Remote experiments and 3D virtual world in education

This project seeks to demonstrate the use of remote experimentation and 3D virtual environments applied to the teaching-learning in the areas of exact sciences-physics. In proposing the combination of remote experimentation and 3D virtual worlds in teaching-learning process, we intend to achieve greater geographic coverage, contributing to the construction of new methodologies of teaching support, speed of access and foremost motivation for students to continue in scientific study of the technology areas. The proposed architecture is based on a model implemented fully featured open source and open hardware. The virtual world was built in OpenSim software and integrated it a remote physics experiment called “electrical panel”. Accessing the virtual world the user has total control of the experiment within the 3D virtual world.

Purpose– This paper examines the three-dimensional (3D)virtual world users’ perceptions of authenticity and trustworthiness in the virtual prototypes and users’ potential purchase behavior in the real-world settings. The 3D virtual worlds provide a new platform that exhibits virtual prototypes as a promotion channel for new products of real-world and online service, where users can communicate “face to face” via their representative avatars.Design/methodology/approach– The authors conducted an experiment in Second Life and collected data in a post-study questionnaire to test our proposed conceptual model. Structural equation modeling was the main methodology.Findings– The research results showed that 3D virtual world users obtained a high sense of telepresence and social presence. The sense of telepresence positively leads to users’ perceptions of online trust in the virtual prototypes and thus increases their intention to purchase real-world objects; the users’ sense of social presence positively associates to their perceptions of authenticity and online trust and, therefore, their purchase intention.Research limitations/implications– In survey research, the common method variance is a problem. A more robust way is to use objective measures.Practical implications– A new channel was proposed for businesses to enhance their online strategies that will increase their business value.Social implications– 3D virtual world is also a cutting-edge platform for remote education, public information service, etc.Originality/value– This paper initially contributes to the literature that interprets underlying factors in 3D virtual worlds associated to purchase intention in real-world objects. We demonstrated the advantages, i.e. the communication efficacy and vivid virtual design in the 3D user-generated environment.

This work describes the development of a 3D virtual world with remote experimentation applied to Science teaching. The student, using avatars, can explore the virtual world and interact with a remote lab which shows images captured from a real microscope, with samples of roots, stalks and leafs.

Within most architecture and design schools, 3D virtual worlds are traditionally perceived and used as a CAAD tool for modelling and collaboration. Building on the understanding of virtual worlds as the extension of our physical environments where people can inhabit and participate in a variety of activities, we teach designing virtual worlds as a design subject which considers 3D virtual worlds as a different kind of environment design other than a technical tool for supporting design simulation and collaboration. This paper reports on our teaching experience, as well as discusses the principles for designing and teaching in 3D virtual worlds.

Considering the need to stimulate the interest of students, it is essential to create more attractive environments for teaching, and laboratory activities are indicated as essential to correlate theory and practice. The use of remote labs allows students access remotely at anytime and anywhere, a real lab equipment. The integration of remote experiments with 3D virtual worlds allows the creation of a rich environment for contextualization of laboratory activity, providing the user with additional information about the experiment. Thus, this article aims to understand and relate existing jobs currently about virtual 3D worlds using the integrated Remote Experiments.

3D virtual worlds are networked environments designed using the metaphor of architecture. Recent developments in 3D virtual worlds focus on interactivity, flexibility and adaptability. Rather than creating virtual environments in which the objects have intelligent behaviours, our research takes a different approach to develop an agent model that is associated with an individual person in the 3D virtual world as a personal design agent. This paper presents a Generative Design Agent (GDA), a kind of rational agent capable of representing a person in a virtual world and designing, implementing and demolishing 3D virtual places based on the occupants’ current needs in the virtual world. The core of a GDA’s design component is a generative design grammar that is able to capture a style of 3D virtual worlds. 3D virtual worlds designed using the GDA model is another kind of architecture for the “moment”.

The proliferation of the Internet and other technological innovations has transformed the structure of the tourism industry as well as affected how tourism destinations are perceived and consumed. The 3D virtual world provides opportunities for destination marketing organizations to communicate with targeted markets by offering a rich environment for potential visitors to explore tourism destinations. However, as of yet, there is little understanding about how to effectively market tourism destinations to virtual world participants who are technology users as well as potential consumers. The purpose of the present study is to develop a research framework that integrates the technology acceptance model (TAM) and self‐determination theory to understand how tourists use a 3D virtual world. Primary data were obtained for this study through self‐administered Web questionnaires. The data were conducted in a laboratory setting with 186 participants. This study contributes to the empirical TAM literature by applying the model to a 3D virtual tourism site. Additionally, this study provides a research framework to capture the entertainment nature of a 3D virtual world by extending the TAM to incorporate psychological elements of self‐determination theory to understand consumer experience. From the perspective of tourism professionals, this study contributes to an understanding of how best to construct informative and interactive tourist destinations in 3D virtual worlds to attract potential online and real‐world tourists. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In hopes of finding an appropriate way to integrate virtual worlds into Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), this paper introduces a 3D virtual platform for language education set up by OpenSimulator and Moodle. The resulting 3D virtual world can not only create a graphic immersive context for students to practice language use, but also offer teachers a better management tool to keep student records and teaching content. Furthermore, some teaching aids and learning tools are developed to support language learning and teaching, and three types of task-based instructional activities are designed to offer an appropriate, appealing and meaningful context where the target language can be acquired naturally with less anxiety. We hope that the 3D virtual world can be an option for the English classroom to provide students an input-rich and immersive environment where learning can be fun.KeywordsComputer Assisted Language Learning (CALL)virtual worldssimulation and gameOpenSimulator (OpenSim)Moodle

