The Role of Contextual Info‐Marks in Navigating a Virtual Rural Environment

Navigation is a task performed in both large and small scale environments. Landmarks within an environment are of great benefit to these navigational tasks, but in large rural environments such landmarks may be sparse. It has been shown that landmarks need not be purely visual and that a change in context for a feature can make it become a landmark against its surroundings (such as being provided with significant meaning). Such meaning could be added through personal experience or by informing the observer via some form of communication. To investigate the effects of providing such contextual information on navigational performance, experiments were conducted in a large rural virtual environment where the delivery method of the information was varied between onscreen and PDA display. Users were instructed to perform a route tracing navigation task. In some instances users were presented with textual information about specific locations within the environment which appeared when they were in the vicinity of the location. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed, with results indicating that although the actual performance in the task was not significantly improved, users felt that their performance was better and the task easier when they were presented with the contextual information

The role of nature-based solutions and senses of place in enabling just city transitions

Discussions about just transitions and nature-based solutions (NBS) often articulate an essentialist sense of place perspective that emphasises stasis through combinations of belonging, rootedness, continuity, attachment and connections among sites, scales and subjectivities. In response, we demonstrate how a progressive understanding of "senses" of place that embraces fluid place meanings accessible at different temporal and spatial scales enables a new understanding of the interface between structural and emotional transformation of place, as well as rethinking of just urban transitions. We present four transformation modalities that reconsider people-place, people-nature, and people-institutional relations pertinent to environmental justice and use case examples to demonstrate their relevance to NBS planning. We conclude by offering two overarching principles for urban policy, planning, and governance for fostering just transitions through NBS. First, NBS planning needs to pur-posively activate structural and emotional transformations through experimentation to enhance procedural justice. Second, NBS co-design and implementation should consider the dynamic interplay between recognition and distribution justice to engage multiple senses of place.Peer reviewe

Developing and validating a new reliable instrument for assessing open distance learning educator's learning management system - TPACK

A research report submitted to the Wits School of Education, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education by combination of coursework and research Johannesburg, 2017Modern-day open and distance learning (ODL) educators are increasingly being called upon to apply different forms of knowledge to integrate web-based learning management systems (LMSs) effectively for teaching and learning. To test this assumption, this study set out to develop and validate a new reliable instrument for assessing ODL educators’ perceived learning management system technological pedagogical content knowledge (LMS-TPACK). Past empirical studies grounded in Mishra and Koehler’s TPACK framework (2006) were examined to construct the self-report survey. Quantitative data were collected from 332 educators. Descriptive analysis, exploratory factor analysis and internal consistency reliability using Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were computed. The findings reveal key LMS-TPACK constructs that have proven to be both valid and reliable. Six out of the seven subscales used to assess LMS-TPACK were found to be significant, i.e. LMS knowledge (LMS-K), pedagogical knowledge (PK), content knowledge (CK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), LMS pedagogical knowledge (LMS-PK) and LMS-TPACK, while LMS-CK failed to emerge in the factor structure. Several possible reasons are proposed for the lack or absence of LMS-CK. The resulting Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the different constructs as well as the overall instrument scale provide compelling evidence for stable internal consistency reliability. Alpha for the entire LMS-TPACK survey was found to be excellent (α = .931). Recommendations are made for improvements to the instrument and directions for future research are highlighted.MT201

A Practice-Based Exploration of Natural Environment Design in Computer & Video Games : Volume 2

I offer this thesis as an original and substantial contribution to knowledge in virtual natural environment design practice within computer and video games, by identifying areas of strong/weak practice and to develop a new design framework that utilises a cross-disciplinary approach for practitioners/students/researchers. The thesis combines theoretical frameworks as well practical guidance within a new design framework for virtual natural environment design.The themes relating to this work were examined through a contextual review that focused on previous professional practice as well as critical games produced during the last 30 years. The contextual review involved a detailed textual and visual-based historical survey of virtual landscapes, resulting in a practice-based exploration of virtual natural environment design in computer and video games. One of the main artefacts produced in this research, a three-volume book series titled Virtual Landscapes, presents for the first time these virtual spaces in a digitally enhanced manner through high-resolution panoramic imagery. A review of existing literature and current practice revealed that virtual natural environment design has so far been driven by mainly aesthetic principles and hinted that future emergent design practice should involve a cross/multi-disciplinary approach. The research proposes a new design framework for the creation of virtual landscapes that uses Landscape Character Assessments amongst other elements of environmental design. ShadowMoss Island is a practice-based exploration of how virtual natural environmental design can incorporate elements from Environmental Psychology and Geology, as well as personal reflections and observational analysis based on a field trip. The research proposes that psychological elements added to this new design framework can radically improve the success and impact of the final virtual natural environment.Another practice-based artefact, MindFlow, was created as a pre-production tool for the purpose of environmental design. The proposed tool enables the direct visualisation of collated multimedia (audio, images, video, annotations, design and decisions) in much more natural setting of a single visual space, allowing designers/artists to draw and influence the design and creation of virtual natural environments by bringing together all the different aspects in an intuitive and user-friendly manner. MindFlow helps solve the problem of designers/artists having to retain mental maps of image repositories structure by creating a single visual non-folder tree hierarchy virtual space. The research has significance to both professional and pedagogic practitioners working in the area of computer and video game natural environment design