A Collaboration Facilitator Model for Learning Virtual Environments

Abstract In virtual environments most pedagogical virtual tutors or facilitators supervise or guide the learning activity; they are task-oriented. In contrast, the here proposed facilitator is strictly about monitoring some aspects of collaboration and offering advice in this regard. In a multiuser virtual environment, that is, a Collaborative Virtual Environment, oral communication is chosen over written communication in order to enhance the feelings of presence, co-presence, and immersion for the user; but oral communication analysis presents a high resource overhead. As an alternative, the monitoring activity of this facilitator is based on two nonverbal cues of interaction: talking-turn patterns and object manipulation. An empirical study to validate this approach was conducted based on the participants' perception regarding the suitability of the facilitator's messages; the results showed that the students' accepted a significant number of generated advice

Factors influencing flow of object focussed collaboration in collaborative virtual environments

Creativity is believed to be helped by an uncluttered state of mind known as flow and as the trend grows towards less immersive displays to produce an uncluttered workplace, we ask the question “Does immersion matter to the flow of distributed group work?”. The aim of this work is to study the impact of level of immersion on workflow and presence during object focussed distributed group work, and to discuss the relevance of these and other factors to supporting flow and creativity. This is approached through a comprehensive literature survey and significant new results. The study attempts to introduce a breadth of factors and relationships as opposed to proving a hypothesis and thus takes a wide qualitative rather than deep quantitative approach to testing and analysis

The Impact of Lighting Design on Perceived Architecture and Human Satisfaction in Museums

The use of light in museum design plays a crucial role in enhancing the visual experience of visitors in museums. Although atmospheric factors such as lighting design are important in enhancing the exhibition space’s atmosphere, few studies have evaluated the design of these factors, and how they can affect the visitors’ experience. The main aim of the research was to develop a lighting matrix that increases the understanding of how visitors perceive and respond to different kinds of exhibition lighting, and how this enhances their visual experience inside the exhibition hall. Furthermore, the study aimed to move from pure functional performance to people-driven museum lighting design. The research utilized a quantitative approach by using a questionnaire to identify visitors’ preferences regarding museums’ lighting settings of two case studies. The survey was carried out in the real environment, and then in the virtual environment. A sample of 160 respondents evaluated the main exhibition hall in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo in the Real environment, and 40 respondents evaluated the Egyptian hall in the Birmingham Museum in the UK in the Real environment. Additionally, 66 participants evaluated four computer-generated scenes of the main hall of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt, and 66 participants evaluated four computer-generated scenes of the Egyptian hall in the Birmingham Museum and art gallery, UK. Different lighting settings in each scene were adopted with the aid of virtual reality as an experimental tool using a semantic differential scaling method. Both environments were evaluated to study the effectiveness of Virtual Reality in simulating the real environment. The survey data was analysed using SPSS, and different tests were applied to understand the relationships between the different variables using descriptive and inferential analysis. Moreover, the Spearman correlation test, Friedman test, and Chi- square test were applied. The test results showed that the more the lighting characteristics of the exhibition spaces were diverse and thrilling, the better the exhibition space was perceived, and the longer visitors were willing to stay and return. The results showed that the lighting distribution and colour could greatly affect the perception and impression of space as perceived by visitors specifically bright / dark, and colourful/ neutral tone of the lighting settings. Furthermore, the research developed a lighting matrix that could be applied to an extensive range of museum lighting settings. This lighting matrix is a contribution to knowledge that is beneficial to lighting designers, architects, museum owners, and evaluators

