Video games and new communication metaphors are quickly changing today’s young people habits. Considering the actual e-learning scenarios, embedded in a fully technological enabled environment it is crucial to take advantage of this kind of capabilities to let learning process gain best results. This paper presents avirtualcampus created using SecondLife which provides four distinct types of virtual space: common student campus, collaborative zones, lecture rooms and recreational areas. SecondLife environments and objects have been designed and programmed to support synchronous lectures and collaborative learning. The SecondLifevirtual world has also been equipped with supporting tools enabling students and teachers to navigate among multimedia contents. SecondLife and an ad-hoc developed Moodle plug-in have been integrated to naturally enrich the environment with LMS services, exploiting this 3D world to increase the interaction and communication opportunities between teachers and students, and among students, principally favoring planned and unplanned social encounters. We have conducted an experiment involving university students aiming at evaluating SecondLife synchronous distance lectures in the proposed learning environment. The evaluation has been conducted considering that, in a 3D multi-user virtual environment, learning is strongly related to the user perception of belonging to a learning community, as well as to the perception of awareness, presence and communication. The results of the evaluation are very positive.
Development and Evaluation of a Virtual Campus on Second Life: the case of SecondDMI
DE LUCIA, Andrea;FRANCESE, Rita;PASSERO, IGNAZIO;TORTORA, Genoveffa
2009-01-01
Abstract
Video games and new communication metaphors are quickly changing today’s young people habits. Considering the actual e-learning scenarios, embedded in a fully technological enabled environment it is crucial to take advantage of this kind of capabilities to let learning process gain best results. This paper presents avirtualcampus created using SecondLife which provides four distinct types of virtual space: common student campus, collaborative zones, lecture rooms and recreational areas. SecondLife environments and objects have been designed and programmed to support synchronous lectures and collaborative learning. The SecondLifevirtual world has also been equipped with supporting tools enabling students and teachers to navigate among multimedia contents. SecondLife and an ad-hoc developed Moodle plug-in have been integrated to naturally enrich the environment with LMS services, exploiting this 3D world to increase the interaction and communication opportunities between teachers and students, and among students, principally favoring planned and unplanned social encounters. We have conducted an experiment involving university students aiming at evaluating SecondLife synchronous distance lectures in the proposed learning environment. The evaluation has been conducted considering that, in a 3D multi-user virtual environment, learning is strongly related to the user perception of belonging to a learning community, as well as to the perception of awareness, presence and communication. The results of the evaluation are very positive.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
