The affordances of studying in a virtual world.

Learn, Teach and Play in 3D Virtual Worlds

City UniversityMarch 18,2009

Trevor Barker

Dept. Computer Science

University of Hertfordshire

Contents of presentation

IntroductionPast Research

Current ResearchEmpirical study on the group working in virtual environments and affordances of studying in virtual worlds

Conclusion

Second Life: A virtual campus

Some issues

Living in a virtual world is not the same as living in a real world

When you turn a virtual corner, the world moves and you stand still

Desktop virtual reality imposes new challenges Navigation Location Orientation

It requires new life skills and rule sets Practical Social Communication

Will this disadvantage learners who cannot meet these challenges?

Previous Research

My PhD student Eyal Haik spent four years looking into problems of performing tasks in desktop virtual environments

Our research showed that individual differences were crucial in understanding how people

Interact Learn Perform tasks Remember information Move around Find objects

Virtual Variables

Some tools developed and tested

Figure 2. Tool 2 (simple map and arrows) –Clicking on the arrows that appear in the environment provides guided navigation. General navigation is also enabled by mouse movements.

Figure 3. Tool 3 (navigation map) – Clicking on the map provides the user with targeted navigation.

ResultsResults

Variables' Results

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Control -Environment

only

Simple map Simple map +Arrows

Navigation map

Conditions

Scor

e

Navigation

Mouse

Overall Task

Orientation

Finding

Preference

Overall easiest

Overall preference

Variables' Results

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Control -Environment

only

Simple map Simple map +Arrows

Navigation map

Conditions

Scor

e

Navigation

Mouse

Overall Task

Orientation

Finding

Preference

Overall easiest

Overall preference

Eyal Haik, Investigation into Effective Navigation in Desktop Virtual InterfacesEyal Haik, Investigation into Effective Navigation in Desktop Virtual Interfaces

Interpretation: Post hoc analysis

Users could perform the tasks significantly quicker by using the assistive maps

Information was not remembered any better in test condition (with assistive map) than the control

Information about the location of rooms was remembered worse in test conditions than in the control

Second Life as a social network

Some findings from these studies are important in the context of social networking:

1.Task performance is more efficient in worlds where there is greater assistance

2.The more you assist learners, the more constrained they feel and the less they remember about their world

3.This suggests that in highly assisted environments, learners are less immersed and interact less with the environment

Studying in Virtual Worlds: Team work

An important component of software development is the requirement to work in teams

Team working has always proven difficult on software development courses, not least due to difficulty in arranging face to face meetings

In the past we have tried video conferencing and text chat with some limited success

This year a group of 80+ final year students have undertaken their group project work using SL

In order to support this, the following has been established in SL

Group project work

Induction sessions Secure area for group working Meeting areas Online resources within study areas in second life

Lecture notes Audio files PowerPoint presentations

Note taking and recording facilities Online lectures

Asynchronous Synchronous

Avatar Real life video-based

13

Induction

To set up user accounts on Second Life www.secondlife.com

Create an account

14

Last names?

15

Induction – part 2

You all should have an account by now You should be members of the AMMIS group

You should have completed the training Log in and explore the world Locate the AMMIS group area Look at the lecture resources

Notes, podcasts and powerpoints

16

Finding your area

17

Voila

18

Lecture resources

19

HCI Lecture 17

20

This lecture

Audio resources

21

Group meetings

22

Small Lecture room

23

Lecture Theatre

REC ME (UCase)

25

Recording meetings

26

Copy to a doc

27

Report of meeting

28

Help documentation

Help documentation

Lectures: Avatar

Lectures: Streamed video

Data collection

We are using qualitative and quantitative research methods in order to assess the efficacy of this approach

These include: Individual and group reflective reports Screen capture and data logging Questionnaire and focus group sessions Results of group projects

quality of process and product Comparison with previous cohorts

Reflective reports

Reflective report part A

Reflective report part B

Reflective report part C

Teachers

How do we get teachers to use SECOND Life in their normal teaching?

Useful Simple Robust: It must never let you down in front of students Pedagogical benefit

Problems for the experts: Skype record

Ah no!

Some questions being answered

What are the affordances of virtual worlds for teaching learning?

How can we engage learners and teachers? What is the true cost / benefit? More research on factors such as the educational

benefits of social interaction in virtual worlds is necessary.

What are the pedagogical benefits of teaching and learning in a virtual world?

What about Accessibility? Exclusion? Are any disadvantaged (teachers?, students?)