Virtual MET Institution : assessing the potentials and challenges of applying multi-user virtual environment in maritime education and training

The dissertation is a study to assess the potentials and challenges in the use of Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE) in Maritime Education and Training (MET) context. Virtual technology is growing at fast pace. The applications of MUVE are being utilized by numerous institutions across many educational professions. However, the area of utilizing MUVE in MET is still very limited. At the time being, it is indicated that there is possibility to take advantages of MUVE to create: (1) an enhance learning environment, (2) collaboration tools to support the distributed knowledge community, and (3) new modes of distance learning. METs are facing with several contemporary issues. There are necessities to foster the learning experience of future seafarers, to promote expertise exchange, and to continuously support its community of practice from distance. The investigation of MUVE’s characteristics and its applications suggests chances to tackle the such issues. Obviously, assessing the potentials and challenges of applying MUVE in MET become critical. The assessment tasks are conducted by examining the potentials that an institution can benefit as well as challenges that it would face. Then it is repositioned into MET contexts by taking into account the reality of MET’s culture and practices. The outcomes of the assessments indicate the affordance of MUVE for educational activities in MET institutions. Being aware of the limitations of the research itself, a number of recommendations are made concerning the need for further investigation in the subject

I�ve Got to Play That Game - An Analysis of Embedded Persuasion in Game Design

We explore the role of persuasion in game design through a combination of cognitive biases, the roles of the individual and society in persuasive game design and game play. We examine the role of scarce player resources in the areas of monetary, temporal, spatial and cognitive spheres on the persuasive nature of a game. We argue that a persuasive game contains three distinct elements: the element of surprise and attention, the element of alignment with cultural norms and the element of tradeoff between player resources and incentives to play the game. We also present the ethical implications of persuasive game design

Describing the Experiences of Students with ADHD Learning Science Content with Emerging Technologies

Emerging technologies, such as virtual reality, haptics, and 3-dimensionality, provide novel opportunities to allow students to investigate scientific phenomena by fostering perceptions of virtual presence, the feeling of being sensorially immersed and authentically interacting within a computer-generated virtual learning environment (VLE). Neurotypical learners are largely represented in VLE research on science learning, with fewer with neurodivergent learners, such as students with ADHD. This descriptive case study sought to address the dearth in the literature on neurodivergent students’ experiences, with emerging technologies, for learning science. Specifically, the case describes the extent to which neurodivergent learners experience the affordances of VLEs for science learning, as compared to their neurotypical peers, in: zooming, spatially orienting and rotating objects, viewing multiple representations and abstract processes in real-time, as well engaging in risk through multiple trials. Five middle grades students (diagnosed with ADHD) were assessed and observed using a tool (zSpace) that combines emerging technologies to learn cardiac anatomy and physiology. Students’ utterances of virtual presence and technological affordances were coded, and frequency counts and percentages were calculated, both individually and collectively. The results found that students most described sensory (41%), control (30%), and realism (26%) constructs with fewer reports of holding their attention (3%). Analyses of cardiac assessments found gains in scores for spatial rotation and viewing abstract processes, no change in score in viewing multiple representations, and a decrease in scores for spatial orientation. This case study provides unique insight into the needs of neurodivergent learners when using emerging technologies for science learning

The power of immersive technologies: a sociopsychological analysis of the relationship between immersive environments, storytelling, sentiment, and the impact on user experience

This dissertation initially focused on exploring the potential of immersive technologies for the distant future. However, the emergence of the COVID-19 virus in late 2019 disrupted the world, causing a pause in many areas. Nevertheless, the butterfly effect of the pandemic spurred the development of immersive technologies, resulting in the rise of the metaverse, web3, non-fungible tokens (NFT), and avatars, which are gaining increasing popularity. The excitement for the metaverse is growing in both academia and industry, leading to new avenues of research, digital marketing, video games, tourism, and social media. This dissertation explores this rapidly emerging technological revolution and its effects on user experience (UX)

ON INTER-REALITY LITERACY: EMOTIONS AS PREDICTORS OF PERFORMANCE IN VIRTUAL WORLDS

Virtual worlds, set-up on the Internet, occur as a highly complex form of visual media. They foreshadow future developments, not only in leisure settings, but also in health care and business environments. The interaction between real-life and virtual worlds, i.e., inter-reality, has recently moved to the center of scientific interest (Bainbridge 2007). Particularly, the empirical assessment of the value of virtual embodiment and its outcomes is needed (Schultze 2010). Here, this paper aims to make a contribution. Reviewing prior media theories and corresponding conceptualizations such as presence, immersion, media literacy and emotions, we argue that in inter-reality, individual differences in perceiving and dealing with one’s own and other’s emotions influence an individual\u27s performance. Providing construct operationalizations and model propositions, we suggest testing the theory in the context of competitive and socially interactive virtual worlds

