The third dimension in open learning

Virtual worlds continue to attract considerable interest as an innovative means of engaging students through the use of immersive, collaborative environments. They allow for the dynamic creation of content and for that content to be programmed. They empower students to explore learning environments that would be inaccessible to them in the real world. Learners achieve presence through the proxies of avatars, and consequently are aware of and may interact with fellow learners within the virtual environment. Interactivity ranges from simple exhibits as might be found in a museum to configurable, complex simulations rendered in a 3D space. At the same time there are now numerous open learning initiatives which seek to encourage the sharing of independently produced educational resources through the Internet, but these are mostly web-based, so the challenge of producing open learning materials based on virtual worlds remains. This paper identifies the challenges which need to be met to support the use of virtual world technologies in the emerging open learning context and presents two case studies of moving from 2D web-based learning environments to 3D virtual world versions of the same topic. These examples illustrate the type of innovative 3D learning environments that can be shared in the open learning context.