What research question would you fund to generate data on learning and virtual worlds?

25 Comments

Comment by Nick Noakes on June 26, 2008 at 10:40pm

Are there differences in engagement between students on the Teen grid and students on the Main grid? If there are differences, what are the factors behind these differences? Are they generational and/or related to the learning design and/or other factors?

Comment by Ed Lavieri / Edwardo Capalini on June 26, 2008 at 10:44pm

Barry,

This research area is exciting. I would add to the list:

What effect does immersive learning in a virtual setting have on learners? Are current eLearning pedagogical practices sufficient for this genre of learning or will a new theory of instructional design emerge?

What instructional design methodology can provide intentional learning in a virtual world that seems like unintentional learning to the learner? Is it possible to create a learning experience that delivers desired outcomes when learners are engaged in virtual world game play?

Thanks for sharing this discussion.

Regards,
Ed

Comment by Birdie Newborn on June 27, 2008 at 1:20am

What is the appropriate relationship between educator and student? Will the role of educator fade away?

Comment by Graham Heap on June 27, 2008 at 2:32am

Just a few questions come to mind...not sure if its on target for you and to be sure I am playing Devils Advocate and these are some of the questions our team our working on at the moment.

What benefits can be shown or demonstrated to support student learning over the traditional classroom RL teaching ?

How can I use Immersive Virtual Worlds to engage student learning with the same dedication we can witness with normal engagement with video games?

How do students engage with video games ? Are there gender preferences to game "flow" ?

Obviously benefits, demonstration, learning and engagement all need to have a definition and be placed in the context of the learning experience.

How practical is the use of the computer in these educational settings ?

For example in the Irish context there are restrictions placed on school networks which actually prevent the use of playing any video games in schools.

How much support is required for a teacher to be placed into the position where they can construct and conduct meaningful learning experiences for there students ?

How motivated are teachers to use these immersive worlds ?

One of our challenges is to create a critical mass of teachers which are willing to apply this new technology in novel ways.

How much encouragement is provided by school management to explore innovative uses of technology ?

Ok thats my initial twopence worth. Hope thats of use.

Regards, Graham (Pye Merlin in SL)

Comment by Paula Christopher on June 27, 2008 at 9:42am

Because virtual worlds are, by their very nature, immersive, what teaching styles work best? What subjects are better suited for teaching in the 3D world? How important is it to encourage a learning community to develop within the class? What are the characteristics of those instructors who use the medium?

Comment by MosesW on June 27, 2008 at 1:08pm

What are the constraints and affordances for learning tied to different sized virtual worlds? (We often seem to get hung up on the massive worlds, how about the medium sized ones?)

What (if any) role does age actually play in regard to an individual's ability to access these worlds? Are there significant age or generational differences in how people engage in these worlds? (We have serious assumptions with regard to generational differences that need to be examined at greater depth. They will greatly inform the role of adults, and the preparation of teachers whether we examine them or not).

Engagement has turned out to be a very slippery construct for evaluating student learning in the classroom setting. What other constructs will work well in studying learning in virtual worlds to supplement engagement so that we can gain a more nuanced understanding of when and how learning takes place in these spaces?

Those are just a few of the big ones that prey on my mind ;)

Thanks for bringing us into the conversation Barry!

Comment by Jeska Dzwigalski on June 27, 2008 at 2:07pm

Very cool, I've always been interested in methodology when teaching in virtual worlds - what people have tried, what works best, etc.

Comment by Michael Galvin/Terran Timeless on June 27, 2008 at 6:19pm

Great discussion! Can't wait to see the research at work. How does a sense of presence, (sometimes referred to as telepresence), facilitated by a sense of place provided by the 3D environment and the sense of embodiment provided by driving an avatar, effect student engagement in learning?

Naturally this begs a few questions about the perception of presence, as well as engagement in learning. Some participants in my Masters study asked "engagement in what, and how do we know and measure this?"

The phenoms of living a virtual life and the permeable and sometimes fragile membrane between real and virtual living have become what I imagine will be a lifelong fascination with me.

Comment by Jonathon Richter / Wainbrave Bernal on June 28, 2008 at 12:26pm

As chair of the official new Applied Research in Virtual Environments for Learning Special Interest Group (ARVEL SIG), affiliated with the American Educational Research Association http://aera.net - I'd say that we should frame and fund a coordinated framework of virtual worlds research!

To lead toward that end, we'd like all virtual worlds research professionals to join the ARVEL SIG The American Educational Research Association's (AERA) Annual Meeting, to be held Monday, April 13 - Friday, April 17, 2009 in San Diego. The call for proposals opened on June 1 and closes on August 1, 2008. Please refer to the AERA website for details: http://www.aera.net/meetings/Default.aspx?menu_id=386&id=5316 .

The Applied Research in Virtual Environments for Learning Special Interest Group (ARVEL SIG) invites you to submit proposals for presentation at the conference. This year we are accepting applied research proposals that align with the following theme - and this, Barry, is what we believe would be a good first step in developing this Community of Practice: "Defining 'virtual worlds' from an interdisciplinary perspective: Framing an educational research agenda." We are taking our first year as a new SIG to create some operational definitions of what we study in order to support a collective research agenda. Despite the fact that these digital environments are diverse milieu with different user interfaces, affordances, designs, and are rapidly multiplying and evolving, the need for the educational research community to delimit the range of study to a set of common characteristics that define the field is pressing. Without a definition of what "is" a virtual world and what "is not", there will be potential conflict, confusion, and effort spent on definition of terms - where focused use of healthy methods to determine the efficacy of these environments for learning would be better spent.

We are currently working with a journal editor to select the top 6-7 papers as rated by our membership for publication in a special issue next fall. More details to follow soon!

The mission of the ARVEL Special Interest Group is, "to steward a robust community of educators, scholars, and practitioners dedicated toward research in and on virtual 3D environments. Using a variety of research methods, we support a diverse approach to understanding the optimal use of virtual worlds and environments for educational purposes. We're interested in developing a comprehensive research agenda intended to encompass the breadth and scope of learning potentialities, affordances, challenges, and shortcomings of immersive virtual learning environments."

If you have a project, organization, or interest in Virtual Worlds research in education, we'd be interested in collaborating with your work in multiple ways. Contact jrichter (at) uoregon.edu

Comment by AlysObviate on June 30, 2008 at 11:39am

All great ideas!

Personally, I am also interested in the effect on environment on learning, such as: How does having a learning experience in a "naturalistic" setting affect learning and retention. This setting could be RL or SL.

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