvy Millennial Generation students to take a more active role in their learning. In this article, we describe an innovative group project that challenges students to integrate Xtranormal (text-to-video software) into a role-play exercise. This project was incorporated into undergraduate human resource management courses at two universities. Qualitative self-report student learning data were collected over the course of three semesters from 210 students. The data offer insights into why and how this project excited the students and positively affected their perceptions about designing and evaluating a training session, applying training concepts, and demonstrating other human resource management concepts. We found that providing students an opportunity to use Xtranormal resulted in a number of learning outcomes, including creative freedom that enhanced engagement with the material, greater understanding and application of concepts, and training method and design competency, among others.