Exploiting Virtual Environments to Support Collaborative E-Learning Communities

Abstract

The main goal of this article is to facilitate educational designers and developers by providing a point of reference for making decisions on how to incorporate 3D environments into the applications they develop as well as for extending their capabilities by integrating more functionality. Therefore, this article presents the design principles for virtual spaces, which aim at supporting multiuser communication in Web-based learning communities. In addition the implementation of these principles is presented using as point of reference EVE Training Area. This environment constitutes a three-dimensional space where participants, represented by 3D humanoid avatars, have the ability to use a variety of 3D e-collaboration tools for learning together. Furthermore, this article presents collaborative e-learning usage scenarios that could be realized by exploiting collaborative virtual environments.

Collaborative E-Learning: Towards Designing an Innovative Architecture for an Educational Virtual Environment

“…This means that it is feasible to use a VR system for a wide range of learning applications. Several propositions have been advanced by researchers relating to the usage of virtual environments in education (Hamalamen, 2011;Bouras et al, 2008;. The following four propositions are germane to our discussion:  Virtual environments create a feeling of presence by techniques, which shift attention from the real world to the virtual world.…”

“…Furthermore, compared to traditional methods, there are other significant characteristics of VR that could be leveraged for supporting education including the following (Laister, 2002;Bouras, et al 2008;Redfern et al, 2002;Seely et al 2008):  High levels of interactivity that VR allows: Since most people learn faster by "doing", the VR system provides significantly higher levels of interactivity than other computerbased systems. Similarly, since the interfaces are intuitive and easy to use, the degree of interactivity could be very beneficial.…”

“…There are many areas where VR has been used for supporting education (Sung et al, 2009;Bouras et al, 2008). These include : A. Simulation of complex systems, where the benefit compared to traditional methods is centered on the ability to observe system operations from a variety of perspectives, aided by superior quality visualization and interaction; B. Macroscopic and microscopic visualization, where the benefit compared to traditional methods is the observation of system features that would be either too small or too large to be seen on a normal scale system; and C. Fast and slow time simulation, where the benefit compared to traditional methods is the ability to control timescale in a dynamic event.…”

“…These functional features should be specific enough in order to differentiate an e-learning environment from other virtual environments. Following Bouras et al 2008, andDourish et al 1996, the design has to deal with some aspects of the "real world", which can be exploited by virtual spaces for collaboration and learning. The real world value of the features listed below is that they provide critical cues.…”

Virtual Campus: A Case Study of Development Using Open Sources Software

“…Bouras et al [13] claimed that meeting-focused tools that support synchronous communication such as video conferencing and synchronous training tools are not appropriate for collaborative e-learning. The authors further suggested that the general problem of these tools is the reduction of social presence.…”