Educational transformation is a form of effort to make changes in the world of education. Many things can be used as a tool to help realize change or innovation in the world of education. Along with the times, technology has played a significant role in making changes to the world of education. The role of technology cannot be denied, because with the existence of technology the education system begins to develop. The involvement of this technology is a source of change in the learning process, both with the support of information and communication technology. This information and communication technology needs to be used optimally and properly so that its role reaches all students. The purpose of this research is to find out that by optimizing the Role of Information and Communication Technology in Educational Transformation, education that is novel in nature will be realized both from the media used and the teaching methods used by educators. In addition, through information and communication technology, it is also hoped that it can provide innovations and solutions to current problems in the world of education and also as an opening for the transformation of education in Indonesia. The method used in this study is a quantitative method. The researcher conducted a survey by providing a questionnaire link using a Google form which contained several statements to be filled in by students. The results obtained by the researcher were the students' very positive responses to this research and the enthusiasm of the students in filling out the questionnaire link that the researchers provided. The results of the study also show that the role of information and communication technology in educational transformation is quite optimal, but educators need the latest breakthroughs to further optimize their use. The conclusion from this study is that the role of information and communication technology in educational transformation is already optimal but needs serious attention so that information and communication technology can be more optimal in its use in the educational process. The limitations of this study are that researchers only conduct research on schools and researchers do not directly conduct research at schools but by distributing questionnaire links on a Google form containing statements related to optimizing the role of information and communication technology in educational transformation.

Information and Computer Technologies have produced new generation interaction methods and services to support human activities, offering evolutionary learning procedures. 3D Virtual Worlds are sophisticated platforms supporting a set of human activities, enriching the way we learn, work and socialize. They are platforms that can support a constructivist learning approach of medical students, based on methods at the edge of technology inducing a team spirit and enhanced collaboration experience. In our work, we introduce the concept of e-learning through virtual worlds in medical and healthcare education, providing a literature review on the field. Furthermore, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of virtual worlds in healthcare, we provide a comparison of the most popular platforms, while some open research issues are being considered in the conclusion.

Education is incorporating more and more of the capabilities provided by the Internet. One such move is the incorporation of 3D virtual worlds in the learning environment. Another is the increasing development of multiagent systems that support the learner or the tutor. Integrating pedagogically based multiagent systems with 3D virtual worlds could provide a more engaging immersive learning environment. This paper explores the feasibility of integrating a 3D virtual world with a pedagogical multiagent system named QuizMASter, an educational game for elearning that helps students learn their course material through friendly competition. The integration was developed by devising, implementing and testing an approach using open source technologies, namely, Open Wonderland and JADE. The result is encouraging as the integration is technically feasible, not overly difficult and opens a door to further integration opportunities.

The use of immersive environments such as 3D virtual worlds (3DVWs) and augmented reality (AR) in education has been profusely explored during the last decades, showing significant evidence of its benefits for learning. However, the attempts to integrate immersive environments in everyday educational practice are hampered by the difficulties that these environments pose to teachers willing to set them up within the already demanding ecology of technological resources present in the classroom. GLUEPS-AR is a system aimed to help teachers deploy and enact learning designs that make use of web technologies (Virtual Learning Environments and Web 2.0 tools), as well as immersive environments such as virtual globes (e.g. Google Earth) used as 3DVW, and general-purpose mobile AR apps. This paper presents the evaluation of the support provided by GLUEPS-AR for teachers that want to appropriate immersive environments in their everyday practice with an affordable orchestration effort. The evaluation followed an interpretive research perspective, and it was carried out in the context of an authentic learning situation about advertising, conducted at a university undergraduate course for pre-service teachers. The results of the evaluation showed that GLUEPS-AR effectively supported the teacher in seamlessly embedding 3DVWs and AR in her practice.

Immersive environments such as virtual worlds and virtual reality platforms are being increasingly used for educational purposes. Possibilities of these environments are huge, but also are the technical challenges that have to be overcome in order for these platforms to become more usable. One of the main problems that educators have to face when designing an educational experience for virtual worlds has to do with the orchestration of the learning sequence. In this paper, we present a novel approach to support the deployment and execution of Units of Learning (UoLs), described with an Educational Modeling Language such as IMS-LD [1], into a virtual world, with the aim to facilitate the creation of well defined learning sequences for these platforms.

This research investigates engineering design teams’ performance of a concept selection task in three meeting spaces: face-to-face, 2D online and 3D virtual world. Cisco Systems’ WebEx and Sun Microsystems’ Wonderland were used as the 2D online meeting space and the 3D virtual world, respectively. Twenty-four two-person design teams were formed and randomly assigned to one of the three meeting spaces. The teams performed a cell-phone concept selection task in the meeting space to which they were assigned. Four dependent variables were measured: task completion time, team satisfaction, self-evaluated process quality and expert-evaluated process quality. Following data collection, one-way ANOVA was used to analyze each variable to determine the differences, if any, among the meeting spaces. ANOVA results did not support rejection of the null hypothesis for any variable. These results suggest that 3D virtual worlds support design concept selection as well as 2D online meeting spaces and that both of these te...

Although teachers play an important role in preventing school bullying, there is a lack of educational programs to enhance the competencies of pre-service teachers regarding how to prevent and address school bullying. To improve the knowledge and self-efficacy of pre-service teachers about school-bullying challenges, this study developed an authentic problem solving activity in a 3D virtual world on the basis of activity theory. In this study, for four weeks, 36 pre-service teachers collaboratively solved school-bullying problems, conducted role-plays in a virtual world, and reflected on their activities. As a result, the participants significantly improved their knowledge (restorative justice) and self-efficacy to handle school bullying. This study also investigated the pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of the activity through analyzing quantitative and qualitative data with an activity system framework. The findings were discussed to improve the design of the problem-solving activity in the context of Korean pre-service teacher education.