Using the delivery of a large postgraduate distance learning module in bioethics to health professionals as an illustrative example, the type of learning activity that could be enhanced through delivery in an immersive virtual world (IVW) was explored. Several activities were repurposed from the "traditional" virtual learning environment…

A considerable interest in using three-dimensional multi-user virtual worlds for different educational disciplines has been widely observed. Despite the potential benefits of this technology, many questions still remain open, as far as the design of appropriate activities in well-defined instructional design frameworks and their effectiveness on…

This paper explores the application of canonical gradient analysis to evaluate and visualize student performance and acceptance of a learning system platform. The subject of evaluation is a first year BSc module for computer programming. This uses "Ceebot," an animated and immersive game-like development environment. Multivariate…

Augmented reality (AR) has been recognized as a potential technology to help students link what they are observing in the real world to their prior knowledge. One of the most challenging issues of AR-based learning is the provision of effective strategy to help students focus on what they need to observe in the field. In this study, a competitive…

This paper is focused on virtual campuses, i.e. virtual worlds representing real educational institutions that are based on the metaphor of a university and provide users with different learning tools. More specifically, the idea of integrating a virtual campus into the context of a virtual city is suggested. Such a virtual city, where students…

The aim of the present study is to examine factors affecting participation in telecollaborative language courses conducted in virtual world environments. From recordings of a course in sociolinguistics conducted in Second Life (SL), we determine degrees of linguistic participation (voice and chat), and triangulate these data with questionnaire…

This paper provides qualitative student-centered research from an online Research Methodology course taught partly within the immersive, 3-D environment of Second Life with fifty-eight graduate psychology students for the purpose of suggesting a constructivist-based instruction model for immersive environments. A qualitative method approach was…

AN EXPERIMENT WAS CONDUCTED TO INVESTIGATE STUDENTS' SENSE OF CONTROL OVER THEIR OWN DESTINIES, THE EFFECTS OF SIMULATION GAMES ON THESE CONTROL BELIEFS, AND THE RELATIONSHIP OF THESE ISSUES TO THE RACIAL COMPOSITION OF A SCHOOL. IT WAS HYPOTHESIZED THAT INDIVIDUALS LACKING A SENSE OF CONTROL HAD HAD LIMITED EXPERIENCE WITH SITUATIONS WHICH COULD…