Accidental Learning

What is "Accidental Learning"? Traditional study materials take you through a predefined path to knowledge. The author's hope is that you will understand at least a portion of what he or she is trying to present. The problem with this method is that the likelihood of you learning something that they didn't plan on presenting is very small.

"Accidental Learning" happens when you learn something that:

• You weren't specifically researching
• Or that the author hadn't explicitly put into the resource you are using

Virtual Historian provides an atmosphere where this "Accidental Learning" can occur. Because the maps, timeline, historical background, locations, and biographies are always present and accessible you will begin to see how people, places, and events relate to each other in ways that you never imagined. You will discover information about subjects that you weren't planning on studying. You will discover information that wasn't specifically laid out for you in a chapter in a book.

How do we know this? Because it is what the experts in Church History who have used Virtual Historian are telling us. People who have been teaching Doctrine & Covenants for a lifetime are telling us that as they are going through the program they are learning new things about the Doctrine & Covenants. This isn't because we have information that was never available before but because we are presenting old information in a way that it has never been seen. Craig Ostler, Associate Professor of Church History & Doctrine at Brigham Young University and one of the key contributors to the content of the project said that, "The Virtual Historian is causing us to ask questions that we have never asked before because of the way the information is presented."

The exciting part is that this "Accidental Learning" is not only happening among academics. We have received numerous comments from users who tell us that as they use Virtual Historian they are learning more about the Doctrine & Covenants than ever before.