Euroversity Network Project Symposium @ Slanguages2014

Getting started in virtual worlds with the EUROVERSITY Network

The EUROVERSITY network is funded under the grant agreement number 518944-LLP-1-2011-1-UK-KA3-KA3NW with the Education,Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, European Union.This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

SLANGUAGES 2014

• Exploitation network of the AVALON project

• Builds on existing synergies (Avalon, AVATAR, Niflar, etc.)

• 3 year multilateral and transversal network LLP EACEA, KA3 (ICT)

• Start date: December 2011

• 19 partners

• Austria, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Cyprus, Portugal, UK, Netherlands, Italy, Israel..


Christel [email protected]

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Different Classroom SettingsDifferent Classroom Settings

Aims of the Project

• Collect examples of good practice in teaching and learning in virtual worlds from different subjects and national and local contexts

• Facilitate the transfer of core knowledge to new contexts

• Provide a framework for the creation of a pan-European virtual-world university


Opportunities and advantages

• Reduce costs of education for all stakeholders

• Increase virtual mobility of learners and teachers

• Facilitate international collaboration and research

• Reduce barriers to education

• Transform our understanding of the delivery of education The EUROVERSITY network is funded under the grant agreement

number 518944-LLP-1-2011-1-UK-KA3-KA3NW with the Education,Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, European Union.This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

EUROVERSITY challenges

• General teacher/learner acceptance

• Access and technical barriers

• Institutional barriers

• Community misconceptions (i.e. virtual worlds are for gaming only, avatars are dangerous, it is not real, etc.)

• QualityThe EUROVERSITY network is funded under the grant agreement number 518944-LLP-1-2011-1-UK-KA3-KA3NW with the Education,Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, European Union.This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Expected Outcomes

•Increase the number of experts in virtual world education

•Create a policy of long-term sustainability of the network and its outcomes

•Design a model for the transfer of knowledge

•Host and promote dissemination eventsThe EUROVERSITY network is funded under the grant agreement number 518944-LLP-1-2011-1-UK-KA3-KA3NW with the Education,Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, European Union.This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.


Gary Motteram (UK) :Sharing Knowledge & Experiences: Methods applied.

Gerhilde Meissl-Egghart (AT):

Activities in SecondLife for teaching German culture and history

David Richardson (SE)

Using the Framework to create new courses


Christel Schneider (DE): Experiences in using Framework. Producing machinima

Stella Hadjistassou (CY)Evaluation methods / instruments. Challenges + interim data

Ton Koenraad (NL)What’s next? Sustainability, Exploitation

Case studies: http://euroversity.pbworks.com/

One of the central ideas of the Euroversity network was that it built on other projects

Initial task was that people in the network who had been involved in other projects created case studies

These were used to build the Framework that will be talked about later

Why case studies?They provide a rich and detailed insight into people’s

practices. If we have enough of them, we can begin to see useful patterns that help us to understand more fundamental questions about a particular practice, in this case in Virtual worlds

A small group brainstormed a series of topics/questions that would be used to frame the case studies: initial decision making process about why you chose to create the course/ aims/ funding/ environment/ learners/ syllabus/ resources etc.

10 initial cases studies created

ExamplesTeam-building exercise

Teacher training course for teachers using virtual worlds

Exploring the value of ICT in education

Business talking

Electrical engineering

German culture and history

Language courses: Spanish and Sami

PBL for business English

Street artists in a virtual space

Continuation

The case studies were interrogated by the Framework team

Post the construction of the framework new case studies are now being created showing how the framework has been used

Activities in SecondLife for teaching German culture and

history

Gerhilde Meissl-Eggharttalkademy.org

[email protected]

the classroom

Minigame - Sorting cubes

Fieldtrip - Munich

1, 2 or 3 - Quizzshow

Minigame: Call my bluff

meeting empress

Sisi

Berlin 1920

Biography -Roleplay

Student projects: rock musician meets Beethoven

Student projects: Kafka meets Marlene Dietrich

Student projects: Karaoke TV-show

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Business English Business English Course in SLCourse in SL

David Richardson: Framework + New Courses

Christel Schneider, CSiTrain – www.csitrain.netChristel Schneider international Training

Email: [email protected]


Euroversity: Evaluation Methods, Instruments,

and Emerging Contradictions

Saturday, March 1,

2014

To evaluate the impact of Euroversity, we relied on two main areas:

(1) The Euroversity Project &

(2) The Euroversity Framework

In both categories, we relied not only on qualitative data analysis but also on a series of metrics to capture the impact of both the Euroversity project and framework.

Evaluating the Impact of the Euroversity Project and Euroversity Framework:

(1) To measure the impact of the Euroversity Project, we have relied on the following critical areas: Management Issues Milestone Plan Communications Plan Dissemination Activities Promoting the Project Growth of the Community Networking Activities

To measure the impact of the Euroversity framework, we relied on the following:

Courses Linked to the Euroversity Framework

Languages Used to Deliver the Courses within the Euroversity Network;

2D/3D Learning Environments Used to Deliver these Courses;

Students Enrolled in these Courses; Instructors’ Perspective; Transfer of Knowledge from Previous

Context to the Network; New Contexts.

Measuring the Impact of the Euroversity Framework:

Instructors’ & Students’ Perspectives In an effort to invite instructors to evaluate the good practice framework, we also devised two sets of questionnaires, one for the participating instructors and one for the students;

Both set of questionnaires are directly to the framework.

Instructors’ PerspectiveThe instructors’ questionnaire includes a set of 21 questions where instructors can evaluate the framework. For instance:

Question 11

“In what ways have the guidelines of the Good Practice Framework on the use of the methods of communication, e.g., text chat and voice chat or other means of communication, facilitated the smooth interaction between you and your students or between students, and contributed to creating an immersive learning experience?”

All instructors who devised and offered courses or learning events in a virtually afforded learning environment using the framework were invited to participate in an interview via Skype which was also recorded using the screen recording software Camtasia;

All students, on the other hand, could complete and submit a written response on a similar set of questions.

Courses in VW environments

Game Design inworld (University of Hull)

MP3 Artifacts Learning, Media Virtual Learning Worlds & Game-based Learning (Kiel University)

Teaching in English & Business Talking (Linnaeus University)

Oral Portuguese in Virtual World (University of Coimbra)

Power System Analysis (University of Cyprus)

Critical Issues that Emerged during the Interviews:

Most of our partners identified specific areas in which the Good Practice Framework was helpful:

Preplanning Stage The good practice framework helped confirm the

decision they made in terms of selecting a virtual world environment;

One of our German partners also agreed that the good practice framework proved to be an effective tool in the preparation and planning process, as well as on the suggestions for communication since as he noted it “worked as a scaffold” for planning and delivering the course;

Project No: 504823-LLP-1-2009-1-FI-KA2-KA2M

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Other partners have also noted that it was not simply the good practice framework that guided them in this process but also the network of partners that were willing to assist with this process; Partners stepping in to assist them with technical and other difficulties that they’ve encountered in the process of delivering their instructional materials;

Emerging Contradictions:We do have a wonderful but big set of

data that need to be transcribed;

Even sharing these files is extremely difficult due to their considerably large size;

Taking into account our partners’ suggestions for revising the framework but also maintaining that flexibility in the framework;


Get involved!Register as Associated

Partner http://www.euroversity.eu/