The use of Cyber Campuses to Support Online Learning for Students Experiencing Barriers Accessing Education

Attendance and participation in education are important for students to obtain the experiences necessary to develop their knowledge. However, there are some students who experience challenges hindering their access and participation in Higher Education. To support students, Universities utilise E-Learning. One of the many E-Learning tools is the use of virtual worlds in the form of cyber campuses. This paper investigates the extent to which cyber campuses can help to mitigate barriers and support students experiencing them. A prototype has been developed and a series of empirical studies have been performed. The results of this research suggest that a cyber campus environment can be used as an alternative learning support tool that can enhance online learning experiences, and help to mitigate some of the barriers that hinder access and participation to education. The associated limitations of this research and the future work planned out are also presented

The Development of Transactive Memory Systems in Collaborative Educational Virtual Worlds

The use of 3D virtual worlds in the form of cyber campuses has been introduced in higher education over the past decade to support and enhance stu- dents’ online learning experiences. Considering that students learn in socially constructed ways and through peer collaboration, the development of Transac- tive Memory System - the collective awareness of the group’s specialization, coordination, and credibility - is found to be beneficial for educational purposes. This paper presents the results of a study investigating the extent to which a TMS can be developed within a 3D virtual world educational setting

A cyber campus to support students experiencing barriers accessing education

There are many barriers hindering access to education for some students, significantly affecting their learning experience (Cross, 1981). To mitigate the effects of such barriers, e-learning technologies are widely used. One example of this is the use of cyber campuses. These are 3D environments where students can meet and share information, and synchronously communicate and collaborate (Prasolova-Førland et al., 2006). It has been suggested that the learning experience of students using these cyber campuses is related to their perceptions of presence, awareness, communication and sociability (De Lucia et al., 2009). The educational capabilities of cyber campuses have been investigated thoroughly in the literature (Gregory et al., 2014). However, little is know about the extent to which cyber campuses can support students experiencing barriers hindering access to education. To investigate this, the SHU3DED (Sheffield Hallam University 3D Education) cyber campus was developed, and a mixture of quantitative and qualitative research was performed. A series of experimental studies were performed to i) evaluate the efficacy of SHU3DED to support online learning activities, ii) understand the barriers hindering access to Higher Education, and iii) ascertain the extent to which a cyber campus can alleviate some of these barriers and support students participate in online learning activities. The findings of this research project revealed several barriers impeding access into Higher Education, together with a set of environment characteristics that contribute to the students’ online learning experience. The findings imply that a cyber campus can be a sound social space that supports participation in online learning activities for students experiencing situational and institutional barriers accessing education. The findings provide strong indications that a cyber campus has the potential mitigate some of the barriers that challenge or exclude students from accessing education, allowing them to participate in social online learning activities. As a result of this research project, a list of suggestions for the design and arrangement of cyber campuses have also been devised

The development and evolution of transactive memory system over time in MUVEs

CSCW in education is a topic that drew a lot of attention over the years, and Multi User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) are one of the tools utilized by many educators to support their teaching objectives. MUVEs enable students to connect, immerse and interact with their peers and the environment, and synchronously engage and collaborate in learning activities. Effective communication and collaboration contributes to student learning, and the topic of Transactive Memory System (TMS) within working groups has been found to be very beneficial. TMS relates to the representation of the knowledge possessed by the members of a team that allows identifying who knows what, providing efficiency in collaboration. While the use of educational MUVEs has been thoroughly investigated in the literature, little is known about the use of such environments to support TMS and their relationship with working group dynamics. This paper presents the results of a study investigating the development and evolution of a TMS between groups within a MUVE, in order to better understand the dynamics that need to be considered when using MUVEs to support teaching and learning

The evaluation of SHU3DED cyber campus : a pilot study

This paper presents the preliminary findings of an empirical study that aims to evaluate the efficacy of 3D virtual worlds for synchronous distant learning activities. A pilot study was conducted to evaluate the prototype developed, the procedures and instruments of data collection, to prepare the study investigating whether virtual worlds can help students participate more effectively in learning activities. The theoretical framework is presented, together with the proposed prototype, method and results of the pilot study, its associated limitations and the future work that we intend to perform