199 research outputs found
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Role of three-dimensional virtual environments in the globalisation of science education
In this poster, we illustrate how 3D virtual environments can facilitate science education in distance and blended education contexts, and can support collaboration amongst students and educators in geographically distributed settings and in different institutions.
Three-dimensional (3D) virtual environments, also called synthetic worlds, are multimedia, simulated environments, often managed over the web, which users can ‘inhabit’ and interact via their graphical self-representations known as ‘avatars’. In a 3D virtual environment, the users, represented as avatars, experience others as being present in the same environment even though they may be geographically distributed. Users converse in real time through gestures, audio, text-based chat, and instant messaging. Three-dimensional virtual environments support synchronous communication and collaboration more effectively than two-dimensional (2D) web-based environments: by extending the user’s ability to employ traditional communication cues of face-to-face interactions, and having a sense of presence and a sense of place in a way that 2D environments do not.
A 3D environment can enable students to carry out a range of authentic and practical scientific enquiries: interacting with 3D models, participating in virtual field trips; learning to control instruments; assembling apparatus and instruments; and creating 3D models. The social aspects of a 3D environment support scientific discourse and dialogues at different levels. For example, in an avatar-based 3D virtual world, the avatar can navigate, encounter other avatars, and communicate with them in real-time through gestures, voice, text, and instant messaging. They can critique experimental designs, compare results, share good practice, and look over each other’s work just as one would do in a real-life laboratory. The sense of working together in a place with other avatars provides an immersive experience that drives sustained engagement and aids visual memory
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Learner-Centred Design and Evaluation of Web-Based E-Learning Environments
Designing E-learning is a combination of pedagogical design, usability and information architecture. E-learning environments should have intuitive interfaces and clear information design, allowing learners to focus on learning. However, there is often a mismatch between what an on-line educator thinks the learner would learn, and what a learner thinks he will, and then has learned from the course. In addition, there is sometimes a mismatch between how an educator wants to teach and what is represented on the interface by the instructional designers. Such mismatches affect the learner's experience and his motivation for E-learning. In this paper, we will first discuss the source and nature of these mismatches. Next, we will discuss whether usability techniques in the HCI literature are appropriate for evaluating E-learning environments for the learner experience. We will then propose a combination of requirements elicitation and usability techniques for learner-centred design and evaluation of Web-based E-learning environments. The proposed methodology is based on our experience of conducting empirical studies for evaluating user-system interactions in E-Commerce contexts
Using a wiki to facilitate learning on a Requirements Engineering course
In this paper, we describe the introduction of a wiki for collaborative activities in a Requirements Engineering course offered at a distance to part-time learners. The paper describes the course and how wiki activities were incorporated. The paper then discusses the initial feedback from the students which shows that the wiki has been largely effective for developing students' understanding of the course concepts, the effectiveness of team working in Requirements Engineering and the use of wikis in practice. However, there are particular issues related to asynchronous working in distance education/eLearning that need to be better addressed. We conclude with a discussion of how we are tackling these issues and developing the use of the wiki on the course based on the students' feedba
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Developing a 3D virtual geology field trip in Unity 3D: reflection of our experiences
As a part of The OpenScience Laboratory(), an initiative of The Open University, UK and The Wolfson Foundation, we have developed a 3D simulation of a Geology field trip (), using the Unity 3D software (). The learning activities within the 3D App are designed to mirror the experience of a real field trip. The design and development of the 3D App has involved people with diverse skills in a University environment while working closely with an external developer who brought in Unity and 3D modeling skills.
