Increasing Student Engagement through Virtual Worlds

2018 ◽  
pp. 931-950
Author(s):  
Yvonne Pigatt ◽  
James Braman
Keyword(s):  
Community College ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Technological Society ◽  
Creative Power ◽  
College Course ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Rich Content

Virtual worlds allow for an immersive 3D experience with rich content and interactive potential for students. Through this richness and interactivity, educators have abundant creative power to design and facilitate meaningful learning experiences and collaboration opportunities. In this chapter, we discuss one such initiative using Second Life as an educational space for a community college course activity as a means to enhance student engagement. A brief literature review on education using virtual worlds will be presented, which underpin our pedagogical methodology for the project framework. Focusing on a community college course titled “Diversity in a Technological Society”, the course goals and project requirements will be discussed. The chapter concludes with a detailed description of the proposed methodology for the next phase, recommendations and future work.

Increasing Student Engagement through Virtual Worlds

2016 ◽  
pp. 75-94
Author(s):  
Yvonne Pigatt ◽  
James Braman
Keyword(s):  
Community College ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Technological Society ◽  
Creative Power ◽  
College Course ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Rich Content

Virtual worlds allow for an immersive 3D experience with rich content and interactive potential for students. Through this richness and interactivity, educators have abundant creative power to design and facilitate meaningful learning experiences and collaboration opportunities. In this chapter, we discuss one such initiative using Second Life as an educational space for a community college course activity as a means to enhance student engagement. A brief literature review on education using virtual worlds will be presented, which underpin our pedagogical methodology for the project framework. Focusing on a community college course titled “Diversity in a Technological Society”, the course goals and project requirements will be discussed. The chapter concludes with a detailed description of the proposed methodology for the next phase, recommendations and future work.

Engaging Students in a Computer Diversity Course Through Virtual Worlds

2021 ◽  
pp. 170-193
Author(s):  
Yvonne Pigatt ◽  
James Braman
Keyword(s):  
Community College ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Diversity Course ◽  
Creative Power ◽  
College Course ◽  
Specific Community ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Rich Content

Virtual world technology allows for an immersive 3D experience with rich content and interactive potential for students. Through this richness and interactivity, educators have abundant creative power to design and facilitate meaningful learning experiences and collaboration opportunities. In this chapter, the authors discuss one such initiative using Second Life as an educational space for a community college course activity to enhance student engagement. A brief literature review of the educational use of virtual worlds will be presented, which underpin our pedagogical methodology for the project framework. Focusing on a specific community college course titled “Diversity in a Technological Society,” the course goals and project requirements will be discussed. The chapter concludes with a detailed description of the proposed methodology for the next phase, recommendations, and future work.

Applied Areas of Three Dimensional Virtual Worlds in Learning and Teaching

2019 ◽  
pp. 172-192
Author(s):  
Reza Ghanbarzadeh ◽  
Amir Hossein Ghapanchi
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Educational Goals ◽  
Learning And Teaching

Three Dimensional Virtual Worlds (3DVW) have been substantially adopted in educational and pedagogical fields worldwide. The current study conducted a systematic literature review of the published research relevant to the application of 3DVWs in higher education. A literature search was performed in eight high-ranking databases, and following scrutiny according to inclusion criteria, 164 papers were selected for review. The systematic literature review process was summarized, reviews undertaken by the authors, and results about the applicability of 3DVWs in higher education were extracted. A wide variety of application areas for the 3DVWs in higher education were found, and were classified into five main categories. Various 3DVW platforms and virtual environments used for educational goals were also identified. The results revealed Second Life as the most popular 3DVW platform in higher education. This study also found that by using 3DVW technology a wide range of virtual environments and virtual tools have been designed and applied in teaching and learning for higher education.

Eidsvoll 1814

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Prasolova-Forland ◽  
Ole Ørjan Hov
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Critical Discussion ◽  
Practical Reasons ◽  
Historical Building ◽  
Constituent Assembly ◽  
Future Work

3D Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) or virtual worlds have been widely used in educational settings for the purposes of simulation and demonstration of scientific concepts, art and historical events that for practical reasons may be complicated in real-life classrooms. This paper describes an experience of recreating a central event in Norwegian history, adoption of Norwegian constitution at Eidsvoll in 1814, in the virtual world of Second Life. The historical building where this event took place was reconstructed and used as a part of an online history course where Norwegian students residing all over the world could meet at Virtual Eidsvoll, play the role of the members of the Constituent Assembly and pass the constitution. Following the description of the experience with the Virtual Eidsvoll project, the authors conclude with a critical discussion of using 3D CVEs for history education, outlining directions for future work.

