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Design Perspectives for Learning in Virtual Worlds

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Designs for Learning Environments of the Future

Abstract

This chapter describes a program of research that is exploring pedagogical, technological, and aesthetic dimensions for designing virtual worlds for learning. The design and research work involving Virtual Singapura is discussed, which is a virtual world for learning science inquiry skills. The chapter first discusses issues in the literature related to learning content-specific knowledge in immersive virtual worlds and game environments, and pedagogical design approaches for learning in virtual worlds. Next, the design of Virtual Singapura is described in terms of its scenario for science inquiry learning, graphic design, behaviors of the intelligent agents representing nineteenth-century characters, and the associated guided inquiry curriculum materials and research materials. The research findings from two studies involving Virtual Singapura are reported. The chapter concludes with consideration of future research that will explore learning with different pedagogical trajectories for providing structured versus unstructured virtual learning experiences as well as activities “outside” of the virtual worlds that might consolidate or enhance understandings students construct “inside” such environments.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Various terms are used to describe 3D games and virtual environments for use in learning contexts, such as serious games, multiuser virtual environments, immersive environments, and so on. We prefer the use of virtual worlds for learning in this chapter to stress the purpose of these systems in educational contexts in contrast to implicit views of “games” as an entertainment outlet.

  2. 2.

    We developed three different paraphrased versions for each response option, so there would be a two out of three chance a subsequent response would be slightly different than the first response, or that a second student approaching an agent would get a slightly different greeting than the previous student.

  3. 3.

    Theoretical framings in the learning and cognitive sciences of the construct of “transfer” have received considerable attention over the past two decades, as the review by Lobato (2006) provides. In this chapter, we align with the definitions of transfer provided by (a) the United States National Academy of Science (Bransford, Brown, Cocking, & Donovan, 2000) defined as the “ability to extend what has been learned in one context to new contexts” (p. 51) and (b) preparations for future learning (Bransford & Schwartz, 1999).

  4. 4.

    A partial η 2  =  0.01 is considered a small effect size, 0.06 medium, and 0.14 a large effect size.

  5. 5.

    In this chapter, we focus on educational virtual worlds in particular, although clearly the issue of the design of structure in trajectories of learning activities is of relevance to all learning environments, whether they are technologically based or not.

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Acknowledgments

This project was funded by two research grants from the Singapore Ministry of Education through the Learning Sciences Laboratory to the chapter authors. Special thanks are extended to Chris Dede, Diane Jass Ketelhut, and Brian Nelson for their feedback on this project and providing access to technology and research resources of the Harvard River City project. Diana Ang, Seo Hong Lim, June Lee, Lynn Low, and the participating teachers greatly contributed to this research. We are also grateful to the Singapore National Archives and the National Museum of Singapore for their assistance in obtaining historical information and pictures used in Virtual Singapura.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Research on Computer-supported Learning and Cognition (CoCo), The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Michael J. Jacobson

  2. Learning Sciences Laboratory, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Beaumie Kim

  3. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Chunyan Miao, Zhiqi Shen & Mark Chavez

Authors
  1. Michael J. Jacobson
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  2. Beaumie Kim
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  3. Chunyan Miao
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  4. Zhiqi Shen
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  5. Mark Chavez
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael J. Jacobson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Sydney, Sydney, 2006, Australia

    Michael J. Jacobson

  2. University of Sydney, Sydney, 2006, Australia

    Peter Reimann

Appendices

Appendix 1

Case texts used in the analogical encoding treatment conditions:

Purpura nautica

During the Age of Discovery, scurvy became a disease among sailors. The disease was often referred to as Purpura nautica, as sufferers had purple (purpura) blotches under their skins. They would also have teeth and hair loss, sunken eyes, paleness, blindness, and most would die. In 1747, James Lind, the surgeon aboard HMS Salisbury, was faced with many cases of scurvy and a high death rate. He thought that the disease was related to a lack of ascorbic acid, which is found in citrus fruits, but had to prove it. What Lind did next changed the history of scurvy. As a scientist, what do you think he did?

Is it good to be special?

The shoe company Steps decided to run a free webinar (a type of web conference) to get people to be aware of shoe comfort, and be interested in Steps’ footwear. E-mails would be sent to invite people to the webinar. When drafting the e-mails, the marketing manager noted an interesting claim, that the word “special” should not be in e-mails’ subject lines. E-mails with “special” in their subject lines were avoided by people as they were seen as spam. The manager was keen to test this claim, and to find out whether differences in subject lines mattered to whether people would attend the webinar. As a market researcher, what should she do?

Appendix 2

Conversations after a presentation regarding missing supporting data:

  1. 1.

    All Presenters: (after presenting the last slide) So we will now take your questions.

  2. 2.

    Teacher: Okay, any questions?

  3. 3.

    Audience 1: How about the number of patients who fell ill due to the illness? The number of patients?

  4. 4.

    Teacher: Can you go back to your graph again?

  5. 5.

    Presenter 1: Our graph would be regarding the number of bacteria in the wells…?

  6. 6.

    Audience 1: Then how about the number of patients? (pause)

  7. 7.

    Presenter 1: We don’t have the graph.

  8. 8.  

    Audience 1: Is this illness that’s causing the patient to? When you say, you know, when you say symptoms, but what about the number of patients...

  9. 9.

    Presenter 2: No, no… When...

  10. 10.

    Audience 1: …(that bacteria really) causes the illness...?

  11. 11.

    Presenter 1: This is the… for the…

  12. 12.

    Audience 1: The patients, according to the number of patients who want to (claim from this)? We do not know whether it significantly went down. So the… (how to know) would be this?

  13. 13.  

    Presenter 2: Okay, maybe we didn’t really write it down here, but anyway diarrhea would significantly decrease from 35-7, 2 digits to 1 digit. Wow. Yeah.

  14. 14.  

    Audience 1: How about the rest, like the, can you go to your graph.

  15. 15.  

    Teacher: Can you go back to your previous slide. Previous slide.

  16. 16.  

    Audience 1: What, how about the fever and all that? And the rest...

  17. 17.

    Presenter 2: Tuberculosis will also significantly decrease but I guess we put didn’t put it inside here… Sorry.

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Jacobson, M.J., Kim, B., Miao, C., Shen, Z., Chavez, M. (2010). Design Perspectives for Learning in Virtual Worlds. In: Jacobson, M., Reimann, P. (eds) Designs for Learning Environments of the Future. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-88279-6_5

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