scholarly journals Review of Educational Research Methods in Desktop Virtual World Environments: Framing the Past to Provide Future Direction

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Beck ◽  
Ross Perkins
Keyword(s):  
Educational Research ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Library Science ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Politics And Culture ◽  
Virtual World Environments ◽  
Future Direction

This article describes educational research methodologies being used in the investigation and evaluation of desktop virtual world environments (DVWEs) as used to teach a variety of subjects in higher education. Ellis’ research framework on innovations (2005) and Reeves and Hedberg’s research goals (2003) were used as lenses to examine the state of educational research methods within DVWEs. An extensive search that resulted in 127 peer-reviewed papers chosen, was carried out to locate journal articles in the fields of educational technology, computer science and information systems, virtual reality/virtual worlds/gaming, science and health education, human-computer interaction, media and communications, psychology, social science, cognitive science, and library science. Results showed that while small scale research is common, research with broader goals (i.e. program evaluation, developmental research) is lacking.Implications include the need for signature developmental researchers to make their virtual world applications open source, and for DVWE researchers to explore collaborative research opportunities with postmodern, education researchers in order to shed more light on important issues of equity, gender, politics, and culture that impact education.

Using Virtual World Technology as a Faculty Development Tool in Higher Education

2012 ◽  
pp. 149-160
Author(s):  
Linda W. Wood
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Faculty Development ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Faculty Perceptions ◽  
College Faculty ◽  
Teaching Tool ◽  
Development Tool ◽  
Virtual World Environments

Higher education institutions are constantly challenged with the task of educating a technology savvy generation of students. Colleges must be able and ready to meet the needs of these digital-age students. What are the perceptions of college faculty of using virtual world technology as a teaching tool in the classroom? The purpose of this chapter is to explore how virtual world environments can be used as a faculty development tool in order to encourage the use of virtual worlds as a teaching tool in the classroom. This chapter references research from a mixed methods study exploring college faculty perceptions of the adoption of virtual world technology into the classroom, which in turn, provides insight to the willingness of higher education faculty to adopt this type of technology. In addition, the final section of the chapter includes a suggested guide on how to create a virtual world faculty development workshop based in Linden Lab’s Second Life.

A 360-Degree Perspective of Education in 3-D Virtual Worlds

2010 ◽  
pp. 291-309
Author(s):  
Brenda Eschenbrenner ◽  
Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah ◽  
Keng Siau
Keyword(s):  
Collaborative Learning ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Real World ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Educational Experiences ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
Virtual World Environments ◽  
The Impact

Three-dimensional virtual world environments are providing new opportunities to develop engaging, immersive experiences in education. These virtual worlds are unique in that they allow individuals to interact with others through their avatars and with objects in the environment, and can create experiences that are not necessarily possible in the real world. Hence, virtual worlds are presenting opportunities for students to engage in both constructivist and collaborative learning. To assess the impact of the use of virtual worlds on education, a literature review is conducted to identify current applications, benefits being realized, as well as issues faced. Based on the review, educational opportunities in virtual worlds and gaps in meeting pedagogical objectives are discussed. Practical and research implications are also addressed. Virtual worlds are proving to provide unique educational experiences, with its potential only at the cusp of being explored.

Communication and Education in a Virtual World

2012 ◽  
pp. 121-136
Author(s):  
Lorri Mon
Keyword(s):  
Learning Styles ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Personal Learning ◽  
Learning Techniques ◽  
Personal Learning Environments ◽  
Virtual World Environments

Education within Second Life frequently recapitulates the “sage on the stage” as students sit their avatars down in chairs in the virtual world and listen to or read an instructor’s lecture while watching a slideshow. This conceptual article explores alternative active learning techniques supporting independent and collaborative learning within virtual worlds. Within Second Life, educators can utilize a variety of scripted tools and objects as well as techniques of building and terra-forming to create vibrant virtual personal learning environments and learning experiences that are engaging and responsive to individual learners. Issues of embodiment in an avatar are discussed in terms of social presence, and student learning styles are considered as well as approaches to problem-based learning, games, role play, and immersive virtual world environments.

scholarly journals Detection of Deception in a Virtual World

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren B. Collister
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
World Of Warcraft ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Detection Of Deception

This work explores the role of multimodal cues in detection of deception in a virtual world, an online community of World of Warcraft players. Case studies from a five-year ethnography are presented in three categories: small-scale deception in text, deception by avoidance, and large-scale deception in game-external modes. Each case study is analyzed in terms of how the affordances of the medium enabled or hampered deception as well as how the members of the community ultimately detected the deception. The ramifications of deception on the community are discussed, as well as the need for researchers to have a deep community knowledge when attempting to understand the role of deception in a complex society. Finally, recommendations are given for assessment of behavior in virtual worlds and the unique considerations that investigators must give to the rules and procedures of online communities.

