Comment étudier les interactions d'apprenants de langue dans les mondes virtuels ?

Article sans relecture mis en ligne suite à une communication acceptée sur résuméThe aim of this communication is to present some subjects of reflection on the methodology used to put in place a research protocol to study language learners' interactions within synthetic / virtual worlds. We seek to explorer different aspects of research in language learning within synthetic worlds. Focusing on the notion of avatar, we develop aspects of data collection, researcher's positioning, identity, ethics... from an epistemological perspective.L'objectif de cette communication est de proposer des pistes méthodologiques afin de mettre en place un protocole de recherche pour l'étude des interactions d'apprenants de langue dans les mondes virtuels ou synthétiques. Nous cherchons à explorer différents aspects de la recherche en didactique des langues-cultures dans les mondes synthétiques. Autour de la notion d'avatar, nous développons les aspects de recueil de données, positionnement du chercheur, identité, éthique... dans une perspective épistémologique

Understanding Avatar Sentiments Using Verbal and Non-Verbal Cues

With the increased popularity of virtual worlds, hundreds of thousands of people from different physical locations can join virtual worlds. In this computer-based simulated 3D environment, avatars can both interact with each other and the environment. This new type of world has important implications for business, education, and society at large. In order to fully use the benefits of virtual worlds, it is important to know how the residents (i.e., avatars) behave, such as how they express sentiments. This research in progress seeks to study avatar sentiments in virtual worlds to examine whether and how sentiments are conveyed by avatars. Both verbal and non-verbal cues will be utilized in the sentiment analysis. To conduct the study, an advanced data collection method is leveraged to obtain various types of avatar data from a large number of real virtual world residents in Second Life in an effective and efficient way

Stakeholder Strategy and Design Alignment Framework for Design Science Research : A Study in the Context of VR-Aided Marketing and Sales

Peer reviewe

A Bandwidth-Conserving Architecture for Crawling Virtual Worlds

A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit via avatars. Content in virtual worlds such as Second Life or OpenSimulator is increasingly presented using three-dimensional (3D) dynamic presentation technologies that challenge traditional search technologies. As 3D environments become both more prevalent and more fragmented, the need for a data crawler and distributed search service will continue to grow. By increasing the visibility of content across virtual world servers in order to better collect and integrate the 3D data we can also improve the crawling and searching efficiency and accuracy by avoiding crawling unchanged regions or downloading unmodified objects that already exist in our collection. This will help to save bandwidth resources and Internet traffic during the content collection and indexing and, for a fixed amount of bandwidth, maximize the freshness of the collection. This work presents a new services paradigm for virtual world crawler interaction that is co-operative and exploits information about 3D objects in the virtual world. Our approach supports analyzing redundant information crawled from virtual worlds in order to decrease the amount of data collected by crawlers, keep search engine collections up to date, and provide an efficient mechanism for collecting and searching information from multiple virtual worlds. Experimental results with data crawled from Second Life servers demonstrate that our approach provides the ability to save crawling bandwidth consumption, to explore more hidden objects and new regions to be crawled that facilitate the search service in virtual worlds

Working Together on Diverse Tasks: A Longitudinal Study on Individual Workload, Presence and Emotional Recognition in Collaborative Virtual Environments

Numerous studies have shown the potential benefits of collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) for distributed teams. However, there are few longitudinal studies on collaboration in immersive virtual environments, and existing studies mostly examine how pairs or groups adapt over time. In a longitudinal study, we examined what does and does not change over time as individual users adapt to collaboration in virtual environments. In our mixed-methods, exploratory study, we matched 20 participants in random pairs over five sessions. We assigned each participant to complete a different collaborative task, with a different partner, in each session. Our quantitative data analysis and qualitative interview data show that adaptation to VR increased significantly over time. Presence ratings did not show change over time, but participants reported developing new ways to communicate in VR. We also identified patterns indicating a relationship between a person’s emotional state and their partner’s ability to recognize their emotion. We conclude with a discussion of our findings and provide design implications and future directions for designers and researchers in the field