Virtual worlds in Australian and New Zealand higher education: remembering the past, understanding the present and imagining the future

3D virtual reality, including the current generation of multi-user virtual worlds, has had a long history of use in education and training, and it experienced a surge of renewed interest with the advent of Second Life in 2003. What followed shortly after were several years marked by considerable hype around the use of virtual worlds for teaching, learning and research in higher education. For the moment, uptake of the technology seems to have plateaued, with academics either maintaining the status quo and continuing to use virtual worlds as they have previously done or choosing to opt out altogether. This paper presents a brief review of the use of virtual worlds in the Australian and New Zealand higher education sector in the past and reports on its use in the sector at the present time, based on input from members of the Australian and New Zealand Virtual Worlds Working Group. It then adopts a forward-looking perspective amid the current climate of uncertainty, musing on future directions and offering suggestions for potential new applications in light of recent technological developments and innovations in the area

How are Australian higher education institutions contributing to change through innovative teaching and learning in virtual worlds?

Over the past decade, teaching and learning in virtual worlds has been at the forefront of many higher education institutions around the world. The DEHub Virtual Worlds Working Group (VWWG) consisting of Australian and New Zealand higher education academics was formed in 2009. These educators are investigating the role that virtual worlds play in the future of education and actively changing the direction of their own teaching practice and curricula. 47 academics reporting on 28 Australian higher education institutions present an overview of how they have changed directions through the effective use of virtual worlds for diverse teaching and learning activities such as business scenarios and virtual excursions, role-play simulations, experimentation and language development. The case studies offer insights into the ways in which institutions are continuing to change directions in their teaching to meet changing demands for innovative teaching, learning and research in virtual worlds. This paper highlights the ways in which the authors are using virtual worlds to create opportunities for rich, immersive and authentic activities that would be difficult or not possible to achieve through more traditional approaches

Exploring virtual world innovations and design through learner voices

Student voice has played a big role in shaping the development and measure of success/failure of virtual worlds in education. Data on past and ongoing educational uses and contexts of use of virtual worlds and associated student feedback was gathered via a survey of educational researchers specialising in virtual worlds. Introduced are a range of specific uses that provide the source of and context for student feedback. Ten major themes emerged from student voices that highlight strengths and weakness and point the way forward for both educators and the students themselves. Positive feedback highlighted experiences of both pedagogical design and the ability of the technology to support it. Negative feedback revolved around technical problems, seen as hampering the effectiveness of student learning experiences. Student voice regarding virtual worlds is both positive and rewarding, and commending of staff who have dedicated their time and effort to transform the learning experience

Me, Us and IT: Insiders\u27 views of the complex technical, organisational and personal elements in using virtual worlds in education

The adoption and pedagogical use of technologies such as virtual worlds to support teaching and learning, and research in higher education involves a complex interplay of technical, organisational and personal factors. In this paper, eighteen educators and researchers provide an overview of how they perceive a virtual world can be used in education from the perspective of themselves as individuals \u27me\u27, their educational organisations and as members of the Australian and New Zealand Virtual Worlds Working Group (VWWG) community of practice \u27us\u27, as well as the complex technology that underpins this learning environment \u27IT\u27. Drawing on Linstone\u27s (1981, 1984) Technical, Organisational and Personal (TOP) multiple perspective concept as the framework for analysis, the authors discuss their perspectives of how the personal, organisational and technical aspects of teaching through the use of virtual worlds have impacted on their teaching and research in higher education. The potential of employing the TOP framework to inform future research into the use of technologies such as virtual worlds in teaching and learning is explored

Me, us and it: insiders views of the complex technical, organisational and personal elements in using virtual worlds in education

The adoption and pedagogical use of technologies such as virtual worlds to support teaching and learning, and research in higher education involves a complex interplay of technical, organisational and personal factors. In this paper, eighteen educators and researchers provide an overview of how they perceive a virtual world can be used in education from the perspective of themselves as individuals ‘me’, their educational organisations and as members of the Australian and New Zealand Virtual Worlds Working Group (VWWG) community of practice ‘us’, as well as the complex technology that underpins this learning environment ‘IT’. Drawing on Linstone’s (1981, 1984) Technical, Organisational and Personal (TOP) multiple perspective concept as the framework for analysis, the authors discuss their perspectives of how the personal, organisational and technical aspects of teaching through the use of virtual worlds have impacted on their teaching and research in higher education. The potential of employing the TOP framework to inform future research into the use of technologies such as virtual worlds in teaching and learning is explored

Me, Us and IT: Insiders' views of the complex technical, organisational and personal elements in using virtual worlds in education

The adoption and pedagogical use of technologies such as virtual worlds to support teaching and learning, and research in higher education involves a complex interplay of technical, organisational and personal factors. In this paper, eighteen educators and researchers provide an overview of how they perceive a virtual world can be used in education from the perspective of themselves as individuals ‘me’, their educational organisations and as members of the Australian and New Zealand Virtual Worlds Working Group (VWWG) community of practice ‘us’, as well as the complex technology that underpins this learning environment ‘IT’. Drawing on Linstone’s (1981, 1984) Technical, Organisational and Personal (TOP) multiple perspective concept as the framework for analysis, the authors discuss their perspectives of how the personal, organisational and technical aspects of teaching through the use of virtual worlds have impacted on their teaching and research in higher education. The potential of employing the TOP framework to inform future research into the use of technologies such as virtual worlds in teaching and learning is explored

Exploring virtual world innovations and design through learner voices

Student voice has played a big role in shaping the development and measure of success/failure of virtual worlds in education. Data on past and ongoing educational uses and contexts of use of virtual worlds and associated student feedback was gathered via a survey of educational researchers specialising in virtual worlds. Introduced are a range of specific uses that provide the source of and context for student feedback. Ten major themes emerged from student voices that highlight strengths and weakness and point the way forward for both educators and the students themselves. Positive feedback highlighted experiences of both pedagogical design and the ability of the technology to support it. Negative feedback revolved around technical problems, seen as hampering the effectiveness of student learning experiences. Student voice regarding virtual worlds is both positive and rewarding, and commending of staff who have dedicated their time and effort to transform the learning experience

Sustaining the future through virtual worlds

Virtual worlds (VWs) continue to be used extensively in Australia and New Zealand higher education institutions although the tendency towards making unrealistic claims of efficacy and popularity appears to be over. Some educators at higher education institutions continue to use VWs in the same way as they have done in the past; others are exploring a range of different VWs or using them in new ways; whilst some are opting out altogether. This paper presents an overview of how 46 educators from some 26 institutions see VWs as an opportunity to sustain higher education. The positives and negatives of using VWs are discussed

New applications, new global audiences: Educators repurposing and reusing 3D virtual and immersive learning resources

ASCILITE 2015 - Australasian Society for Computers in Learning and Tertiary Education, Conference Proceedings.All right reserved. There continues to be strong interest among established, experienced academic users of 3D virtual environments for their sustained educational use. Consistent with global trends, they plan to further develop and optimise existing applications, reuse skills and experiences gained to develop new applications, and to share and reuse existing virtual resources. This is against a background of varied support from institutions, colleagues, students, funding bodies and also changing understanding and awareness of virtual environments and virtual reality by the general community as a result of consumer developments such as the popularity of multi-user online role playing amongst both children and adults, and the acquisition of technologies by companies with deeply entrenched technologies. At the same time, the ongoing development and availability of new multiuser virtual environment platforms, associated peripherals and virtual reality technologies promise new and exciting opportunities for educators to collaborate with researchers on a global scale, while also exploring the affordances of these technologies for enhancing the learning outcomes for an increasingly diverse and distributed student population