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Using Virtual Environments for Online and Campus Classes

Dr. Cynthia CalongneInstitute for Advanced StudiesColorado Technical University

Lyr Lobo in Second Life

UMBC WorkshopJanuary 21, 2010

Licensed under aCreative Commons

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Agenda

• Virtual world workshop content

– Virtual world skills & competencies

– Examples from virtual world classes

– Teaching strategies

– Enhancing the learning experience

– Rubrics and assessment

– Mapping objectives to activities

– Educator and student resources in Second Life

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Using a Virtual World for Learning• Self image

• Social networks

• Mentor, feedback

• Class projects

• Roleplay

• Tool integration

• Immersive learning

• SL skills

• Build simulations

• Sense of presence, identity

• Attend classes, collaborate

• Office hours, facilitation

• Applied learning activities

• Immersive learning, case studies

• Web 2.0, course tools, media

• Context-sensitive or stimulating

• Camera, navigation, to socialize

• Create content & an environment

80% of the world’s Internet users will be in a virtual world by 2011 (Gartner, 2007)

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Basic Second Life (SL) Skills

• Appearance– 1st self or ideal self?

• Move and look – Arrow keys or Navigation

menu

– Camera controls

• Communication– Voice, text, gestures

• Group Notices, IMsLyr and her robot avatar

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Virtual Office Hours

Meetings in an underwater office. Come on in! The water’s fine!

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VE Class Considerations

• Learning environment– Public or private?

• MS Powerpoint slides– SL slides & textures

• 3D content – Create or purchase

• Student content

• Size -- purchase or free– Island, parcel or sandbox

• Save as a .jpg format– Bulk upload into SL

• Context-sensitive scenes– interactivities & objects

• Projects and activities

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Migrating a Course into SL

• Course design – Course objectives– Desired competencies– Content (slides, media,

handouts, resources)– Rubrics and grades

• Delivery– Interactive– Discussion

• Measurement instruments– Discussion

– Case studies

– Learning activities

– Projects

– Problem-based learning

– Research papers

Blending with other course tools

How do we get our content into SL?

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The floating book holds course handouts as Lyr prepares for class

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Communicating with studentsin Second Life

Left to right

TeleportGroup Notice

2nd rowVoice Chat (*)Instant MessageURLs embedded

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Interactivities

Human barometer activityFuturing and Innovation students

take a standCTU students

shop for academic regaliaat the NMC Orientation island

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Budget and Quality Concerns

• Student stipends? ==>

• Create content?– Requires skills & time

• Buy and use content?– Custom design? – Field trips!

• Grade and archive student assignments

• To upload textures

• Own, control & adapt– Reuse and share

• Quality site & content– Professional image– Explore other sites

• Set permissions, store, display and retrieve

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Colorado Tech Examples

• CTU Learning Spaces

• Field trips

• Teen grid classes

• Class projects

• Opportunities for collaboration ==>

• CS 820 case study from Winter 2008

Wright State’s MBA class with Shu SchillerLyr comes by to help - they have a great start!

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Colorado Tech Island

Virtual learning spaces

Collaborative classes and live music festivals at

Colorado Tech

Student projects are displayedon the Boardwalk and onLyr Lobo’s class islands

An NMC Virtual Worlds design

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Student and instructorrobots on a public class space

A 3-week course activitywith real world, virtualand 2D robots designed

Amusement park of student projectson a private space

Students choose thepreferred class location

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Field trips to science sites

National Physics Laboratorypresentation on nanotechnology

innovations

Lyr explores theNanotechnology Lab

Interactive objects demonstrate the

procedure and give info on notecards

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Immersive Literature

Roleplay and conflict, an immersive

literature experience on the Teen grid.

Suffern Middle School

students at Ramapo portrayed the roles

from the book, Of Mice and Men

by John Steinbeck.

A juror hollers “Boo!” when Curley takes the stand

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Teen Creates Cool Technology

Ryl mentors an8th Grade studenton the Teen gridas he applies a

script to a keyboardoverride he created

with futuristic display textures.

It appears whenhe types and

disappears when heis silent.