Facilitating immersion, engagement and flow in multi-user virtual environments

Virtual worlds are providing myriad opportunities for the development of innovative curricula for tertiary educators. They provide a virtual meeting space for those students and lecturers who are geographically remote from one another, rendering distance irrelevant and facilitating the formation of community. This paper will look at those factors - physical, social, virtual and those related to pedagogy - which facilitate immersion in virtual worlds; that suspension of disbelief which generates the feeling of presence or 'being there', crucial to promoting student engagement and ultimately, flow

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Second Life : representation and remediation of social space

Ao longo da última década os jogos online e as plataformas sociais têm-se tornado cada vez mais populares, tendo vindo a contribuir para o desenvolvimento da internet. Os jogos online multiplayer têm conquistado cada vez mais utilizadores. Estes têm como locus a realidade virtual e como objetivo a recriação de um novo mundo. Um exemplo deste tipo de jogos é o Second Life, um jogo social que conta com um elevado número de utilizadores – cerca de 31 milhões de utilizadores registados. Esta plataforma foi desenvolvida pela Linden Lab e reúne as características de um mundo virtual: é um cenário digital tridimensional, no qual utilizadores de todo o mundo, representados por avatares, interagem em tempo real formando diversos tipos de redes sociais. Uma das suas características distintivas é o facto de 99% do conteúdo existente dentro do espaço virtual ter sido desenvolvido pelos utilizadores. Os jogadores, denominados residentes, estão a contribuir não só na construção do espaço, mas também para o desenvolvimento social deste mundo virtual. Para além disto, existem mais quatro características que tornam o Second Life um objeto de estudo interessante: todos os avatares são controlados por seres humanos em tempo real; o reconhecimento de direitos de propriedade intelectual; a existência de uma micro-moeda – o Linden Dollar; e o facto de todos os jogadores terem acesso a ferramentas básicas de construção, e à linguagem de programação desenvolvida pela Linden Lab, a Linden Scripting Language, essenciais para criar objetos. O Second Life é um espaço colaborativo e participativo que, apesar de ser um jogo, oferece aos seus utilizadores uma experiência muito diferente da vivida nos videojogos tradicionais. Por ser um jogo do tipo caixa de areia os jogadores podem estabelecer uma relação diferente com esta plataforma, pois podem contribuir para as diversas dimensões da vida dentro do jogo. Devido às suas características, este mundo virtual tem despertado o interesse de investigadores de diferentes áreas que têm procurado perceber o seu impacto para a interação social, educação, economia, lei, e indústrias criativas. No entanto, tendo em conta que o ‘espaço’ é um elemento fulcral na investigação em Ciências Humanas e uma das áreas priveligiadas pela European Science Foundation para a investigação em Ciências Sociais e Humanas, há, ainda, a necessidade de perceber como é que este espaço digital está a ser desenvolvido, e que narrativas culturais o estão a moldar. Uma vez que o Second Life reflete a importância dos mundos virtuais para a interação online, torna-se fundamental compreender que impacto a virtualização das relações sociais pode ter para a interação interpessoal e para o desenvolvimento de um novo tipo de ‘comunidades imaginadas’. A presente investigação centra-se no Second Life e procura perceber de que forma poderá este novo espaço de interação estar a contribuir para o aparecimento de uma nova dimensão social. Uma dimensão resultante das possibilidades oferecidas por uma plataforma tecnológica apenas disponível através da internet, combinadas com o potencial criativo dos seus utilizadores. Com o intuito de contribuir para um melhor entendimento do potencial sociocultural deste mundo virtual, este estudo tem como base uma investigação empírica desenvolvida a partir de uma metodologia qualitativa específica para o estudo de comunidades online, a netnografia. Os métodos de recolha de dados adotados são: observação participante, auto-netnografia, entrevista e análise de conteúdo dos perfis dos utilizadores entrevistados. Os dados são analisados seguindo uma abordagem indutiva. A principal hipótese deste estudo centra-se na premissa que se o Second Life é um mundo virtual que está a ser coproduzido pela Linden Lab e pelos utilizadores, é provável que o envolvimento dos residentes com a realidade virtual resulte na criação de um sistema de representação re-mediado. Partindo desta hipótese, os objetivos principais desta investigação são confirmar se de facto os mundos virtuais estão a ser usados para representar e re-mediar o espaço social, e perceber que efeito isto tem nos jogadores. Uma das principais conclusões retiradas prende-se com o facto de os utilizadores estarem a tirar partido deste mundo virtual para renegociarem os modelos socioculturais que informam as suas ‘primeiras vidas’. Após a análise da relação que os utilizadores estabelecem com o espaço virtual, com os seus próprios avatares e entre si, concluiu-se que são três as principais narrativas culturais que estão a resultar das experiências vividas pelos residentes deste mundo virtual. As primeiras intrinsecamente relacionadas com a organização geográfica da vida humana – narrativas de espaço; as segundas, com a necessidade de nos compreendermos a nós mesmos, narrativas identitárias; e as terceiras, com o facto de os seres humanos serem na sua essência seres sociais, narrativas resultantes da interação social com outros residentes. A ‘re-mediação’ de narrativas culturais dentro de um ambiente online, anónimo e flexível evidencia a necessidade que os seres humanos têm de reconhecer os espaços sociais que frequentam, de modo a envolverem-se e atribuírem significado às experiências digitais vividas.Over the past decade online games and social platforms became very popular and contributed to the internet development. The massive multiplayer online games have conquered a high number of users. The locus of these games is virtual reality, and the main goal is the recreation of a new world. Second Life is one of these games, a tridimensional social platform which counts with a high number of users – around 31 million registered users. It was developed by Linden Lab and it assembles the main characteristics of a virtual worlds: it is a tridimensional digital setting where users from all over the world represented by avatars interact in real time, and develop diversified social networks. One of its main characteristics is the prevalence of prodused content – 99 per cent of the content existing in-world was created by residents. Players, designated residents, are not only contributing to the space construction, but also to the social development of this virtual world. Apart from this, there are four more characteristics that make this multiuser environment interesting as an object of study: all the avatars existent in-world are playing characters controlled by human beings in real time; the recognition of intellectual property rights; the existence of a micro-currency – the Linden Dollar; and all the players have access to simple building tools, and to the Linden Scripting Language, which are essential to create objects. Second Life is a collaborative and participative space that, despite being a game, offers its users a very different experience from that lived within traditional video games. Because it is a sandbox game players are able to establish a different kind of relationship with the platform, once they can contribute to the different dimensions of the life in-world. Due to its intrinsic characteristics, this virtual world has caught the attention of researchers from several areas that showed interest in understanding the impact this virtual world may have in social interaction, education, economy, law and creative industries. Notwithstanding, considering that ‘space’ is a key element in the Humanities, and one of the privileged areas by the European Science Foundation for the research in Social Sciences and Humanities, it is necessary to better understand how this digital space is being developed, and which cultural narratives are shaping it. Since Second Life reflects the relevance of virtual worlds to online interaction, it is essential to comprehend the impact that the ‘virtualization’ of social relationships may have for interpersonal interaction, and for the emergence of a new type of ‘imagined communities’. The present research is centered on Second Life and looks forward to understand how this new interaction space could be contributing to the emergence of a new social dimension. A dimension resulting from the possibilities offered by a technology platform only available through the internet, combined with the creative potential of its users. In order to contribute to a better understanding of the sociocultural potential of this virtual world, this study is grounded on an empirical research based on a specific qualitative methodology for studying online communities, the netnography. The methods adopted for data collection are: participant observation, auto-netnography, interview, and content analysis of the interviewees’ profiles. The data collected is analyzed through an inductive approach. The main hypothesis framing this research is the premise that if Second Life is a virtual world that is being prodused by its residents, it is probable that users’ involvement with the virtual reality would result in the creation of a remediated system of representation. Based on this hypothesis, the main goals then are to confirm if virtual worlds are indeed representing and remediating social space, and to understand the effect this has on players. One of the main conclusions reached is that the users are taking advantage of the affordances of this virtual world to renegotiate the sociocultural models that frame their first lives. Through the analysis of the relationship users are establishing with the virtual space, with their own avatars, and with each other, it is concluded that there are three main cultural narratives emerging from the in-world experience lived by the residents. The first intrinsically related with the geographical organization of human life – spatial narratives; the second, with the need to make sense of oneself – narratives of identity; and the third, with the fact that humans are social beings in essence – social interaction narratives resulting from the interaction with other residents. The remediation of cultural narratives into an online, anonymous, and flexible environment evinces the need humans have for recognizable social spaces in order to be able to get involved and attribute meaning to the lived digital experiences

