The virtual playground: an educational virtual reality environment for evaluating interactivity and conceptual learning

The research presented in this paper aims at investigating user interaction in immersive virtual learning environments (VLEs), focusing on the role and the effect of interactivity on conceptual learning. The goal has been to examine if the learning of young users improves through interacting in (i.e. exploring, reacting to, and acting upon) an immersive virtual environment (VE) compared to non interactive or non-immersive environments. Empirical work was carried out with more than 55 primary school students between the ages of 8 and 12, in different between-group experiments: an exploratory study, a pilot study, and a large-scale experiment. The latter was conducted in a virtual environment designed to simulate a playground. In this ‘Virtual Playground’, each participant was asked to complete a set of tasks designed to address arithmetical ‘fractions’ problems. Three different conditions, two experimental virtual reality (VR) conditions and a non-VR condition, that varied the levels of activity and interactivity, were designed to evaluate how children accomplish the various tasks. Pre-tests, post-tests, interviews, video, audio, and log files were collected for each participant, and analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. This paper presents a selection of case studies extracted from the qualitative analysis, which illustrate the variety of approaches taken by children in the VEs in response to visual cues and system feedback. Results suggest that the fully interactive VE aided children in problem solving but did not provide as strong evidence of conceptual change as expected; rather, it was the passive VR environment, where activity was guided by a virtual robot, that seemed to support student reflection and recall, leading to indications of conceptual change

Virtual Reality and Education : evaluating the Learning Experience

The paper presents the evaluation of two different case studies involving educational virtual reality experiences for adults and children. The case studies concern applications for two different content domains, archeology and mathematics education, both developed for high-end projection-based virtual reality systems such as the CAVE®. In the first case of archaeology education, an evaluation study was performed in situ with adults and children who used the virtual environment during their museum visit. In the second case of learning abstract mathematics, the evaluation study was held in a controlled laboratory setting. The evaluation methods used ranged from quantifiable pre- and post- questionnaires and log files to the more qualitative methods of direct observation and semi-structured interviewing. Emphasis was given both on usability issues and on the evaluation of effectiveness in terms of learning.L'article presenta l'avaluació de dos estudis de cas diferents que fan referència a experiències educatives per adults i nens utilitzant la realitat virtual. Els estudis de cas consisteixen en aplicacions a dos continguts diferents, l'ensenyament de l'arqueologia i de les matemàtiques, desenvolupades ambdues per sistemes de realitat virtual projectada d'alta definició com CAVE®. En el primer cas que es refereix a l'ensenyament de l'arqueologia, es va dur a terme un estudi in situ amb adults i nens que van utilitzar l'entorn virtual durant una visita a un museu. En el segon cas, el de l'ensenyament de matemàtiques abstractes, l'estudi avaluatiu es va dur a terme en un context controlat de laboratori. Els mètodes avaluatius utilitzats abastaren des de qüestionaris quantificables (per abans i després de l'experiència) fins a mètodes més cualitatius d'observació directa i entrevistes semi-estructurades. S'enfasitzà tant els aspectes relacionats amb les possibilitats d'ús, com l'avaluació de l'efectivitat en termes d'aprenentatge, així com en l'eficàcia del desplegament a llarg termini de la Realitat Virtual en condicions realistes d'ús, especialment quan la tecnologia es pugui convertir en habitual i el contingut prevalgui sobre el mètode expositiu.El artículo presenta la evaluación de dos estudios de caso diferentes referentes a experiencias educativas para adultos y niños utilizando la realidad virtual. Los estudios de caso consisten en aplicaciones a dos contenidos diferentes, la enseñanza de la arqueología y de las matemáticas, desarrolladas ambas para sistemas de realidad virtual proyectada de alta definición como CAVE®. En el primer caso referido a la enseñanza de la arqueología, se llevo a cabo un estudio in situ con adultos y niños que utilizaron el entorno virtual durante una visita a un museo. En el segundo caso, referido a la enseñanza de matemáticas abstractas, el estudio evaluativo se llevo a cabo en un contexto controlado de laboratorio. Los métodos evaluativos utilizados abarcaron desde cuestionarios cuantificables (para antes y después de la experiencia) hasta métodos más cualitativos de observación directa y entrevistas semi-estructuradas. Se enfatizó tanto los aspectos relacionados con las posibilidades de uso, como la evaluación de la efectividad en términos de aprendizaje, así como en la eficacia del despliegue a largo plazo de la Realidad Virtual en condiciones realistas de uso, especialmente cuando la tecnología se pueda convertir en habitual y el contenido prevalezca sobre el medio expositivo

