Educational Virtual Environments Research Papers (original) (raw)

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- Computer Architecture, Human Computer Interaction, Architecture, E-learning

3D design and 3D contents are becoming ever so popular in today's technology. The whole world is moving towards the 3D content platform, 3D printers, 3D TV sets, 3D mobiles etc. no exception to that is the web and all things in it. AquaFlux and Epsilon are two of our state of the art skin measurement instruments. Originally developed by our research group as research projects, AquaFlux and Epsilon have now been commercialised and used in more than 70 organisations worldwi de. However, due to the nature of the technologies, they often require on-site intensive training, which is expensive and time-consuming. There is a genuine need for an interactive virtual training environment that users can be trained whenever and wherever they want. This pa per demonstrates the development of a web-based interactive 3D virtual environment for these two skin measurement instruments to serve this demand. The new system contains detailed virtual user manuals, step by step interactive instructions that will direct the users on how to use these two skin measurement devices. The virtual environment will benefit users by giving users a very realistic feel about how these instruments work. VR (Virtual Reality) is an essential technology that will deliver to users the experience and knowledge in this regard.

- by Dr Omar Al Hashimi
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- E-learning, Virtual Environments, Online Learning, Virtual Worlds

Virtual teamwork is increasingly becoming a characteristic way of working within and between organisations in the digital economy, bringing both opportunities and drawbacks. This article considers communication in virtual teams and ways in which information and communication technologies (ICTs) can enhance or impede it. It is recognised that the richness of face-to-face communication cannot be captured fully by the tools on offer, although important steps to create team belonging in virtual presence have already been taken. While the tools go some way to permitting distributed team members to interact informally, they cannot go all the way to building and maintaining the personal side of relationships, nor provide stress-relief in many instances. Information overload is highlighted as an example of this failure, and ways to address the problems inherent in ICT-mediated communication and its usage should be sought via inter-disciplinary approaches. On the other hand, the virtual paradigm leads to new organisational forms and organisational culture that tend to strengthen the individual's role in the organisational grapevine.

E-learning is a new mode of broad-based growth in Mexico. At present all the public and private prestigious universities offer e-learning or mixed courses. This mode is not only a way for greater flexibility in ways of accesing and studying but is also a model that demands and generates new competitiveness, attitudes and abilities such as self-management and discipline. However, some pseudo educational institutions are starting to abuse this mode offering this kinds of courses in massive manner without the least bit of educational quality control nor appropiate designo r planning. The present text aims to describe the emergence and development of the model of e-learning of the Un iversity of Guadalajara.

- by Tonatiuh Lay
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- Educational Virtual Environments
- by Asif Anwar and +1
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- Radiation, Virtual Environments, Virtual Learning Environments, Virtual Laboratory

Although extensive research has been carried out on virtual learning environments and the role of groups and communities in social networks, few studies exist which adequately cover the relationship between these two domains In this paper, the authors demonstrate the effectiveness of integrating these two environments by creating a novel prototype and conducting a preliminary pilot evaluation session. For the prototype system, a Facebook Group was utilised as a repository for learning content and the Open Wonderland platform was selected as a mixed reality intelligent environment for 3D virtual collaborative activities. Since tacit knowledge can be gained via collaborative group-based activities and discussions, a new Wonderland module was developed to integrate this platform with the Facebook group. Similarly, explicit knowledge can be learned directly via the prepared materials which are provided within the group repository. We hope to demonstrate that this approach can provide greater accessibility to the learning content since it can be accessed from both the 3D world and the 2D Facebook Group. In other words, this system can support both synchronous interaction as well as asynchronous data retrieval. Finally, the prototype system was evaluated by means of a two-hour task-based assessment and user-satisfaction questionnaire. We present the key findings from this pilot study (which were very encouraging), and propose further ideas for the future refinement of the concepts presented in this paper.

- by Victor Callaghan and +1
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- Human Computer Interaction, Social Networks, E-learning, Social Networking

This book provides a source of ideas, case studies and links on how to use new and emerging technologies in innovative and creative ways in the classroom, lecture hall, workshop, salon and studio in your subject specialism. Ideas and tools that apply to a diverse range of subjects which may span from A level literature, to construction, to hairdressing. We recognize the diversity of the sector and the learners and have identified key themes to promote effective teaching and learning in creative and innovative ways.