Shared Artefacts and Virtual Worlds in Computer-Mediated Creative Collaboration

Virtual teams are becoming an increasingly common phenomenon within the globalizing surroundings of corporations. The communication between virtual team members is predominantly based on information and communication technology. The question, how different ICT collaboration environments can support different virtual team activities, has gained attention in research and practice. However, collaboration environments' role to foster creative virtual team collaboration is not entirely understood. This dissertation addresses the topic by focusing on the potential of artefacts and three-dimensional virtual worlds. Artefacts – shared visual representations – have been considered necessary for co-located creative collaboration. Though, the entire ecology of artefacts in distributed, computer-mediated creative collaboration has thus far remained unclear. While previous studies have suggested virtual worlds as beneficial for creative team collaboration, a systematic effort to characterize and describe this potential has not been undertaken. The four essays of this dissertation utilize real-life observational data of interaction between technical experts, decision-makers, and engineering designers. Either a web conferencing tool or a virtual world was employed as a collaboration environment during the observed interaction sessions. The first essay outlines virtual worlds' eight affordances towards creative team collaboration. The second essay investigates the question, how the two-dimensional web conferencing tool and virtual world differ in terms of supporting the use of shared visual artefacts. The third essay broadens the observation of the artefacts by studying their roles as boundary objects, which mediate communication within an intersection of different social worlds. Grounding on these results, the fourth essay addresses the artefacts' role in distributed teams' different collaborative activities within creative virtual world collaboration. Findings of the study demonstrate virtual worlds' potential to foster team creativity. Meanwhile the findings indicate a variety of artefacts that are utilized within creative virtual team collaboration, ranging from epistemic to technical objects. Grounding on the observed contrast between the virtual world and web conferencing tool, the results end up in suggesting an expansion of separated auditory and visual channel information to the concept of boundary objects. While the study conveys practical relevance for virtual teams that engage in creative collaboration, it also outlines potential directions to future ICT collaboration environments development path.Virtuaalitiimit yleistyvät liiketoiminnan globalisoituessa. Virtuaalitiimien jäsenet viestivät pääosin tieto- ja viestintäteknologian välityksellä. Tutkimuksessa ja käytännön työssä on havaittu, että eri tieto- ja viestintäteknologiset vuorovaikutusympäristöt voivat tukea virtuaalitiimien eri toimintoja. Vuorovaikutusympäristöjen roolia virtuaalitiimin luovan työn tukemisessa ei kuitenkaan ole täysin ymmärretty. Väitöskirja käsittelee aihetta suunnaten huomion artefaktoihin ja kolmiulotteisiin virtuaalimaailmoihin. Artefaktat – yhteiset visuaaliset dokumentit – on aiemmin mielletty välttämättömiksi samanpaikkaisessa luovassa yhteistyössä. Artefaktojen rooli monipaikkaisessa, tietokonevälitteisessä luovassa yhteistyössä on kuitenkin vielä selvittämättä. Aiemmat tutkimukset ovat arvioineet virtuaalimaailmojen olevan suotuisia luovalle tiimin vuorovaikutukselle; näkökantaa ei kuitenkaan ole luonnehdittu tai kuvattu järjestelmällisesti. Väitöskirjan neljä esseetä hyödyntävät dataa teknisten asiantuntijoiden, päätöksentekijöiden ja teollisten suunnittelijoiden tosielämän vuorovaikutustilanteista. Vuorovaikutusympäristöinä käytettiin web-konferenssityökalua tai kolmiulotteista virtuaalimaailmaa. Ensimmäinen esseistä linjaa kahdeksan kolmiulotteisen virtuaalimaailman ominaispiirrettä, jotka tukevat luovan tiimin vuorovaikutusta. Toinen esseistä selvittää, miten visuaalisesti kaksiulotteinen web-konferenssityökalu ja kolmiulotteinen virtuaalimaailma eroavat toisistaan artefaktojen käytön osalta. Kolmas essee tarkastelee artefaktoja rajaesineinä, jotka välittävät viestintää erillisten sosiaalisten maailmojen leikkauskohdassa. Tuloksiin perustuen neljäs essee tarkastelee visuaalisten artefaktojen roolia monipaikkaisten, hajautettujen tiimien erilaisissa yhteistyöaktiviteeteissa luovan virtuaalimaailma-vuorovaikutuksen yhteydessä. Tutkimustulokset havainnollistavat virtuaalimaailman potentiaalin edistää luovaa tiimitason vuorovaikutusta. Tulokset esittelevät luovien virtuaalitiimien hyödyntämien artefaktojen kirjon, ulottuen episteemisistä teknisiin objekteihin. Havaittuihin virtuaalimaailman ja web-konferenssityökalun eroavaisuuksiin perustuen esitetään visuaalisen ja auditiivisen viestintäkanavan eroon pohjautuvaa laajennusta rajaesineiden käsitteeseen. Siinä missä tutkimus on merkittävä luovaan vuorovaikutukseen osallistuvien virtuaalitiimien kannalta, se myös linjaa mahdollisia suuntia tulevaisuuden tieto- ja viestintäteknologian kehityspolulle

Climas organizacionais positivos, relação ótima em equipa e compromisso organizacional.

