Virtual worlds

Virtual reality is connected to computer graphics to render virtual worlds (VW) and virtual scenes. Computer graphics, connected to the development of new programming languages and to the advanced computer technologies, have high potentiality, especially in the field of 3D animations for creating online virtual reality environments and virtual worlds.

Virtual worlds are computer-based simulated environments where the users can interact via an alter ego in the computer representation in real time with different devices, for example head mounted displays, and data gloves (Damer, 1997).

This “alter ego” is named avatar. The avatar is: an online manifestation of human’s desire to try out alternative identities (Hemp, 2006). The word derives by the Sanskrit “avatāra”, an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu.

Avatars can move themselves through virtual territories quickly generating with fractal algorithms which can be codified in different computer languages (Java, C++, VRML) (Sala, 2009b).

The technological evolutions of WWW and of computer graphics techniques have generated online virtual worlds, which can be considered virtual communities or scenarios for 3D virtual games. IMVU, Planet Calypso, Planet Arkadia, Woozworld are examples in this field. Other online virtual worlds can offer positive applications in educational fields.

Kamel Boulos, Hetherington, and Wheeler (2007) introduce three-dimensional (3-D) virtual worlds and their educational potential to medical/health librarians and educators. They affirm that the virtual world named Second Life (SL) could be ideal for those studying at a distance from their parent institution, becoming an equitable method of interaction.

Second Life

Second Life is one of the most popular online virtual worlds. It was developed by San Francisco-based Linden Lab and launched on June 23, 2003. This virtual world can be accessed freely via Linden Lab's own client programs, or via alternative Third Party Viewers. The Second Life users are also called “residents”. They can create their avatars, which are virtual representations of themselves.

The users can explore this online virtual world. They can meet other residents, they can participate in group activities. They can also create, new buildings and new environments.

Second Life is based on mark-up languages such as HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and Virtual Reality Modeling (VRML). These languages permit the creation and display of three-dimensional objects on the web, their manipulation and their interaction.

The educational use of SL is the base of a set of research projects and technical papers (Bourke, 2007, 2008; Brown, 2009; Calongne, & Hiles, 2007; Chafer, & Childs, 2008; Childs, 2007, 2010; Duncan, Miller, & Jiang, 2012; Falloon, 2010; Hew, & Cheung, 2010; Inman, Wright, & Hartman, 2010; Jestice & Kahai, 2010; Kamel Boulos, Hetherington, & Wheeler, 2007; Kopp & Burkle, 2010; McKeown, 2007; Mladenovic, Kuvac, & Štula, 2012; Oliver & Carr, 2009; Petrakou, 2010; Salmon, 2009; Trahan, Adams, & Dupre, 2012).

Bourke (2007, 2008) explores the potential of using the online digital world Second Life as a scientific visualization tool, in particular, for remote collaborative exploration of scientific datasets. This virtual world permits to the multiple remote participants to interact with 3D geometry within a virtual environment. He affirms that Second Life offers an interesting and satisfactory for collaborative visualization in the sciences, but there are any limitations which are based on the low geometric complexity. These lacks are strictly connected to the hardware devices and to the algorithmic reconstruction of the virtual environment. He also remarks that Second Life as collaborative experience is perhaps unsurpassed, permitting to multiple participants an interaction with data representations within a 3D virtual environment (Bourke, 2008, p. 7).

Figure 8 shows a preprocessed spherical projections from inside a crystal including the Hershfield surface (Bourke, 2008).

Figure 8. Preprocessed spherical projections from inside a crystal including the Hershfield surface computed from Crystal Explorer (Jayatilaka, Wolff, Grimwood, McKinnon, & Spackman, 2006) realized by Bourke (2008)

In a 2009 paper titled Using Virtual Worlds in Education: Second Life As an Educational Tool, Baker, Wentz, and Woods (2009) claim that Second Life has an high potential for its use in education, but they also suggest:

Do not send the students in to Second Life without some educational objective Teachers have to prepare educational objectives for student learning activities in SL, and share these objectives with the students. Prepare the students for this social experience. SL is similar to a public square, where we can meet people from other cultures or countries. All students have to remember that behind every avatar there is a real person. Consider SL to be one tool in your toolbox. (p. 62)

At National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) 2009 held in Washington D.C., Brown affirms that Second Life provides a sense of presence, and the students, seeing their avatars, have a sense of being in a fixed place (Brown, 2009).

