Growing the use of Virtual Worlds in education : an OpenSim perspective

The growth in the range of disciplines that Virtual Worlds support for educational purposes is evidenced by recent applications in the fields of cultural heritage, humanitarian aid, space exploration, virtual laboratories in the physical sciences, archaeology, computer science and coastal geography. This growth is due in part to the flexibility of OpenSim, the open source virtual world platform which by adopting Second Life protocols and norms has created a de facto standard for open virtual worlds that is supported by a growing number of third party open source viewers. Yet while this diversity of use-cases is impressive and Virtual Worlds for open learning are highly popular with lecturers and learners alike immersive education remains an essentially niche activity. This paper identifies functional challenges in terms of Management, Network Infrastructure, the Immersive 3D Web and Programmability that must be addressed to enable the wider adoption of Open Virtual Worlds as a routine learning technology platform. We refer to specific use-cases based on OpenSim and abstract generic requirements which should be met to enable the growth in use of Open Virtual Worlds as a mainstream educational facility. A case study of a deployment to support a formal education curriculum and associated informal learning is used to illustrate key points.Postprin

Evaluating Students' Perception of a Three-Dimensional Virtual World Learning Environment

Three-dimensional virtual environments have gained wide popularity due to improvement in graphic rendering technology and networking infrastructure. Many education institutions have been trying to leverage the potential of 3D virtual environments in their application in education. In this research, we aim to evaluate the students’ perception of virtual environments in teaching and learning activities. We set up a virtual classroom, where a short presentation was delivered to students through virtual projectors in Second Life, the most widely adopted 3D virtual environment. The students filled in a questionnaire after the class. We found that the students gave a statistically higher evaluation to 3D virtual environments in terms of satisfaction and enjoyment, while comparable scores between 3D and traditional learning environment in terms of concentration, perceived usefulness, and learning and understanding were obtained. Our results show that virtual learning environment is of great potential in e-learning. Some recommendations in using the virtual environment for learning activities are given.published_or_final_versio

Mobile exploration of medieval St Andrews

Saint Andrews is a town with a rich history. It was the religious centre of Scotland for close to a millennium. The Cathedral was strongly associated with the wars of Independence and Robert the Bruce. The castle was the scene of pivotal revolt leading to the reformation and hosted the first Scottish protestant congregation. St Salvators Chapel was the religious centre of Scotland’s first University. This paper presents work which explores using mobile technologies to support investigation, learning and appreciation of the past. It builds on tradition and world class scholarship into the history of this important town and makes them available to school students, researchers and tourists using mobile technologies. From text based quests, through mobile apps to location aware stereoscopic 3D experiences the gamut of available commodity and emerging hardware is used to enable the past to be explored in new ways.Preprin

The making and evaluation of Picts and Pixels : mixed exhibiting in the real and the unreal

Museums publicly display collections in a physical space to relay narratives and concepts to their audiences. Progressive technologies in an exhibition can bring in varying demographics and gather higher footfall for a museum as well as present digital heritage interpretation in an innovative manner. A mixed media exhibition can facilitate subjects with limited physical resources or difficult to display pieces as well as the visual landscape the objects were found within. A combination of Virtual Reality headsets, 3D digitized objects, digitally reconstructed archaeological sites alongside traditional object displays as methods of interpretation substantiate research in techniques and usability as well as challenges of recoup cost and digital literacies. This paper investigates the methodology, technology and evaluation of the mixed media exhibition Picts & Pixels presented by Culture Perth and Kinross and the Open Virtual Worlds research team at the University of St Andrews at the Perth Museum and Art Gallery in summer 2017.Postprin

A case study in user support for managing OpenSim based multi user learning environments

This research was supported by the Commonwealth Scholarship Programme (UK) and the Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA).Immersive 3D Multi User Learning Environments (MULE) have shown sufficient success to warrant their consideration as a mainstream educational paradigm. These are based on 3D Multi User Virtual Environment platforms (MUVE), and although they have been used for various innovative educational projects their complex permission systems and large numbers of functions can make their management potentially challenging. It follows that an inadequately managed MULE can be ineffective with respect to intended learning outcomes. The purpose of this research was to determine how management challenges manifest themselves and how to support educators in learning and applying MULE management skills. We utilized the popular OpenSim platform for this study. First, a survey of the need for user support (N=43) is described. Next, the design and evaluation of a guidance tool using graph topologic visualization of OpenSim functions is presented (N=211). The tool is further evaluated in the delivery of a course module. The analysis and user feedback indicated that the tool provides accurate information and helpful support for MULE management. As the final phase of the research, training environments were developed for both basic and advanced OpenSim MULE management. Evaluations of their usability and perceived educational value were carried out with participants (N=68); the outcomes suggest that training for advanced MULE management is more useful for all users, without requiring more time or effort, regardless of the degree of complexity of the MULE being designed.PostprintPeer reviewe