- by Steve Ingle
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- Digital Divide, Education, Digital Humanities, Adult Education
- by Aaron Beger
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- Anatomy Education, Educational Virtual Environments

Objectives: The general objective of this research was to study the learning styles and locus of control of virtual students at Shiraz
University of Medical Sciences and its relationship with their academic attainment.
Methods: This was a descriptive study carried out during year 2017. One hundred virtual learners from Shiraz University of Medical
Sciences were randomly selected as the participants of this study. The instrument used in this study was the Kolb Learning
Style Inventory and Rotter locus of control scale (1996). Kolb Learning Style Inventory consists of 12 questions and four sections.
Vilkaksn measured the reliability of the study by using Alpha, and reported on high reliability (active examination = 0.67, abstract
understanding = 0.83 thinking observation = 0.87, objective experience = 0.82). The stability of Rotter’s questionnaire was reported
by franklin to be more than 82%. The quantitative data were analyzed using person product moment correlation, k2, analysis of
variance (ANOVA), and independent samples t test. The questionnaires were analyzed using version 20 of SPSS software and the
significance level was equal to 0.05.
Results: The results indicated that 80% of the students deployed a convergent style of learning. Also, it was found that there was
no meaningful relationship between learning styles and academic success (P = 0.61). There was no significant relationship between
locus of control and academic achievement (P = 0.51). However, the learners with internal locus of control were older than the ones
with external locus of control (P = 0.04).
Conclusions: Because of the novelty of virtual education in Iran, it demands more research to specify the degree of success gained
by this kind of educational system.

- by Nahid zarifsanaiey
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- Learning Styles, Students, Locus of Control, Academic achievement

LA ESCUELA EN LA NUBE. EL FUTURO DEL APRENDIZAJE MITRA, S. (2020) Barcelona: Paidós. 272 págs. La escuela moderna, según Sugata Mitra, autor de este ensayo, se parece mucho a la de hace 300 años. El profesor frente a una clase, los alumnos en pupitres ordenados: este sistema se desarrolló bajo el Imperio Británico. Pero con el auge de Internet, la memoriza-ción de datos ya no es tan importante. Para los trabajos del futuro, los estudiantes deben aprender a pensar de forma crítica. Este es el cambio de paradigma que Sugata Mitra espe-ra introducir con la Escuela en la Nube. Además de abrir laboratorios físicos de aprendizaje, está creando la "Nube de las Abuelos/as", una red mundial de profesores jubilados/as que apoyan a los niños/as a través de una plataforma en línea de la Escuela en la Nube. Su objetivo: compartir el método del Entorno de Aprendizaje Autogestionado (SOLE) con padres, profesores, programas extraescolares y comunidades de todo el mundo, y transformar la forma de aprender de los niños.

The demands on today‟s digital society raise the necessity of students
to acquire different skills and competences - a new kind of literacy. Besides
digital skills, there is also the need of being in possess of social and soft skills.
Learning, due to the advent of social Web and collaborative virtual
environments, has a lot to do with socialization. This article aims to know if and
how these competences and access to digital and virtual tools can change
students learning processes, allowing them to be more participative in
constructing their knowledge.

- by Ana Loureiro and +1
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- Web 2.0, Virtual Environments, Digital Literacy, Digital Media And New Literacies

Minecraft is a multiplayer sandbox video game based in a virtual world modeled on the real world. Players are able to build and craft everyday items using blocks, the cubic geometry of Minecraft lends itself to the teaching of various academic subjects. Minecraft also has a functioning ecology, with chemistry and physics aspects interwoven within the game that can be used to develop the scientific literacy of players. Here I describe various key scientific and mathematical concepts that are able to be modeled with the game for use in the classroom.

