DocumentCode :
1558273
Title :
Multi-User Virtual Environments for Learning: Experience and Technology Design
Author :
Di Blas, N. ; Bucciero, Alberto ; Mainetti, L. ; Paolini, P.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electron. & Inf., Politec. di Milano, Milan, Italy
Volume :
5
Issue :
4
fYear :
2012
Firstpage :
349
Lastpage :
365
Abstract :
Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) are often used to support learning in formal and informal educational contexts. A technology-based educational experience consists of several elements: content, syllabus, roles, sequence of activities, assignments, assessment procedures, etc. that must be aligned with the affordances of the technologies to be used. The design process, therefore, has to follow a dual track: the design of the educational experience as a whole and the design of the MUVE. Each design process has some degree of independence, while, at the same time, the two design processes are also deeply intertwined. The paper proposes a novel approach to design (both for the educational experience and the MUVE): a “biological lifecycle” design, where evolution (for survival and fitness) is crucial, while anticipating all the requirements (creating an engineering blueprint) is very challenging. This paper is based upon a number of large-scale case studies, involving nearly 9,000 high-school students from 18 countries in Europe, Israel, and the United States. Substantial educational benefits were achieved by these learning experiences, at the center of which were MUVEs. It cannot be claimed that MUVEs were the only factors for generating these benefits, but for sure they were exceptionally important components.
Keywords :
biology; computer aided instruction; distance learning; groupware; technology management; Europe; Israel; MUVE design; United States; activities sequence; assessment procedures; biological lifecycle design; design process; formal educational contexts; high-school students; informal educational contexts; large-scale case studies; learning experiences; multiuser virtual environments; technology design; technology-based educational experience; Behavioral science; Electronic leanring; Learning systems; Virtual environments; Behavioral science; Collaborative computing; Electronic leanring; Learning systems; Virtual environments; collaborative learning; domain-specific architectures;
fLanguage :
English
Journal_Title :
Learning Technologies, IEEE Transactions on
Publisher :
ieee
ISSN :
1939-1382
Type :
jour
DOI :
10.1109/TLT.2012.16
Filename :
6243131
Link To Document :
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