I will reflect on the design and development process and focus on: processes and technologies utilized for team-working (the university team and developers were not co-located); challenges faced by the educational researcher to ‘convince’ the team about moving to a 3D environment; gaps between the designer’s model and the developer’s perception of user interface design; integrating principles of user experience; controlling the ‘requirements-creep’; and the realization that many of the Second Life features can’t be replicated in Unity. At the end of my presentation, I will present a set of ‘guiding’ tips for colleagues who may be involved in the design and development of similar educational 3D projects. The 3D App is not yet available in the public domain. So, a couple of YouTube videos (each of 3-4 minutes long) will be demonstrated in-world during the presentation
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The experiences of academic and research bloggers: a phenomenological enquiry
Our research project investigates the experience of academics (i.e. educators working in higher education) and researchers using blogs in their work. The three objectives are: 1) to identify reasons why academics and researchers begin writing and maintain a blog as part of their practice, 2) the contribution of blogging to the academics' and researchers' personal and professional development and 3) the challenges they experience. One component of the research involves conducting individual open-ended interviews by email with academic/research bloggers. The interviews are analysed using descriptive phenomenology, to gain an understanding of both the idiosyncratic aspects and the general essence of the bloggers' experiences. Findings reveal that bloggers think of others through their blog: beginners feel encouraged to blog by following advice from others or examples of experienced bloggers; the more experienced consider blogging an opportunity to disseminate and exchange information with others. Therefore, blogging does not mediate relationships only between bloggers and readers, but also with people outside the readership but still connected to the blog. For some academics and researchers, blogging is an 'experiment' to think through ideas and find a voice in the public arena. This form of experimentation and exploration fosters both personal reflection and social interaction. However, public experimentation triggers feelings of anxiety and uncertainty amongst some academics/researchers. This seems due to the unfamiliar way in which blogs occupy an intermediate space among established writing forms (i.e. academic papers, journalistic articles, diaries), thereby blurring the private-public and formal-informal divide
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Role of wearable activity-tracking technologies in the well-being and quality of life of people aged 55 and over
This session will inform the results of the Sir Halley Stewart Trust-funded project investigating whether and how wearable activity-tracking technologies can acceptably contribute towards self-monitoring of activity and health by people aged 55 years and over. http://www.shaileyminocha.info/digital-health-wearables
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A study of the effective use of social software to support student learning and engagement
This study examined the use of social software in the UK further and higher education sectors to collect evidence of the effective use of social software in enhancing student learning and engagement. In this study, data from 26 initiatives, where social software tools have been employed, has been collected, analysed and synthesised. The cases chosen give a spread of tools, subject areas, contexts (part-time, full-time or distance learning), levels of study, and institutions (higher and further education). A case study methodology was followed and both educators and students were interviewed to find out what they had done, how well it had worked, and what they had learned from the experiences. This study provides insights about the: educational goals of using social software tools; enablers or drivers within the institution, or from external sources which positively influence the adoption of social software; benefits to the students, educators and institutions; challenges that may influence a social software initiative; and issues that need to be considered in a social software initiative
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Conducting empirical research in virtual worlds
In this tutorial, we will present a framework for conducting empirical research in virtual worlds, which is based on our experiences on three research projects in Second Life (2008-2011). During the tutorial-session, we will introduce the framework which consists of: a toolbox of techniques for data collection; guidance for planning and conducting the research process of data collection and analysis; tips regarding ethical approval; and pointers for dealing with challenges associated with recruitment, participant-consent and publishing the research. The tutorial is aimed for virtual world researchers but the content will be useful for educators, designers and e-learning researchers, in general
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Older people and online social interactions
Dr Shailey Minocha (The Open University, UK) will introduce a current project at The Open University (http://crc.open.ac.uk/Projects/OlderPeople-BeingOnline) in collaboration with Age UK Milton Keynes, Cordia and JISC TechDis. The project involves investigating the role of on-line social interactions in supporting people aged 65 or over to avoid or overcome social isolation, and to maintain and develop social connectedness. These on-line social interactions may be via email or Skype, or participating in on-line communities such as on Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
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Introducing Second Life, a 3D virtual world, to students and educators
Three-dimensional virtual worlds are multimedia, simulated environments, often managed over the Web, which users can 'inhabit' and interact via their own graphical self-representations known as 'avatars'. Second Life is the most widely used 3D virtual world in education. In this paper we discuss our experiences of introducing Second Life to students and educators and imparting to them the skills required to interact within the 3D environment. We also discuss the resources that we developed to support their induction and training
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