- by Dan Short
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- Human Computer Interaction, Instructional Design, Educational Technology, E-learning

Sin desatender la literatura mesiánica y excesivamente optimista de los teóricos del “management”, que es la que se impone por la lógica del mercado, ni las visiones catastrofistas de algunas intelectuales, que han aportado conceptos y reflexiones importantes para abordar el estudio de las Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación (TIC), ni la herencia de la tecnología educativa, en la cual sigue prevaleciendo una noción instrumental, el Grupo EAV opta, más que por una de estas tres vías, por la búsqueda de una teoría diferente sobre la Educación Virtual y la articulación de TIC a la educación, a partir de una conceptualización de la
relación interdisciplinaria Tecnología- Comunicación y Educación y sobre la base práctica en contexto.

- by İlke Büyükduman
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- Human Computer Interaction, Education, E-learning, Curriculum and Instruction

The demands on today’s digital society raise the necessity of students to acquire different skills and competences - a new kind of literacy. Besides digital skills, there is also the need of being in possess of social and soft skills. Learning, due to the advent of social Web and collaborative virtual environments, has a lot to do with socialization. This article aims to know if and how these competences and access to digital and virtual tools can change students learning processes, allowing them to be more participative in constructing their knowledge.

Keywords: Mobile instant messaging Chat-based conversation Second language writing Mobile assisted language learning Noticing Collaborative learning
This study investigated the benefits of Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM) through an analysis of grammatical, lexical and mechanical accuracy as well as syntactic complexity in second-language learners' writing. A WhatsApp group was created where 80 Spanish students taking a B1 English course participated in a daily interaction during six months. A quasi-experimental research design with an experimental and control group and a pre-post test was followed. Students were divided into two main groups according to treatment type with 40 students in each group. This research focused on the interaction in the application and attempted to measure, through a qualitative and quantitative analysis, the students' degree of writing development. The ratios of lexical, grammatical and mechanical errors as well as error-free clauses per clause and error-free T-unit per T-unit indicated significant differences between the control and experimental group in terms of accuracy. Nevertheless, measures of syntactic complexity together with lexical diversity were not conclusive as the independent parameters for syntactic complexity showed no significant differences between the two groups. WhatsApp constitutes a powerful educational tool to encourage second language interaction among participants and its tremendous potential to activate students' involvement remains one of the least exploited functionalities of mobile phones.

SEGUNDO CAPÍTULO DEL LIBRO: "LAS NUEVAS GENERACIONES COMO UN RETO PARA LA EDUCACIÓN ACTUAL LAS NUEVAS GENERACIONES COMO UN RETO PARA LA EDUCACIÓN ACTUAL"

Las cuestiones de comunicación ética en internet y en sus redes sociales son un tema de gran controversia en la actualidad debido a que de forma directa o indirecta implican a toda la sociedad y a la constantemente emergente cultura digital universal. Las prácticas comunicativas éticas en la cultura digital, donde la comunicación interactiva interpersonal digital lidera, dependen mucho de la construcción de las identidades virtuales que los ciudadanos de la sociedad digital desarrollan en las redes sociales. Hay cuestiones éticas en la comunicación interactiva digital sobre las que es fundamental reflexionar profesional y científicamente para poder ir dando respuesta a las cuestiones sobre las mejores prácticas comunicativas éticas. Para ello hay que basarse en las leyes que establecen los derechos y las obligaciones de los usuarios en la red para evitar el uso indebido de contenidos protegidos por la propiedad intelectual, la evitación de la suplantación de identidades, el asegurar la diversidad de perspectivas y de la veracidad de los hechos descritos en las redes, la legislación de las prácticas comunicativas, y en definitiva afianzar las dinámicas y las formas de comunicación ética y no violenta que faciliten el acercamiento socio-cultural en un espacio digital local y global. En conclusión, este capítulo revisa, estudia, describe y contrasta varios conceptos importantes para entender la comunicación ética en relación con las identidades virtuales en las redes sociales.

- by Jorge Mora Fernández
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- Digital Humanities, Digital Media, Social Media, Addiction and Recovery

Berisikan mengenai usaha pelestarian orangutan, pendidikan konservasi alam, ekowisata dan ceritera perjalanan.