Using Virtual Worlds to Identify Multidimensional Student Engagement in High School Foreign Language Learning Classrooms

Virtual world environments have evolved from object-oriented, text-based online games to complex three-dimensional immersive social spaces where the lines between reality and computer-generated begin to blur. Educators use virtual worlds to create engaging three-dimensional learning spaces for students, but the impact of virtual worlds in comparison to the traditional face-to-face counterpart has been uncertain in terms of multidimensional student engagement. Research has a need to determine the impact of virtual worlds on student engagement in comparison to the traditional face-to-face environment. The study examined the effects of virtual world and face-to-face learning environments on high school foreign language students\u27 emotional, cognitive, and behavioral engagement, as well as combined engagement. A two-way MANOVA was used to determine the effect of traditional face-to-face and virtual world learning environments on combined student engagement. A 2 x 2 analysis of covariance was used to determine the effect of traditional face-to-face and virtual world learning environments on emotional student engagement. A 2 x 2 analysis of covariance was also used to determine the effect of traditional face-to-face and virtual world learning environments on cognitive student engagement. A t-test was used to determine the effect of traditional face-to-face and virtual world learning environments on behavioral engagement. The study did not find evidence of overall, cognitive, emotional, or behavioral engagement difference between the two learning environments. The findings indicate the virtual world environment is similar to the traditional face-to-face environment in terms of student engagement. School administrators and teachers can benefit from this research when determining effective means of creating highly engaging learning environments for students. Virtual worlds can be a medium for engaging learning opportunities for students in face-to-face and virtual schools. Additional research in this area is recommended to determine the impact of virtual worlds with different student populations and subject areas