Designing for Social Interaction and Social Competence in a 3D-VLE

2010 ◽  
pp. 154-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Laffey ◽  
Matthew Schmidt ◽  
Janine Stichter ◽  
Carla Schmidt ◽  
Danielle Oprean
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Competence ◽  
Field Test ◽  
Target Population ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Virtual Learning Environment ◽  
Partial System ◽  
Teaching Approaches ◽  
Online Social Interaction ◽  
Social Skills Curriculum

The purpose of the iSocial project is to support the development and practice of social competence for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) through a social-skills curriculum and online social interaction delivered via a 3D virtual learning environment (3D-VLE). This chapter describes the background and rationale for developing iSocial, gives an overview of the system, and reports some of the results from a field test of a partial system implementation. The field test provides lessons about the initial system design and recognition of challenges to be faced. The key challenges include (1) finding best approaches for adapting effective teaching approaches to a 3D-VLE, (2) supporting online social interaction for a target population challenged to be social, and (3) amplifying the engagement of youth in support of achieving desired learning outcomes.

Designing for Social Interaction and Social Competence in a 3D-VLE

2012 ◽  
pp. 223-237
Author(s):  
James Laffey ◽  
Matthew Schmidt ◽  
Janine Stichter ◽  
Carla Schmidt ◽  
Danielle Oprean ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Competence ◽  
Field Test ◽  
Target Population ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Virtual Learning Environment ◽  
Partial System ◽  
Teaching Approaches ◽  
Online Social Interaction ◽  
Social Skills Curriculum

The purpose of the iSocial project is to support the development and practice of social competence for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) through a social-skills curriculum and online social interaction delivered via a 3D virtual learning environment (3D-VLE). This chapter describes the background and rationale for developing iSocial, gives an overview of the system, and reports some of the results from a field test of a partial system implementation. The field test provides lessons about the initial system design and recognition of challenges to be faced. The key challenges include (1) finding best approaches for adapting effective teaching approaches to a 3D-VLE, (2) supporting online social interaction for a target population challenged to be social, and (3) amplifying the engagement of youth in support of achieving desired learning outcomes.

Supporting Youth With Autism Learning Social Competence: A Comparison of Game- and Nongame-Based Activities in 3D Virtual World

2021 ◽  
pp. 073563312110220
Author(s):  
Xianhui Wang ◽  
Wanli Xing
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Competence ◽  
Central Element ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Virtual Learning Environment ◽  
Learning Activities ◽  
Behavior Patterns ◽  
Interaction Behavior ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Impact

This study explored youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) learning social competence in the context of innovative 3D virtual learning environment and the effects of gaming as a central element of the learning experience. The empirical study retrospectively compared the social interactions of 11 adolescents with ASD in game-and nongame-based 3D collaborative learning activities in the same social competence training curriculum. We employed a learning analytics approach - association rule mining to uncover the associative rules of verbal social interaction and nonverbal social interaction contributors from the large dataset of the coded social behaviors. By comparing the rules across the game and nongame activities, we found a significant difference in youth with ASD’s social performance. The results of the group comparison study indicated that the co-occurrence of verbal and nonverbal behaviors is much stronger in the game-based learning activities. The game activities also yielded more diverse social interaction behavior patterns. On the other hand, in the nongame activities, students’ social interaction behavior patterns are much more limited. Furthermore, the impact of game design principles on learning is then discussed in this paper.

Being social in a 3D collaborative virtual learning environment : a case study of youth with autism spectrum disorder learning social competence in iSocial

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Xianhui Wang
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Competence ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Virtual Learning ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Reciprocal Social Interaction

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Over the past decade 3D collaborative virtual learning has gained increasing attention from researchers and practitioners in educational technology. Learners experience of presence in collaborative activities and social interactions among learners are identified as key constructs for the social dimensions of 3D collaborative virtual learning. 3D Collaborative Virtual Learning Environments (CVLEs) are beginning to be used to support learning in a variety of disciplines, including social skills learning for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This case study explores 11 youth with ASD's experience of embodied social presence and reciprocal social interaction while learning social competence in a 3D CVLE-iSocial. The findings describe youth with ASD's 1) levels of embodied presence, embodied copresence, and embodied social presence; and 2) verbal and nonverbal reciprocal social interactions across the variety of Naturalistic Practice activities in iSocial. In addition, the results of this case study inform future design by indicating associations of design features of iSocial 3D CVLE with youth with ASD's experience of embodied social presence and characteristics of reciprocal social interaction.