Capturing the Visitor Profile for a Personalized Mobile Museum Experience: an Indirect Approach

An increasing number of museums and cultural institutions around the world use personalized, mostly mobile, museum guides to enhance visitor experiences. However since a typical museum visit may last a few minutes and visitors might only visit once, the personalization processes need to be quick and efficient, ensuring the engagement of the visitor. In this paper we investigate the use of indirect profiling methods through a visitor quiz, in order to provide the visitor with specific museum content. Building on our experience of a first study aimed at the design, implementation and user testing of a short quiz version at the Acropolis Museum, a second parallel study was devised. This paper introduces this research, which collected and analyzed data from two environments: the Acropolis Museum and social media (i.e. Facebook). Key profiling issues are identified, results are presented, and guidelines towards a generalized approach for the profiling needs of cultural institutions are discussed

From Personalization to Adaptivity: Creating Immersive Visits through Interactive Digital Storytelling at the Acropolis Museum

Storytelling has recently become a popular way to guide museum visitors, replacing traditional exhibit-centric descriptions by story-centric cohesive narrations with references to the exhibits and multimedia content. This work presents the fundamental elements of the CHESS project approach, the goal of which is to provide adaptive, personalized, interactive storytelling for museum visits. We shortly present the CHESS project and its background, we detail the proposed storytelling and user models, we describe the provided functionality and we outline the main tools and mechanisms employed. Finally, we present the preliminary results of a recent evaluation study that are informing several directions for future work

Greek Cypriot women in contemporary Cyprus : with special reference to the 1974 war and its consequences

This thesis is an attempt to develop an understanding of\ud the position of women in Cypriot society. The empirical\ud work concentrates on the life cycle of two groups of\ud Greek Cypriot women, rural and urban respectively, and\ud the experiences of those women whose husbands were\ud killed or lost as a result of the 1974 Turkish invasion\ud of Cyprus.\ud Societies produce certain forms of social control to\ud maintain existing social relations. In times of crisis,\ud when the very existence of the state itself is under\ud threat, social regulation becomes more explicit; in\ud particular areas it may be extended and its oppressive\ud effects are exacerbated.\ud The thesis starts by looking at those women in Cyprus\ud who were directly affected by the war and goes on to\ud consider rural and urban women more generally in\ud chapters 7 and 8. These two chapters contain extensive\ud illustrations of the social, economic and political\ud oppression of women and the way in which this is\ud produced and reproduced through commonly held\ud traditional sets of beliefs and established social\ud practices, reinforced by the powerful institutions of\ud Church and state. The discussion of the position of\ud Greek Cypriot women is set in the wider context of Greek\ud Cypriot history and the general socio-economic and\ud political background of Cyprus. It is further informed by an examination of Greek Cypriot family law, both\ud common law and canon law, which analyses the specific\ud ways in which it operates to women's disadvantage.\ud The last chapter presents an overview of the historical\ud and contemporary positions of Greek Cypriot ,women in the\ud light of the ethnographic research, examines conditions\ud for maintenance and potential change of positions and\ud offers suggestions for future research. Finally the\ud thesis addresses the following questions: What has\ud feminism to offer Greek Cypriot women? What new\ud insights has the case of Greek Cypriot women to offer to\ud the general arguments of feminism

Moving Beyond the Virtual Museum : Engaging Visitors Emotionally

In this paper, we firstly critique the state of the art on Virtual Museums (VM) in an effort to expose the many opportunities available to enroll these spaces into transformative and engaging cultural experiences. We then outline our attempts to stretch beyond the usual VM in order to connect it to visitors in a measurably emotional, participatory, interactive and social fashion. We discuss the foundations for a conceptual framework for the creation of VMs, grounded in a user-centered design methodology and related design and evaluation guidelines. We then introduce two main cultural heritage sites, which are used as case studies at the core of our efforts, and conclude by describing the many challenges they bring for pushing the boundaries on the human-felt impact of the virtual museum

Can VR be Useful and Usable in Real-World Contexts? Observations from the Application and Evaluation of VR in Realistic Usage Conditions