- by jaime tapia
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- Educational Virtual Environments

Within education, concepts such as distance learning, and open universities, are now becoming more widely used for teaching and learning. However, due to the nature of the subject domain, the teaching of Science, Technology, and Engineering are still relatively behind when using new technological approaches (particularly for online distance learning). The reason for this discrepancy lies in the fact that these fields often require laboratory exercises to provide effective skill acquisition and hands-on experience. Often it is difficult to make these laboratories accessible for online access. Either the real lab needs to be enabled for remote access or it needs to be replicated as a fully software-based virtual lab. We argue for the latter concept since it offers some advantages over remotely controlled real labs, which will be elaborated further in this paper. We are now seeing new emerging technologies that can overcome some of the potential difficulties in this area. These include: computer graphics, augmented reality, computational dynamics, and virtual worlds. This paper summarizes the state of the art in virtual laboratories and virtual worlds in the fields of science, technology, and engineering. The main research activity in these fields is discussed but special emphasis is put on the field of robotics due to the maturity of this area within the virtual-education community. This is not a coincidence; starting from its widely multidisciplinary character, robotics is a perfect example where all the other fields of engineering and physics can contribute. Thus, the use of virtual labs for other scientific and non-robotic engineering uses can be seen to share many of the same learning processes. This can include supporting the introduction of new concepts as part of learning about science and technology, and introducing more general engineering knowledge, through to supporting more constructive (and collaborative) education and training activities in a more complex engineering topic such as robotics. The objective of this paper is to outline this problem space in more detail and to create a valuable source of information that can help to define the starting position for future research.

- by Victor Callaghan
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- Engineering, Robotics, Computer Science, Teaching and Learning

Three-dimensional Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) are being increasingly used in many areas, and they are becoming more and more integrated with learning and teaching. MUVEs can be used in learning and teaching to facilitate student learning and collaboration. This study identified the effects of MUVEs on collaborative learning and social presence and investigated whether these effects varied by gender. The participants were sophomore students attending a programming language course. They used a MUVE for their group meetings as part of their collaborative work. They also held voice communication. A four-section questionnaire was administered to the students who attended the meetings, in which the researchers served as facilitators. Interviews were held with randomly selected students. In addition, the group project meetings were tape-recorded, and field notes were taken for each meeting. The results showed that the MUVE enabled the group members to exchange ideas in an authentic environment, and that the file-sharing platform used as a complement to the MUVE reinforced collaborative learning. As long as technical problems are prevented, effective collaborative learning can be achieved in these environments.

- by Hakan Tüzün and +1
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- Education, Distance Education, Virtual Reality (Computer Graphics), Virtual Environments

Abstract. The objective of the article is to set an example of introducing distant learning tools into higher education system, which could help to identify possible conditions and ways of creating a virtual education environment as a learning community covering in continuity three-cycle structure of higher education, as well as supplementary professional training programs and l non-degree educational services. A two-cluster structure of a virtual educational e-course is recommended as an e-learning tool contributing to self-study and ensuring learner autonomy.

- by Kira Prigozhina and +1
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- Intercultural Education, Educational Virtual Environments
- by Maurizio Forte
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- Archaeology, Human Computer Interaction, Economics, Chinese archaeology

High-functioning autism (HFA) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, which is characterized by life-long socio-communicative impairments on the one hand and preserved verbal and general learning and memory abilities on the other. One of the areas where particular difficulties are observable is the understanding of non-verbal communication cues. Thus, investigating the underlying psychological processes and neural mechanisms of non-verbal communication in HFA allows a better understanding of this disorder, and potentially enables the development of more efficient forms of psychotherapy and trainings. However, the research on non-verbal information processing in HFA faces several methodological challenges. The use of virtual characters (VCs) helps to overcome such challenges by enabling an ecologically valid experience of social presence, and by providing an experimental platform that can be systematically and fully controlled. To make this field of research accessible to a broader audienc...

