Background: Virtual reality can be a useful substitute to improve nursing education outside of the hospital setting. In the wake of COVID-19, an opportunity to compare a virtual reality activity for nursing students in the traditional classroom and in an online environment took place. Objectives: The goal of this study was to examine the effects…

3D Virtual Worlds are being used for education and training purposes in a cross-disciplinary way. However, its widespread adoption, particularly in formal learning contexts, is far from being a reality due a broad range of technological challenges. In this reflection paper, our main goal is to argue why and how identity federation should be…

This paper explores student interactions from the Virtual Math Teams-With-GeoGebra Project, a computer-supported collaborative learning environment that allows individuals to interact, collaborate, and discuss user-created dynamic mathematics objects. Previous studies of virtual math teams have focused on the coconstruction of a joint problem…

Creativity is an important criterion for evaluating conceptual and design abilities of architects and their praxis. However, in recent years, the world has grown more complex. New problems have emerged that are often outside the architect's capacity. Given this challenge, architects collaborate with colleagues from architecture and other related…

There is a growing body of evidence that feeling present in virtual environments contributes to effective learning. Presence is a psychological state of the user; hence, it is generally agreed that individual differences in user characteristics can lead to different experiences of presence. Despite the fact that user characteristics can play a…

The Web-based e-learning can benefit from the modern multimedia tools combined with network capabilities to overcome traditional education. The objective of this paper is focused on e-training system development to improve performance of theoretical knowledge and providing ample opportunity for practical attainment of manual skills in virtual…

Online learning critically relies upon good communication between engaged parties in order to convey ideas, meanings, and values. Emerging technologies in collaborative virtual environments are providing new affordances in establishing greater online presence and, in turn, greater abilities to communicate and learn. This study examines how…

There is a "reality" to being online which we know to be false. We are simultaneously "there" but "not there" as we talk, work and play with others in online spaces. We move between physical and virtual spaces in ways that realise the predictions made for computers in the mid-20th Century and enact scenarios from science fiction. We are left…

Background: Immersive virtual worlds are one of a range of different platforms that can be grouped under the concept of mediated environments, i.e. environments that create a metaphorical space in which participants can position themselves and be embodied. Synthesising the literatures concerning the various mediated environment technologies…

Massively Multiuser On-line Learning (MMOL) Platforms, often called "virtual learning worlds", constitute a still unexplored context for communication-enhanced learning, where synchronous communication skills in an explicit social setting enhance the potential of effective collaboration. In this paper, we report on an experimental study of…

In this paper we examine the transferability of the Jigsaw and Fishbowl collaborative learning techniques to the Second Life platform. Our aim is to assess the applicability of Second Life for collaborative learning by developing virtual tools and metaphors and exploiting the representational richness of this novel medium. In order to enhance the…

Online interaction with 3D facial animation is an alternative way of face-to-face communication for distance education. 3D facial modeling is essential for virtual educational environments establishment. This article presents a novel 3D facial modeling solution that facilitates quasi-facial communication for online learning. Our algorithm builds…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the usability (effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction) of e-feedback interfaces. The experiment compares a traditional visual approach with a multimodal approach in order to determine the impact of multimodal metaphors upon the user's understanding, reasoning and engagement with the…

Conflicts occur when learners interact with pedagogical agents and virtual characters. Such conflicts--arising from technological limitations, psychosocial perceptions, and pedagogical inadequacies--hinder communication and interaction between virtual characters and learners, and impede successful engagement with learning tasks and experiences. To…

Imaginary worlds have been devised by artists and commentators for centuries to focus satirical attention on society's problems. The increasing sophistication of three-dimensional graphics software is generating comparable "virtual worlds" for educational usage. Can such worlds play a satirical role suggesting developments in distance…