International audienceThis paper presents our observations from the use of high-end projection-based VR in different real-world settings, with practitioners but also novice users that do not normally use VR in their everyday practice. We developed two applications for two different content domains and present case studies of actual experiences with professionals and students who used these as part of their work or during their museum visit. Emphasis is given on usability issues and evaluation of effectiveness, as well as on our thoughts on the efficacy of the long term deployment of VR under realistic usage conditions, especially when the technology becomes mundane and the content takes precedence over the display medium. We will present an overall assessment of our experience, on issues relating to usability and user satisfaction with VR in real-world contexts

Η επίδραση των πρώιμων δυσλειτουργικών σχημάτων και της ιδιοσυγκρασίας στον εθισμό στο διαδίκτυο σε νεαρούς ενήλικες

Τα τελευταία χρόνια ο εθισμός στο διαδίκτυο έχει εγκατασταθεί ως ένας ορισμός που εξηγεί μία κλινική διαταραχή που συχνά χρήζει θεραπείας. Μετά από ποικίλες έρευνες, η Αμερικανική Ψυχιατρική εταιρεία συμπεριέλαβε τη διάγνωση του εθισμού στο διαδίκτυο στο DSM V. Σκοπός της παρούσας έρευνας είναι να μελετήσει πιθανές συσχετίσεις ανάμεσα στα Πρώιμα Δυσλειτουργικά Σχήματα και την Ιδιοσυγκρασία με τον Εθισμό στο Διαδίκτυο. Χορηγήθηκαν μέσω της ηλεκτρονικής πλατφόρμας «google forms» τα ερωτηματολόγια Young’s Schema Questionnaire Short Form (“YSQ- S3”, Young J. E., 2003), ερωτηματολόγιο Ιδιοσυγκρασίας (Strealau) και το ερωτηματολόγιο εθισμού στο διαδίκτυο (Φιλιππάκη, Τ-Ε. & Γιοβαζολιάς, Θ., 2015). Το δείγμα αποτελείτο από 208 φοιτητές ηλικίας 18 έως 30 ετών. Τα αποτελέσματα της έρευνας υποδεικνύουν πως υπάρχει στατιστικά σημαντική συσχέτιση με τα Πρώιμα Δυσλειτουργικά Σχήματα, εκτός από της Αυτοθυσίας, και τον εθισμό στο διαδίκτυο. Αυτό μπορεί να αποδεικνύει ότι τα μορφοποιημένα σχήματα από νεαρή ηλικία μπορεί να αποτελούν μία τάση του ατόμου για υπερβολική χρήση του διαδικτύου. Επιπλέον, αναδεικνύεται στατιστικώς σημαντική συνάφεια ανάμεσα στον εθισμό στο διαδίκτυο και όλες τις υποκλίμακες του Ερωτηματολογίου Ιδιοσυγκρασίας Ενηλίκων (Δύναμη Διέγερσης, Δύναμη Αναστολής και Κινητικότητα Νευρικών Διαδικασιών). Τέλος, θετική συνάφεια βρέθηκε ανάμεσα στο φύλο, το επίπεδο σπουδών και την αυτό- αξιολόγηση της υγείας με τον εθισμό στο διαδίκτυο.Over the past years Internet Addiction has grown as a definition that explains a clinical disorder often required to be treated. Many findings in this research area, has lead the American Psychiatry Association to include the diagnosis of Internet Addiction in DSM V. The aim of the present study is to discover the possible relations between Early Maladaptice Schemas, Temperament and Internet Addiciton. The Young’s Schema Questionnaire Short Form (“YSQ- S3”, Young J. E., 2003), the Temperament Questionnaire (Strealau) and the Internet Addiction Questionnaire (Φιλιππάκη, Τ-Ε. & Γιοβαζολιάς, Θ., 2015) were administered through the Google Form platform. The population of the study consists of 208 young students, between the age of 18 to 30 years old. The results of the study indicate that there is statistically significant association between the Early Maladaptive Schemas, apart from the Schema of Self- Sacrifice, and Internet Addiction. These results may indicate that the formatting schemas during early years can be a strong factor of the tendency to use internet. Furthermore, the results indicate statistically significant relationship between Internet Addiction and all the sub- scales of the Temperament Questionnaire (excitation form, suspension power and mobility of nervous processes). Finally, positive relationship was found between gender, level of education, self- evaluation of health and Internet Addiction