Este estudo foi desenvolvido considerando-se as teorias sobre o clima autentizótico nas organizações, a relação ótima em equipa e o comprometimento organizacional. Os pressupostos filosóficos dessa investigação estão pautados pela perspectiva da abordagem psicológica humanista e positiva, como o prazer de trabalhar, o bem estar dos profissionais envolvidos e, os resultados positivos da organização. Para isso, recorreu-se a: conceitos teóricos sobre o clima positivo nas organizações, suas influências nos empregados, especificamente o Clima Organizacional Autentizótico (COA); o Comprometimento Organizacional (CO) e a importância do comprometimento afectivo para os resultados das organizações, bem como para a saúde dos profissionais. Também é estudada a Relação Ótima em Equipa, seu impacto na saúde do trabalhador, incluídos os conceitos de flow (fluxo), de peak performance e de peak experience. A importância do conceito COA para as organizações é que o mesmo revela o quanto a saúde do trabalhador traz benefícios tanto para a obtenção dos resultados socioeconómicos quanto para o bem estar do trabalhador. Nesse mesmo raciocínio o COA também é importante para o CO, especificamente na dimensão afectiva, pois esta leva a melhorias organizacionais e individuais. Já existem estudos no Brasil que suportam a relação entre os dois conceitos acima citados. Ainda em relação ao COA, pode ser dito que a relação ótima em equipa (ROE) é beneficiada por ele, pois quanto mais uma organização é autentizótica melhor são as relações em equipa. As ROE, especificam a relação entre a pessoa, o trabalho e a equipa, e o COA é uma plataforma para criar condições para este tipo de relação. Pretendeu-se assim com esta tese contribuir das seguintes formas para o conhecimento científico: 1) Verificar se a Escala de Relação Ótima em Equipa (EROE) se comporta da mesma forma no Brasil e em Portugal; e 2) Se a Relação Ótima em Equipa (ROE) medeia de forma positiva a relação entre o Clima Organizacional Autentizótico (COA) e o Comprometimento Organizacional (CO). Os resultados do estudo 1 indicam que a EROE apresenta um bom ajuste na amostra brasileira, tendo sido obtidos os seguintes resultados: para os valores dos índices Holter .05 = 196 e Holter .01= 204, CFI = .87, NFI = .82, TLI = .84 e RMSEA = .06. Os resultados do estudo 2 suportam a hipótese de que existe de facto um efeito mediador da relação ótima em equipa entre o clima organizacional autentizótico e o comprometimento organizacional, com efeito estatisticamente significativo. O clima organizacional autentizótico explica 10% da variância do fluxo no trabalho em equipa (R 2 = .10) e o efeito combinado do clima organizacional autentizótico e do fluxo no trabalho em equipa explicam 18% da variância do comprometimento organizacional (R 2 = .18)

Investigation of police decision making using combined EEG and virtual reality methods

Police officers in the UK are granted additional powers to allow them to protect life and property crime. Of these powers, the sanction to use stopping, potentially lethal, force given to Authorised Firearms Officers (AFO) is arguably the most salient. Each decision made by an AFO to discharge their firearm or not has great impact and so it is important we research the cognitive processes that lead to such a decision.One challenge of researching these cognitive processes is eliciting ecologically valid behaviour while maintaining internal validity. We approached this challenge by developing combined electroencephalography (EEG) and virtual reality research methods. Using these methods, we produced scenarios that reflected features of AFO training. First, we tested simple versions of the scenarios on a novice population. Following this, we increased the complexity of the scenarios and collected data from both AFOs and novices.We found that participants were fastest when responding to threatening scenarios. Further, AFOs had consistently faster response times than novices. In line with similar ‘Go/No-Go’ paradigms, we found greater increases in pre-response frontal-midline theta when participants did not shoot versus when they did. Comparisons of EEG between AFOs and novices revealed greater pre-response increases in frontal-midline theta and central delta when they equipped a firearm. Greater differences in delta activity were also observed between different levels of threat in the AFO group.Together, these findings suggest that differences in performance between experts and novices may be due to their greater attention towards threat. Further investigation of expert decision making should build on our use of naturalistic stimuli and expert participants to ensure that findings are ecologically valid.With increasing accessibility of modern game engines and virtual reality technology, this approach will be beneficial to researchers in many fields where ecological validity is required