- by Bojana Kuzmanovic and +1
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- Virtual Reality (Computer Graphics), Virtual Environments, Autism, Autism Spectrum Disorders

Τhe covid-19 pandemic highlights the need to exploit and upgrade distance education structures. During the last 28 months, our workgroup has been studying and developing an advanced platform towards distance education in Digital Arts, enabling real-time collaborative creation and interaction. The @postasis platform, developed under Erasmus+ @postasis: Virtual Artistic Laboratory project (apostasis.eu), enables setup of educational multi-participatory sessions, linking virtual entities, Internet-of-Things constructions (IoTs), and humans (e.g. avatars, observers, performers), in the globally interconnected physical and virtual space. It incorporates technological functionalities and specialized methodologies, in a composite and creative way, enabling a wide range of educational actions (courses, workshops, seminars) and large-scale exhibitions. These methodologies, even though they mostly target art education and have been applied to different levels of it (secondary, higher), they have the potentials to be applied, also, to special education. One such case is the experimental workshop "(Co)creation and interaction for special education", based on the "Creation of the world" methodology of @postasis. It took place between students of the Department of Special Education of the University of Thessaly (Greece) under the supervision of the Instructor Dr. Anastasia-Zoi Souliotou, and @postasis workgroup members from the Athens School of Fine Arts (@postasis coordinator) namely Professor Manthos Santorineos and Instructor Dr. Stavroula Zoi. The students experimented, based on @postasis platform, on how they could exploit emerging creative technologies and distance education concepts, towards including people with disabilities in new forms of educational activities. Individual phases of the workshop are analyzed: collages creation based on physical materials with discrete haptic properties, transfer of materials and their properties in @postasis virtual space as textures, mapping of space, and creation of virtual entities (avatars, NPCs) 'dressed' with physical drawings, and potentials of adding IoTs for enhancing interaction. Each of the above creative phases also included a real-time multiuser session for jointly experiencing the potentials of a multi-sensory experience inside such a space. This experiment highlighted the need to make special education students aware of concepts in the intersection of creative technologies and distance education, for further investigation. As this constitutes an emerging research topic, thoughts for the future are presented.

- by Anastasia-Zoi Souliotou and +1
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- Distance Education, Creative Industries, Art and technology, Virtual Worlds

This paper introduces the concept of online 'Innovations-Labs' (i-Labs) as location-independent collaborative ideation spaces. We highlight the challenges and opportunities that disruptive innovations present to companies and society, and discuss how Science Fiction Prototyping and Diegetic Innovation Templating can provide a means to explore that space by acting as ideation process and a language for capturing and communicating innovations. A core hypothesis of this paper is that there are significant gains to be accrued from integrating Virtual Reality, Science Fiction Prototyping, Diegetic Innovation Templating and Innovation Labs to form an online immersive reality innovation lab which both offers better affordances and access to people wishing to undertake innovation related activities. We present details of our initial implementation of an online innovation-lab (Our HEX) which takes the form of a virtual reality space-station. We then conclude the paper by describing future directions of our work, principally, a venture which uses 'Our HEX' space-station platform, plus a supporting textbook published by Tsinghua University Press, to teach 'English, Computing and Creativity' to Chinese students. Finally the paper concludes with a summary and reflections on our work to-date.

- by Victor Callaghan and +1
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- Entrepreneurship, Engineering, Technology, Development Studies
- by Lucia Aiello
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- Cognitive Psychology, Human Computer Interaction, E-learning, Usability

This dissertation seeks to create a vision for virtuality culture through a theoretical expansion of Walter Ong’s literacy and orality culture model. It investigates the ubiquitous and multimodal nature of the virtuality cultural phenomenon that is mediated by contemporary technology and not explained by pre-existing cultural conventions. Through examining the theoretical underpinnings of orality and literacy culture, the dissertation explores the cultural shift that is just beginning to restructure human consciousness through the ways that society is connecting, exploring and communicating. Further, this dissertation examines the contrasts between virtuality culture features and those related to traditional literacy and orality types, including the gap between the theory of secondary orality and virtuality culture. This dissertation also proposes three ways that contemporary technology creates human presence related to virtuality culture. Finally, this dissertation describes the broad implications for the evolution of virtuality culture in areas such as education, technology, literacy, philosophy, politics, linguistics, ethics,
history, the arts and cultural studies. Copyright 2014

- by Camille Dempsey
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- Cultural History, Cultural Studies, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Language

This article emphasizes the application of the map technique concept in the first phase of instruction design of computer software. The main aim of this paper is to identify criteria to serve as guidelines in outlining the methods used in... more

- by Elena Railean
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- Human Computer Interaction, Education, E-learning, Critical Pedagogy