At Ramapo on the Teen Grid

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CS 672 First day in class

StudentProjects

CS 383 Game maze & scoreboard

Ferris wheel rotation problem & duck shoot

Duck shoot

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Underwater fun house

First day in world - created particle star

CTUStudent Projects

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CS 820 Winter 2008 Case Study

Newsstand for low vision users, Electronic Voting Machine

Refrigerator for wheelchair use

From early ideas to testable projects

Students collaborate andwork independently

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Projects Designed for Accessibility

• For vision and mobility impaired users

• Asynchronous and synchronous design activities

• 3D graphics, sounds and interaction

• Models, textures, sounds, animations, scripts

• Focus on user characteristics and task performance

• Collaboration in class and among students

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Students new to SL learn to build and texture for class activities

Early Skill Development

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A self-guided tutorial for building a 20-minute project

Modeling in Second Life

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Students new to a virtual world create low fidelity interface designs

and conduct usability tests in a virtual world

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Accessibility Project Prototypes

Newsstand for the lowvision users; selecting

option 4 to hear

Refrigerator for wheelchair users;

shelves move out and down

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Usability and Interaction • Human interface design in a virtual world

– Presence– Environment– Tools– Collaboration– Interaction– Project creation– Usability testing– Assessment

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Interaction and Empirical Testing• Observed behavior

– Test plan– Test procedure– Roles– Volunteers– Observation– Measurements– Analysis– Results

Student interface with objects thatrender new information when touched

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Guests from other schools

perform usability testson student projects

Community Collaboration

TCC Online Worldwide Conferenceattendees visit to

examine student work

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The Value of Education in SL

• It takes effort to create content, train faculty and adopt a new course delivery paradigm, & it’s worth it

• Course delivery shifts from the sage on the stage to interactive discussions and activities

• Fosters student-led learning and collaboration

• Educators monitor activities and mentor

• Class sessions take less time and are focused

• Builds community and crosses boundaries

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Experimental Design Classrooms

Bardic circle for storytelling

Open spaces where students

experiment, explore ideas and get messy

What is your ideal virtual world classroom?

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Observations on Education in SL

• It takes effort to create content, train faculty and adopt a new course delivery paradigm

• Course delivery shifts from the sage on the stage to interactive discussions, activities and projects

• Fosters student-driven learning and collaborative activities

• Requires monitoring activities and mentoring

• Class sessions take less time and are focused

• Builds community and crosses class and institutional boundaries

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NMC ConferencesHeld in Second Life

or on the Hakone server, a stand-aloneSecond Life server that is not connected

to the SL grid.

Standing in front of a Tardis -- a metaphor

from Dr. Who for teleportation between

virtual world regions.

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Chart Copyright © 2007 by theVirtual Environments Info Group [7]

Virtual World Choices

In April 2008 - over 100youth-oriented virtual worlds were active or in development

In Aug 2008 - it grewto over 150 virtual worlds [6]

In Jan 2009 - over 200virtual worlds

• 59 have micro transactions• 57 require subscriptions• 46 use advertising

From Virtual Worlds Management by Show Initiative [6]

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SL Featured Examples

• Operation Relief Worker Rescue Challenge– Game simulation kit – Hostage rescue game

• Created by educators at Air University

• Assessment – includes doctoral student research

• CTU examples –highlights from 16 classes– Emerging media & social games

• Mars Expedition Challenge – Space simulation and trivia game

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Teaching in a Virtual World

Features

• Immersive environment

• Interactive & engaging

• Purchase or create– Power of creation & control

– Flexible & adaptable

• 3D content, animations, gestures, sounds, scenarios

• Educational community

Requirements

• Hardware & bandwidth

• Virtual world competencies

• Integration & design– Design skills

– Assessment & rubrics

• Planning effective simulations for learning

• Finding good contacts

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Your Avatar: Who Are You?

• Subcultures and roles– Teacher

– Parent

– Scholar

– Lover of life

– Curious child

– Researcher

– Comedian

– Entertainer

– Sage, elder

What we know about youThe tip of the iceberg

The inner you

37Who is the avatar on the far right?

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Choices for your avatar

• Avatar type– Gender

– Species

– Race

– Ideal vs real

– Context sensitive

• Nonverbal– Animations & gestures

– Sounds

• Appearance– Skin, shape, hair, eyes

– Image and style • Welcoming

• Impressive

• Intimidating

• Thought-provoking

• Expressive

• Powerful

• Super geek

• Hip

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8th Grade Immersive Literature

Roleplay and conflict, an immersive literature experience for teens on

the Teen Grid

Suffern Middle School students at Ramapo portrayed the roles

from the book, Of Mice and Men

by John Steinbeck.

Imagine living the scenes from literature

and history rather than memorizing them.