Lost cities as a virtual experience: the example of pre-earthquake Lisbon

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Harmonize: a shared environment for extended immersive entertainment

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) applications are very diffuse nowadays. Moreover, recent technology innovations led to the diffusion of commercial head-mounted displays (HMDs) for immersive VR: users can enjoy entertainment activities that fill their visual fields, experiencing the sensation of physical presence in these virtual immersive environments (IEs). Even if AR and VR are mostly used separately, they can be effectively combined to provide a multi-user shared environment (SE), where two or more users perform some specific tasks in a cooperative or competitive way, providing a wider set of interactions and use cases compared to immersive VR alone. However, due to the differences between the two technologies, it is difficult to develop SEs offering a similar experience for both AR and VR users. This paper presents Harmonize, a novel framework to deploy applications based on SEs with a comparable experience for both AR and VR users. Moreover, the framework is hardware-independent and it has been designed to be as much extendable to novel hardware as possible. An immersive game has been designed to test and to evaluate the validity of the proposed framework. The assessment of the system through the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire and the Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ) shows a positive evaluation

Desarrollo de un simulador de excavación arqueológica para educación superior

La arqueología se encarga del estudio del ser humano a través de los restos materiales que el hombre ha dejado a lo largo de la historia. Debido a que es principalmente a través del proceso de excavación arqueológica que los arqueólogos obtienen estos restos materiales, la formación de futuros arqueólogos hace énfasis en la enseñanza de conocimiento práctico. Sin embargo, es difícil para las instituciones educativas realizar excavaciones arqueológicas. Esto se debe a que realizarlas es un proceso caro, lento y destructivo. Además, este tipo de actividades se encuentran limitadas por la disponibilidad de los sitios arqueológicos y su cercanía a los centros de estudio. Por estos motivos, múltiples instituciones educativas han optado por realizar actividades dentro de las aulas que simulen la experiencia de campo. Este fue el caso del curso Arqueología, en el ciclo 2012-1, de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Sin embargo, como reconoció el docente del curso, estas actividades no cubren todos los aspectos de una excavación que son de interés académico que se enseñen. Para incluir los aspectos faltantes, el Grupo Avatar PUCP, junto con alumnos de ingeniería informática, desarrollaron un simulador educativo virtual sobre el proceso de excavación arqueológica. Sin embargo, a pesar de que se obtuvo una simulación más fidedigna, el simulador tuvo problemas de rendimiento debido a su diseño de arquitectura. Esto dificultaba su uso, pues el alto consumo de recursos computacionales provocaba que en ocasiones el simulador se detenga abruptamente durante su ejecución. Por ello, el presente trabajo propone el desarrollo de un nuevo simulador de excavaciones arqueológicas. Este simulador educativo incluirá los aspectos de la excavación arqueológica que no fueron simulados por las actividades en aula. Así mismo, para permitir una simulación estable, el nuevo simulador tendrá un diseño de arquitectura que permita un consumo eficiente de recursos computacionales. Finalmente, también se considerará la usabilidad del software, ya que este tiene una finalidad educativa, por lo que es importante que pueda ser utilizado por estudiantes de educación superior. Antes de desarrollar el simulador, el autor recopiló los aspectos del proceso de excavación arqueológica que debería tener el software. Posteriormente, confirmó el listado de aspectos a incluirse con una experta en la docencia de arqueología. De esta manera, se concluyó que el nuevo simulador integra los aspectos del proceso de excavación que son de interés académico que se enseñen. Posteriormente, tras implementar el simulador, el autor realizó una prueba de estrés comparativa entre el simulador desarrollado y el anterior. A partir de esta comparación, se pudo concluir que el software desarrollado tuvo un menor consumo de recursos computacionales a lo largo de la simulación. Finalmente, tras llevar a cabo múltiples pruebas con usuarios a lo largo del desarrollo del simulador, también se pudo concluir que el nuevo simulador educativo puede ser utilizado y comprendido por estudiantes de educación superior