Social Orthotics for Youth with ASD to Learn in a Collaborative 3D VLE

2010 ◽  
pp. 76-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Laffey ◽  
Janine Stichter ◽  
Matthew Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Virtual Learning Environment ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Online Systems ◽  
3D Virtual World ◽  
3D Virtual Environments

Online systems, especially 3D virtual environments, hold great potential to enrich and expand learning opportunities for those who are challenged by traditional modes of instruction and interaction. In the process of developing a 3D Virtual Learning Environment to support the development and practice of social competence for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders, the iSocial project explored and advanced ideas for social orthotics in virtual environments. By social orthotics the authors mean structures in the environment that overcome barriers to facilitate social interaction and social learning. The vision of social orthotics in a 3D world is to be both assistive and adaptive for appropriate social behavior when the student, peers and guide are represented by avatars in a 3D virtual world designed to support learning and development. This chapter describes the formulation of social orthotics for avatar orientation and conversational turn-taking and describes experiences and lessons from early tests of prototype orthotics.

Social Orthotics for Youth with ASD to Learn in a Collaborative 3D VLE

2012 ◽  
pp. 674-692
Author(s):  
James M. Laffey ◽  
Janine Stichter ◽  
Matthew Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Virtual Learning Environment ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Online Systems ◽  
3D Virtual World ◽  
3D Virtual Environments

Online systems, especially 3D virtual environments, hold great potential to enrich and expand learning opportunities for those who are challenged by traditional modes of instruction and interaction. In the process of developing a 3D Virtual Learning Environment to support the development and practice of social competence for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders, the iSocial project explored and advanced ideas for social orthotics in virtual environments. By social orthotics the authors mean structures in the environment that overcome barriers to facilitate social interaction and social learning. The vision of social orthotics in a 3D world is to be both assistive and adaptive for appropriate social behavior when the student, peers and guide are represented by avatars in a 3D virtual world designed to support learning and development. This chapter describes the formulation of social orthotics for avatar orientation and conversational turn-taking and describes experiences and lessons from early tests of prototype orthotics.

scholarly journals Greater Social Competence Is Associated With Higher Interpersonal Neural Synchrony in Adolescents With Autism

2022 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra P. Key ◽  
Yan Yan ◽  
Mary Metelko ◽  
Catie Chang ◽  
Hakmook Kang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Competence ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Neural Synchrony ◽  
Adolescents With Autism

Difficulty engaging in reciprocal social interactions is a core characteristic of autism spectrum disorder. The mechanisms supporting effective dynamic real-time social exchanges are not yet well understood. This proof-of-concept hyperscanning electroencephalography study examined neural synchrony as the mechanism supporting interpersonal social interaction in 34 adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (50% female), age 10–16 years, paired with neurotypical confederates of similar age. The degree of brain-to-brain neural synchrony was quantified at temporo-parietal scalp locations as the circular correlation of oscillatory amplitudes in theta, alpha, and beta frequency bands while the participants engaged in a friendly conversation. In line with the hypotheses, interpersonal neural synchrony was significantly greater during the social interaction compared to the baseline. Lower levels of synchrony were associated with increased behavioral symptoms of social difficulties. With regard to sex differences, we found evidence for stronger interpersonal neural synchrony during conversation than baseline in females with autism, but not in male participants, for whom such condition differences did not reach statistical significance. This study established the feasibility of hyperscanning during real-time social interactions as an informative approach to examine social competence in autism, demonstrated that neural coordination of activity between the interacting brains may contribute to social behavior, and offered new insights into sex-related variability in social functioning in individuals with autism spectrum disorders.

Social epistemic actions

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Pezzulo ◽  
Laura Barca ◽  
Domenico Maisto ◽  
Francesco Donnarumma
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Joint Action ◽  
Niche Construction ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Epistemic Actions ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Online Social Interaction

Abstract We consider the ways humans engage in social epistemic actions, to guide each other's attention, prediction, and learning processes towards salient information, at the timescale of online social interaction and joint action. This parallels the active guidance of other's attention, prediction, and learning processes at the longer timescale of niche construction and cultural practices, as discussed in the target article.

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