A juror hollers “Boo!” when Curley takes the stand [11]

40Dance and animation in Second Life

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Virtual World Culture

• Second Life cultures– Educators

– Professionals

– Global cultures

– Furry

– Fantasy (Elves, dragons)

– Geeks (tech, robots)

– Arts, music, literary

– Adult

– Teen grid

• Ideal self– Imaginative

– Creative

– Enabled

• Real self– Recognition

– Self representation

– Disabled

42Which of these avatars is not real?

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A researcher from the Meteora region (NOAA)

gave a presentationat the NMC

Rock the Academy Symposium dressed

as Admiral Grace Hopper

He also demonstratedTwitter feeds in

Second Life and at a latersession, SLOODLE

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A Strategic Thinking class meets with the instructor and Lyr.How many students do you see?

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During class, students develop their Second Life skills and

discuss the course concepts

Students sharing ideasin social networks

CS 820 Class Fall 2008

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Bransford Simulation - Assessing Cooperative Work in a MUVE

Presentation, videos from the experiments and an opportunity to participate [8]

47DNA strand at the Pencil Factory Lyr and robot Slonny #5 (on right)

Lyr and student test accessibility projects in 2008

Data Visualization and Usability Evaluations

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CS 820 Fall 2009 students learn to use & prototype in Second Life

CTU Learning Simulations and Games

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CTU StudentSL Projects from 2007

Duck shoot

Ferris wheel – rotation & State machine problem

Duck shoot prototype in the background

Created in 1-2 weeks

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Systems Engineering Methods class (above)

Monorail and a rollercoaster

Software Requirements Engineering class (right)

Roleplay of customer & design team meetings

The software requirements migrated from a monorail to a rollercoaster

1st day in class

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Monorail rises 300 meters to the game platform

SW Design Specification

SL Game PrototypeCapture the flag game

with traps, treasure, scores

Played the game & refined it the last week

Software Design

Undergraduate class project

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Traps in the Game Maze

53CS 820 Summer 2009 students study futuring and innovation

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The Value of Education in SL

• It takes effort to create content, train faculty and adopt a new course delivery paradigm & it is worth it

• Stimulates discussions and applied learning activities

• Fosters student-led learning and collaboration

• Educators monitor activities and mentor

• Class sessions take less time and are focused

• Builds community and crosses boundaries– Collaboration with other schools and the research community

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SL Research Links

• Second Life – http://secondlife.com/

• Second Life Grid – Business & Education– http://secondlifegrid.net/

• Second Life Education Support Faire 2009 statistics– http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Education_Support_Faire#Second_Life_Education_Support_Faire_2009_-_Statistics

– http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Education_Support_Faire

• Research in Second Life presentation– http://www.slideshare.net/lyrlobo/research-in-second-life

• Artificial Intelligence in SL– http://web.bvu.edu/faculty/schweller/

• Getting Started in Second Life – info & tutorials– http://tcc2009.wikispaces.com/Getting+Started+in+Second+Life

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SL Research Links 2

• National Public Radio’s Science Friday in SL– http://www.sciencefriday.com/

• NOAA’s Traffic Analysis in Second Life– http://mayarealities.com/

• Best Practices in Second Life – video (joined in progress)– http://www.slcn.tv/bpe-lyr-lobo

• Annotated Bibliography of SL Educational Resources – http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~mpepper/slbib

• Edumuve + the Blended Realities paper– http://edumuve.com/tour

– http://edumuve.com/blended/

• Autoscript – easy to use script generator– http://3greeneggs.com/autoscript/

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SL Research Links 3

• Second Life as a Virtual Learning Environment– http://www.dokimos.org/secondlife/education/index.html

• An Educational Tour of Second Life– http://www.slideshare.net/lyrlobo/an-educational-tour-of-second-life

• A View from Second Life’s Trenches: Are you a Pioneer or a Settler?– http://sl.nmc.org/2007/06/09/pioneer-or-settler/

• Leveraging the Affordances, Minimizing the Barriers of Virtual Worlds– http://sl.nmc.org/2007/06/09/edu-panel/

• LearnScope in Second Life– http://www.slideshare.net/lyrlobo/learnscope-in-second-life

• NMC Campus Observer– http://sl.nmc.org/

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SL Research Links 4

Beyond Course Management Tools: Second Life www.educause.edu/ir/library/powerpoint/SAC07014.pps

Using Second Life, Educause Seminars in Academic Computingwww.educause.edu/ir/library/powerpoint/SAC07025A.pps