3-D Virtual Worlds in Education

2009 ◽  
pp. 2595-2615
Author(s):  
Brenda Eschenbrenner ◽  
Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah ◽  
Keng Siau
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Real World ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Educational Experiences ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Virtual World Environments ◽  
The Impact

Three-dimensional virtual world environments are providing new opportunities to develop engaging, interactive experiences in education. These virtual worlds are unique in that they allow individuals to interact with others through their avatars and with objects in the environment, and can create experiences that are not necessarily possible in the real world. To assess the impact that these virtual worlds are currently having on education, a literature review is conducted to identify current applications, benefits being realized, as well as issues faced. Based on this review, virtual world capabilities, experiences, and factors associated with educational opportunities are presented as well as gaps in meeting pedagogical objectives. Practical and research implications are then addressed. Virtual worlds are proving to provide unique educational experiences, with its potential only at the cusp of being explored.

Ethics in Virtual World Environments Research

2016 ◽  
pp. 258-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amit Goel ◽  
William A. Rivera ◽  
Peter Kincaid ◽  
Michele Montgomery ◽  
Waldemar Karwowski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Board Members ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
Institutional Review ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Virtual World Environments ◽  
Simulation Environments

With increased use of virtual worlds in education, training, military, arts, engineering, architecture, astronomy, medical, physical sciences, and many other fields, research in the field of distributed virtual world simulation environments has increased manifold in the last decade. This astounding growth has motivated us to think seriously about issues related to ethics in such research. Awareness of ethical issues is not only a responsibility of the researcher conducting research in virtual worlds, but also for ethics committees and institutional review board members. In this chapter we provide an overview of the past and current research attempting to identify ethics issues related to distributed virtual world simulation environments research. We raise questions related to virtual world research ethics that researcher and ethics committee members should ponder, and we provide several references for the reader to engage in thought provoking further study and discussion.

Virtual Environments and Mobile Learning

2011 ◽  
pp. 262-277
Author(s):  
Rosa Reis ◽  
Paula Escudeiro
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Mobile Learning ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Learning Methods ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Virtual World Environments ◽  
World Concept

As an answer to these questions, this chapter will define the virtual world concept, distinguish the different types of virtual worlds, and make a comparative analysis between them in order to bring out the features aimed at helping teachers to adopt them in their classes. In particular, we will focus our choice of virtual world environments on open source platforms. As the prevalence of mobile learning increases, this chapter also describes the m-learning scope, its contextualisation and advantages, as well as the learning methods. Finally, the relation of those methods with social virtual worlds is also discussed.

Communication and Education in a Virtual World

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorri Mon
Keyword(s):  
Learning Styles ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Role Play ◽  
Personal Learning ◽  
Learning Games ◽  
Learning Techniques ◽  
Virtual World Environments

Education within Second Life frequently recapitulates the “sage on the stage” as students sit their avatars down in chairs in the virtual world and listen to or read an instructor’s lecture while watching a slideshow. This conceptual article explores alternative active learning techniques supporting independent and collaborative learning within virtual worlds. Within Second Life, educators can utilize a variety of scripted tools and objects as well as techniques of building and terra-forming to create vibrant virtual personal learning environments and learning experiences that are engaging and responsive to individual learners. Issues of embodiment in an avatar are discussed in terms of social presence, and student learning styles are considered as well as approaches to problem-based learning, games, role play, and immersive virtual world environments.

scholarly journals Two Navy Virtual World Collaboration Applications: Rapid Prototyping and Concept of Operations Experimentation

1970 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Maxwell ◽  
Steven Aguiar ◽  
Philip Monte ◽  
Diana Nolan
Keyword(s):  
Rapid Prototyping ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Physical Models ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Control Center ◽  
Physical Spaces ◽  
Concept Of Operations

Traditionally, US Navy has had a number of Undersea Warfare applications which require rapid prototyping capabilities as well as the need to perform cost effective concept of operations exercises. Recent investigations into the use of virtual world technologies at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) have focused on confined physical spaces that are easily replicated in a virtual environment. For example, a command & control center is a physical environment in which people interact with each other and the space they are in (i.e., attack consoles, displays, etc.) to manage information flow and decision making. Being able to optimally configure and reconfigure such a space is a critical step in the design process to ensure the end meets the necessary mission requirements. Previously the Navy has deployed small scale physical models to visualize spatial relationships (though not allowing human interaction) or large full scale models at more substantial costs. Leveraging cutting-edge virtual world technologies, today’s engineers can bring rapid prototyping to the next dimension. By transforming physical mock ups into virtual objects the costs of rapid prototyping can be drastically reduced. By extension, the designs evaluated inside the virtual worlds can then be tested under synthetic situations through concept of operations exercises.

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