Applied Areas of Three Dimensional Virtual Worlds in Learning and Teaching

2016 ◽  
pp. 26-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reza Ghanbarzadeh ◽  
Amir Hossein Ghapanchi
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Educational Goals ◽  
Learning And Teaching

Three Dimensional Virtual Worlds (3DVW) have been substantially adopted in educational and pedagogical fields worldwide. The current study conducted a systematic literature review of the published research relevant to the application of 3DVWs in higher education. A literature search was performed in eight high-ranking databases, and following scrutiny according to inclusion criteria, 164 papers were selected for review. The systematic literature review process was summarized, reviews undertaken by the authors, and results about the applicability of 3DVWs in higher education were extracted. A wide variety of application areas for the 3DVWs in higher education were found, and were classified into five main categories. Various 3DVW platforms and virtual environments used for educational goals were also identified. The results revealed Second Life as the most popular 3DVW platform in higher education. This study also found that by using 3DVW technology a wide range of virtual environments and virtual tools have been designed and applied in teaching and learning for higher education.

scholarly journals An Experiment in Using Virtual Worlds for Scientific Visualization of Self-Gravitating Systems

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Meierjurgen Farr ◽  
Piet Hut ◽  
Jeff Ames ◽  
Adam Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Scientific Visualization ◽  
Stellar System ◽  
Recent Experience ◽  
Simulation Code ◽  
Simulation Engine ◽  
Gravitating Systems ◽  
Future Work

In virtual worlds objects fall straight down. By replacing a few lines of code to include Newton's gravity in full, virtual world software can become an N-body simulation code with visualization included where objects move under their mutual gravitational attraction as stars in a cluster. We report on our recent experience of adding a gravitational n-body simulator to the OpenSim virtual world physics engine. OpenSim is an open-source, virtual world server that provides a 3D immersive experience to users who connect using the popular “Second Life” client software from Linden Labs. With the addition of the n-body simulation engine, multiple users can collaboratively create point-mass gravitating objects in the virtual world and then observe the subsequent gravitational evolution of their “stellar” system. We view this work as an experiment examining the suitability of virtual worlds for scientific visualization, and we report on future work to enhance and expand the prototype we have built.

Eidsvoll 1814

2012 ◽  
pp. 171-185
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Prasolova-Forland ◽  
Ole Ørjan Hov
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Critical Discussion ◽  
Practical Reasons ◽  
Historical Building ◽  
Constituent Assembly ◽  
The World ◽  
Future Work

3D Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) or virtual worlds have been widely used in educational settings for the purposes of simulation and demonstration of scientific concepts, art and historical events that for practical reasons may be complicated in real-life classrooms. This paper describes an experience of recreating a central event in Norwegian history, adoption of Norwegian constitution at Eidsvoll in 1814, in the virtual world of Second Life. The historical building where this event took place was reconstructed and used as a part of an online history course where Norwegian students residing all over the world could meet at Virtual Eidsvoll, play the role of the members of the Constituent Assembly and pass the constitution. Following the description of the experience with the Virtual Eidsvoll project, the authors conclude with a critical discussion of using 3D CVEs for history education, outlining directions for future work.

scholarly journals How Do We Model Learning at Scale? A Systematic Review of Research on MOOCs

2017 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Srećko Joksimović ◽  
Oleksandra Poquet ◽  
Vitomir Kovanović ◽  
Nia Dowell ◽  
Caitlin Mills ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Student Engagement ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Traditional Education ◽  
Model Learning ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Online Setting ◽  
Future Work

Despite a surge of empirical work on student participation in online learning environments, the causal links between the learning-related factors and processes with the desired learning outcomes remain unexplored. This study presents a systematic literature review of approaches to model learning in Massive Open Online Courses offering an analysis of learning-related constructs used in the prediction and measurement of student engagement and learning outcome. Based on our literature review, we identify current gaps in the research, including a lack of solid frameworks to explain learning in open online setting. Finally, we put forward a novel framework suitable for open online contexts based on a well-established model of student engagement. Our model is intended to guide future work studying the association between contextual factors (i.e., demographic, classroom, and individual needs), student engagement (i.e., academic, behavioral, cognitive, and affective engagement metrics), and learning outcomes (i.e., academic, social, and affective). The proposed model affords further interstudy comparisons as well as comparative studies with more traditional education models.

Facilitating Immersion in Virtual Worlds

2013 ◽  
pp. 189-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Farley
Keyword(s):  
Distance Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Virtual Meeting ◽  
Suspension Of Disbelief ◽  
Being There

Virtual worlds, in particular Second Life and Open Sim, are providing welcome opportunities for the development of innovative curricula for tertiary educators, particularly those engaged with distance education. They provide a virtual meeting ground for those students and teachers who are geographically remote from one another, rendering distance irrelevant and enabling the formation of community. This chapter looks at those factors—physical, social, virtual, and those related to pedagogy—which facilitate immersion in virtual worlds; that suspension of disbelief which generates the feeling of presence or “being there,” crucial to promoting student engagement and ultimately, flow.

(Re)Measuring Community College Student Engagement: Testing a Seven-Factor CCSSE Model

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 400-422
Author(s):  
Kyle McCarrell ◽  
Benjamin Selznick
Keyword(s):  
Community College ◽  
College Student ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
Community College Student ◽  
Institutional Research ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Seven Principles ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Future Work

Objective: Despite the popularity of the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE), this instrument has been criticized regarding its development, theoretical basis, validity, and connection to practice. In light of these concerns, this article reframes the survey by employing Chickering and Gamson’s seven principles, one of the survey’s original theoretical frameworks. A robust discussion of the new measure and its implications for research and practice is presented. Method: Chickering and Gamson’s theory was used to motivate, create, and evaluate a seven-factor model using items from the CCSSE. Drawing on responses from two community colleges ( N = 1,076), a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test this model. Results: Findings provide support for a seven-factor model with high model fit and moderate-to-strong factor reliability. Contributions: This study offers a valid alternative approach to considering CCSSE data that may influence future work in the area of community college student engagement. We also consider how institutional research practitioners and other stakeholders can leverage study insights to promote student success across community college contexts.

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