Virtual worlds in Online Education: Are You Ready to Teach in Second Life?http://www.telecoop.org/conference/materials/CalogneTeachinginSecondLife.ppt

What Can We Learn from World of Warcraft & Second Life?http://archive.nmc.org/events/2006fallregional/materials/calongne.ppt

SL Podcast by Bayne, Walker and Calongnehttp://connect.educause.edu/blog/gbayne/podcastusingsecondli/44967?time=1188754831

TCC Preconference Wiki -- SL from a Flash drive tipshttp://tccpre-conference.pbwiki.com/

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SL Research Links 6

Timeline - History of Second Life Wiki http://secondlife.wikia.com/index.php/Second_Life_Through_The_Ages

UberNoggin: Big Brains - Big Ideashttp://www.ubernoggin.com/

Secondary Worldshttp://secondaryworlds.com/

Reuters -- Doors to open on Google Virtual world(s)?http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2007/10/24/doors-to-open-on-google-virtual-worlds/

SL and Google Earth are Transforming the Idea of Architectural Collaboration

http://archrecord.construction.com/features/digital/archives/0701dignews-2.asp

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SL Research Links 7 - News

Reuters in Second lifehttp://secondlife.reuters.com/

The SL Newspaperhttp://www.sl-newspaper.com/

Second Life Heraldhttp://www.secondlifeherald.com/

Metaverse Messengerhttp://metaversemessenger.com/index.html

SLNNhttp://www.slnn.com/index.php

New Worlds Noteshttp://nwn.blogs.com/

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SL Research Links 8

SL A Virtual Universe for Real Engineeringhttp://www.designnews.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA6490691

Just Virtualhttp://www.justvirtual.com/index.php/category/second-life/

Seifert Surface – Math Research in Second Lifehttp://www.segerman.org/2ndlife.html

Eric McLuhan in Second Life - Playing Media Ecologyhttp://slcn.tv/media-ecology-eric-mcluhan

Howard Rheingold on Virtual Communitieshttp://www.chilbo.org/blog/2009/10/howard-rheingold-on-virtual-communities/

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Presentation References[1] Medical Augmented Reality, Bruce Sterling. Wired video

http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2009/08/medical-augmented-reality/

[2] NESIM/VESIM Nursing Simulation Walkthrough videos, Parts I-IIIhttp://www.youtube.com/sandcastlestudios#p/u/5/I_Iy-7dbaDs

http://www.youtube.com/sandcastlestudios#p/u/3/Biv9VF0UpvE

http://www.youtube.com/sandcastlestudios#p/u/2/bZPIiUzw6Hg

http://www.youtube.com/sandcastlestudios#p/u/1/3AIhEh3D38U

[3] Educational Informatics Supporting Authentic Learning Experiences.

Using Informatics to Support Innovations Across Virtual and Real-World Learning Environments by N. Lorenzi, Vanderbilt University. November 19, 2009

[4] Ancient Spaces – Antiquity Comes Alivehttp://ancient.arts.ubc.ca/multimedia.html

[5] Mars Expedition Challenge, a Space Simulation in Second LifeBy A. Stricker, M. McCrocklin, J. Holm and C. Calongne

[6] Virtual Worlds Managementhttp://www.virtualworldsmanagement.com/2009/youth-01-26-2009.html

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Presentation References 2

[7] Virtual Worlds Comparison Charthttp://www.virtualenvironments.info/virtual-worlds-comparison-chart

[8] John Bransford – Cooperative work in MUVEshttp://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=John_Bransford_Transcript_2_October_2006

LIFE Center http://tinyurl.com/ygt6hvo

[9] GameTech: Teaching in an Avatar World by C. Calongnehttp://www.slideshare.net/lyrlobo/gametechteaching-in-an-avatar-world

[10] Evaluating a Game Simulation Kit by C. Calongnehttp://www.slideshare.net/lyrlobo/evaluating-a-game-simulation-kit-in-second-life

[11] Of Mice and Men Trial – Closing Arguments and Jury Deliberationhttp://www.slideshare.net/lyrlobo/evaluating-a-game-simulation-kit-in-second-life

[12] Gartner Analysts – Virtual World Predictionhttp://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=503861

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Using Virtual Environments for Online and Campus Classes

Dr. Cynthia CalongneLyr Lobo in Second Life

http://ctusoftware.blogspot.comhttp://www.slideshare.net/lyrlobo

For more information

Lyr Lobo

Contact information

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