Empirical Comparison of 3-D Virtual World and Face-to-Face Classroom for Higher Education

Abstract

Many higher education institutions have set up virtual classrooms in the 3-D virtual world. In this research, the authors assess the relative effectiveness of a 3-D virtual world learning environment, Second Life, compared to traditional face-to-face learning environment. They also assess the effects of instructional strategies in these two learning environments on interactivity, perceived learning, and satisfaction. The authors’ findings suggest that learning environment interacts with instructional strategy to affect the learners’ perceived learning and satisfaction. Specifically, when interactive instructional strategy is used, there is no significant difference for perceived learning and satisfaction between the 3-D virtual world and face-to-face learning environment. However, when a direct instructional strategy is used, there is a significant difference for perceived learning and satisfaction. They also assessed whether or not technology helps increase learner and instructor interaction. The result suggests that in interactive instructional sessions, students experienced a higher level of classroom interactivity in Second Life than in face-to-face classroom.

Men are from Mars and women are from Venus: dyadic collaboration in the metaverse

“…Second, we conducted our research in Second Life and did not compare it with the face-to-face setting, as was done in other studies (e.g. Chen et al. , 2012).…”

“…Second, we conducted our research in Second Life and did not compare it with the face-to-face setting, as was done in other studies (e.g. Chen et al, 2012). Although Second Life is a popular immersive virtual environment, many other types of the metaverse, such as mixed reality and augmented reality environments, have also distinct characteristics.…”

Smart Health

“…The metaverse is based on the fusion of technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) that enable multi-sensory interaction with virtual environments, digital objects, and people (Mystakidis, 2022). While the metaverse is still in its infancy, 3-D virtual worlds are already being utilized in healthcare, education, and many other areas (Eschenbrenner et al, 2008;Chen et al, 2012;Nah et al, 2017;Thomason, 2021). In smart health, metaverse combines technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, Internet of medical devices, Web 3.0, intelligent cloud, edge, and quantum computing with robotics to provide a new direction for healthcare (Chen & Zhang, 2022).…”

Gamification of Education: A Review of Literature

“…Examples of these elements include points, badges, leaderboards, and storyline [2]. Educational institutions are interested in gamification of education, where educators create gamified learning environments to enhance learner engagement and improve learning outcomes [3][4][5]. Given the potential of gamification of education, we are interested in identifying game design elements that have been used to gamify education as well as the impact on learner outcomes.…”