How to Involve Students in Activities within 3D Virtual Learning

Environment?

Tomas Bouda aka Zdenek BuchsbaumDivision of Information and Library Studies,

Masaryk univerzity Brno, Czech republicboudatomas@gmail.com

@tombouda

2011 UNC TLT Conference

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Main questions

When we should involved students into inworld activities?

How should teachers and tutors work with students inworld in order to reach learning outcomes?

Which specific activities can be applied?

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Brake down structure3D virtual learning environment

Core learning theories

Three phases of learning inworld

Team-building activities

Selected Archetypes of instructional design of 3DLE

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3D virtual learning environement

DALGARNO, B. and LEE, M. J. W. 'What are the learning affordances of 3-D virtual environments?'. British Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 41, no. 1, 2010, p. 10-32.

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Core learning theories

Constructivism

Social- and cognitive-connectedness schemata (SCCS)

SONTAG, Marie. A Learning Theory for 21st-Century Students. Inovative journal of online education [online]. 2009, 9, 4, [cit. 2010-11-20]. Dostupný z WWW: <http://www.uh.cu/static/documents/STA/A%20Learning%20Theory%20for%2021st-C%20Students.pdf>.

Project-based learning

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Three phases of learning inworld

1. technical part (students are familiarized with the environment)

2. team-building phase (students learn, how to work together)

3. knowledge part (students adopt new knowledge)

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Selected Archetypes of instructional design of 3DLE

Avatar Persona – simplifies students communication enhance understanding of the environment

Scavenger hunt & Guided tour– students learn to teleport and interact with the environment and object

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Team-building activities Crossing the Ravine

There is a team walking through a virtual land. They come to ravine and have to overcome the gab. Each member of the team has an unique part of a bridge in his(her) inventory. They have to communicate in order to overcome the gab using all parts of the bridge.

Castle BuilderTeam of students is divided between designer and builders. Designer is teleported to different location, where a model of a castle has been build prior. His(her) task is to describe and lead builders in order to develop same castle as the model.

The Tower of BubbleTeam has to build as tallist and stable tower as possible. There are lot of free unique prims around.

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VIAKISK (Virtual Academic Campus of Information and Library science)VIAKISK is a project of Division of

Information and Library Studies, Masaryk university Brno, Czech republic

The goal is to study possibilities of using VW in education.

We started in 2009 (December)

We are moving to OpenSim (OSGrid)

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What we do?Block of experts from LIS field – real

subject streamed (voice) on VIAKISK. We use SLOODLE for tracking student`s presence.

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What we do?Roundtable meetings – spetial events,

where we discuss actual problems from LIS field in Czech republic. We had special guests Maryanne Maisano and Sheila Webber too.

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What we do?Inter-university program – students from two

universities working on special project. They do not know each other F2F.

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ConclusionIf you are planning to teach in 3D VLE, than:

Ensure, that the learning outcomes can not be reached in physical world easier.

Give students time to become familiar with the environment at first.

Use some team-building activities or Archetypes of 3DLE

Provide immediate feedback

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Thank you for your attention!

Feel free to sneak around the VIAKISK or ask questions .

@tombouda

Zdenek Buchsbaum