This paper presents the development of a 3-D virtual environment in Second Life for the delivery of standards-based science content for middle school students in the rural Appalachian region of Southeast Ohio. A mixed method approach in which quantitative results of improved student learning and qualitative observations of implementation within…

During distributed virtual laboratory experiment sessions, a major problem is to be able to collect, store, manage and share heterogeneous data (intermediate results, analysis, annotations, etc) manipulated simultaneously by geographically distributed teammates composing a virtual team. The electronic notebook is a possible response to this…

Our essential premise in this article is that immersive learning is not new and that, as a practical matter, it is useful to view the relatively new virtual world platforms through that lens. By doing so, the premise continues, developers of learning experiences for these spaces will have a large theoretical base upon which to draw, as well as…

The purpose of this study was to investigate value of combining Real Experimentation (RE) with Virtual Experimentation (VE) with respect to changes in students' conceptual understanding of electric circuits. To achieve this, a pre-post comparison study design was used that involved 88 undergraduate students. The participants were randomly assigned…

Several studies have examined realism and instructional effectiveness of physical simulations. However, very few have touched on the question of their credibility or verisimilitude, from the user's point of view. This article presents an empirical exploratory study which investigated the perceptions of potential users of a simulation-based virtual…

Developers of educational multimedia programs have expectations about the way in which they will be used. These expectations can be broadly categorised as either functional (primarily related to the interface) or educational (related to learning designs, processes and outcomes). However, student users will not always engage with educational…

Background: The literature on immersive virtual worlds and e-learning to date largely indicates that technology has led the pedagogy. Although rationales for implementing e-learning have included flexibility of provision and supporting diversity, none of these recommendations has helped to provide strong pedagogical location. Furthermore, there is…

Hands-on science typically uses physical materials to give students first-hand experience in scientific methodologies, but the recent availability of virtual laboratories raises an important question about whether what students' hands are on matters to their learning. The overall findings of two articles that employed simple comparisons of…

Analyzing the activity of a group of students involved in an online university course with a simulation environment, this article considers and problematizes the idea of online community and its relations to learning. The analysis builds upon Dewey's conception of organic community and related perspectives. In valuing "joint action," such…

Background: Although much has been written about the ways in which new technology might transform educational practice, particularly in the area of literacy learning, there is relatively little empirical work that explores the possibilities and problems--or even what such a transformation might look like in the classroom. 3D virtual worlds offer a…

This study focuses on the various playful uses of language that occurred during a semester-long study of two German language courses using one type of synchronous network-based medium, the MOO. Research and use of synchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) have flourished in the study of second-language acquisition (SLA) since the late…

Across the globe, progressive universities are embracing any number of MUVEs (multi-user virtual environments), 3D environments, and "immersive" virtual reality tools. And within the next few months, several universities are expected to test so-called "telepresence" videoconferencing systems from Cisco Systems and other leading…

Laboratory exercises, field observations and field trips are a fundamental part of many earth science and environmental science courses. Field observations and field trips can be constrained because of distance, time, expense, scale, safety, or complexity of real-world environments. Our objectives were to develop an environmental virtual field…

Virtual Enterprises International (VE) is a high school program that teaches students about business through task-oriented and hands-on coursework. With the assistance of a coordinator and business mentors, VE students create and oversee a virtual firm, conducting business with other virtual firms nationally and internationally. The program…

This research explored the challenge of how students might successfully perform real laboratory experiments over the Internet without being in a laboratory. Numerous distance learning environments were surveyed, and the effectiveness and disadvantages of laboratory facilities currently available over the Internet were assessed. Full and part-time…