Enabling Multilingual Social Interactions and Fostering Language Learning in Virtual Worlds

In order to enhance interoperability between virtual worlds, applications, and corpora, it is obvious that standards should come into place. This is the main goal of MLIF and, on a more global perspective, of the Metaverse1 project. In this paper, we study social interactions in virtual worlds, present some cues to facilitate them, and describe the empirical support that we developed for these theories. We also present a few methods for fostering language learning in virtual worlds, and we explain how we have implemented some of them.

Assessing General Education Outcomes Across Programs

As the pressure to provide accountability in education escalates, the assessment of student learning becomes increasingly important. This chapter describes an approach to the assessment of learning outcomes, in both online and face to face programs, as developed for an independent, non-profit university in Ohio. The approach includes three major components: a curriculum mapping process that determines where particular learning outcomes are being assessed, a visual representation of this curriculum map with links to assessment data (Success Path©), and a cyclical assessment process that assists with the continuous improvement of programs and student learning. This chapter leverages current research in the field of student learning, assessment, and curriculum mapping theory.

The Pedagogical Considerations in the Design of Virtual Worlds for Organization Learning

An increasing number of organizations have established presences in Second Life or virtual worlds for organizational learning. The types of activities range from staff training, annual meetings, to leadership development and commercial transactions. This chapter reviews relevant literature on how virtual worlds, especially Second Life, are utilized for organizational learning. The discussions include leveraging the affordances of virtual worlds for learning, integrating design principles of 3D immersive learning, and examining examples of actual workplace learning in virtual worlds. Specific emphasis will be placed on the translation of applicable learning theories into the pedagogical design of virtual worlds. Furthermore, the chapter examines student perspectives of an actual course on immersive learning that took place in Second Life. Student perspectives are summarized in six strands: challenging and informative learning, engagement, activity structures, transformation, collaborative and democratic participation, and new opportunities. The six themes are important factors for designers of 3D learning environments to ensure quality immersive learning experiences.

A Preliminary Look at the Development on Websites of Higher Education Institutions

This chapter provides an overview of websites of higher education institutions. It then discusses the impact of emergent Web 2.0 technologies and social media on the online communication and society, and presents a study focusing on trends and issues of the development on websites of higher education institutions. The results of the study in this chapter indicates that under the influence of Web 2.0 and social media, websites of higher education institutions have been developed on: building a strong sense of community via embedding social networking tools, endorsing open education via sharing multimedia resources, and enriching users’ experience via offering self-service. The study also indicates that in order to develop effective websites, authenticity and digital citizenship should be considered and managed by administrators and technologists of higher education institutions.

Virtual Forensic Anthropology Applications of Advanced Computer Graphics Technology to the Identification of Human Remains

Anthropology is the “study of man” and encompasses a diverse range of topics, including socio-cultural studies, linguistics, archaeology, and physical anthropology. Physical anthropology, or “biological” anthropology, the study of humans both living and deceased, can be further subcategorized into osteology, primatology, human evolution, and forensic anthropology. Forensic anthropology is the application of physical anthropology techniques to medico-legal settings. Virtual Reality (VR) is being applied to forensic anthropology in a multitude of ways to benefit research and teaching. Several large-scale projects have been launched to digitize, reconstruct, and disseminate specimens (for example, http://www.virtual-anthropology.com). This chapter will begin with an overview of the discipline of forensic anthropology and discuss a number of representative applications of VR technology in this field that are changing the way in which case work may be handled in the future.

Thin Screen

Human depth perception involves complex visual and brain functions. Depth perception in desktop virtual reality has become more important given the uses of such spaces for learning, training, collaboration, simulations, showcasing work, and conducting research on human behaviors. This chapter involves a meta-analysis of the extant research on human depth perception in virtual worlds. It posits some early design concepts for both the creation and evolution of such spaces but also their deployment for educational purposes.

Educational Research in Virtual Learning Environments

The continuous growth of distance education (DE) programs in all levels, powered by the development of new information and communication technologies (ICT), brings new challenges: how can educational research be made in non-presential, asynchronous settings? How can we scientifically approach student bodies formed by people who rarely even share the same hometown and only meet online in virtual learning environments (VLE)? How can we “observe” such groups’ interpersonal, pedagogical relations and their impact on learning? In countries like Brazil, where DE programs have grown vertiginously in few years, many researchers have made significant efforts to answer these questions coherently, efforts that demanded that some principles of traditional educational research be rethought with the help of local and international researches. Interesting methodological approaches to DE groups have resulted from these efforts, and we present and discuss one that has been constantly growing: the virtual ethnographic.

Virtual Hate Communities in the 21st Century

Technological innovations in computer-mediated communication have helped hate groups to transform themselves into virtual communities. Likeminded individuals are now able to unite from all parts of the globe to promote hatred against visible minorities and other out-groups. Through their online interactions, a sense of place is often created. In this chapter, we explore the content and function of online hate communities. Since bigotry tends to be the cornerstone of virtual hate communities, we highlight the legal debate surrounding the regulation of Internet hate speech; in particular, we address the question: Does the First Amendment protect virtual community members who use the Internet to advocate hate? Next, using data collected from the largest hate website, Stormfront.org, we also investigate how Stormfront members utilize interactive media features to foster a sense of community. Finally, we direct our attention to the future of online hate communities by outlining the issues that need to be further investigated.

Commerce Models in Virtual Worlds and Environments

Operators of popular virtual worlds, online games, and other environments employ a number of models to engage in commerce with users and to facilitate user-to-user commerce. Subscriptions, direct user-to-user transactions, advertising, and sales of premium content are just a few examples. These virtual economies exist alongside and within traditional local and global economies, introducing dynamics related to regulations and currency valuations. Within an active virtual worlds market, content and service providers continually look for more effective ways to derive revenue from their virtual properties, while researchers explore the potential of virtual worlds as experimental environments. For both proprietors and researchers, the implications of commerce models are important considerations when defining business or research strategies.

Research-Based Best Practices for Online Programs

This manuscript outlines a dual approach to online best practices that includes both the administrative side and the instructional (faculty) side of distance education. The majority of best practice documents focuses almost exclusively upon instructional best practices and ignores, or only mention in passing, the needed administrative best practices. The author of this research-based best practices manuscript believes that both, working concurrently, are required for a successful and sustainable distance education program. These guidelines are intended to be not only a set of recommendations, but also a policy document that can be readily implemented.