Hew and Cheung (2010) report that virtual worlds can be used for creating special experiential areas.

Childs, in his doctoral thesis, analyzes the experiences of presence in virtual worlds as a specific case of mediated environments, using these technologies in teaching and learning (Childs, 2010). In order to investigate learners’ experiences, Childs presents five case studies in Second Life (preceded by a pilot study employing web conferencing).

Grimes and Bartolacci (2012) introduce some of the possibilities for using Second Life as a platform for network and information security training with a focus on the profiling of online behavior. In particular, they refer the initial attempts of its use at one of the Pennsylvania State University’s campuses. About SL the authors affirm that SL presents an environment where the cyber eavesdropping, and even would-be criminal acts such as fraud, can be demonstrated with little or no real world harm or consequences. This could create a rift between the virtual world, where anything goes, and the real one, with its rules.

Duncan, Miller, and Jiangin (2012) present a taxonomy for using virtual worlds in education. They classify six categories, according to the content or influence in online education. These categories are the following:

• Population (users aged 18+),

• Educational Activities (for example, visit 3D representation of a cathedral to understand construction techniques),

• Learning Theories (e.g., constructivist or collaborative learning),

• Learning Environment (where the users are working, e.g. inside a simulation of a museum),

• Supporting Technologies (e.g. audio, display or tactile equipment), and

• Research Areas (e.g., case studies on interface).

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

VR was considered to be useful only for the learning of simple manual and operative skills (e.g., hazardous conditions in laboratory activities). Technology evolution is opening new scenarios and applications of VR, now.

For example, Häfner, Häfner, and Ovtcharova (2013) present a teaching methodology for a practical course in virtual reality for undergraduate and graduate students. The course focusses on the learning of virtual reality by simulating interdisciplinary industrial projects, for developing skills such as methodological approach to practical engineering problems, teamwork, and working in interdisciplinary groups. The authors also describe the importance of the course design, task specification and work group composition for a successful realization of the course, referring to some project examples from the past three years.

VR will become a medium to introduce cyber ethics education, too. An example in this field is proposed by Matsuda, Nakayama, and Tamada (2015). They introduce the e-learning material that they developed using three-dimensional Virtual Reality (3D-VR) technology in cyber ethics education. They introduce a new method that teaches students to use three types of knowledge in their analyses of moral judgment problems: knowledge of ethical codes, ICT, and rational judgment. The authors verified that this method is more effective than the conventional method.

A successive and important step in the use of virtual reality could be the introduction of virtual prototyping in courses of engineering and architecture (Sala, 2013a). Virtual prototyping is a construction and testing of virtual prototype which represents a computer simulation of a physical product, which can be analyzed and tested via software (Wang, 2002). This approach can reduce (or even prevent) the construction of physical prototypes, thereby saving time and costs. The use of virtual prototyping, in courses of engineering and architecture, will train the students to new methodologies in design processes. Figure 9 shows an example of virtual prototype.

Figure 9. A virtual prototype (Sala, 2013a, p. 84)

Technological evolution of computer graphics and of WWW will increase online virtual worlds for collaborative learning with social sharing.

For example, Le, Pedro, and Park (2014) propose an online social VR-based system framework which allows students to perform role-playing, dialogic learning, and social interaction for construction safety and health education. They present a system organized in three modules - CDSL, HISC and ASGL- which permits the students to participate in active roleplaying, collaborative and dialogic learning, and social interaction in a 3D virtual world. A prototype system was developed using Second Life environment and its applicability was evaluated with virtual scenarios derived from real accident cases.

Other future research direction will be in the field of interactions between virtual world and architecture. In particular, Second Life could become a virtual world where is possible to build imaginary architectures and shapes based on fractal procedures. Fractal geometry is able to describe the Nature, replacing Euclidean geometry (which dominated our mathematical thinking for hundreds of years). This geometry finds applications for generating virtual landscapes, territories and complex shapes in virtual worlds and in three-dimensional Internet based virtual worlds, using simple geometric rules (Bourke, 2007, 2008; Sala, 2009a, 2009b, 2012, 2013b).

SL is becoming the place to go to do things that you could not normally do in architect-designed buildings (Sala, 2012). SL will be a virtual world with new architecture that will go beyond the real territory, in a new form of space where interactive objects and virtual buildings exist.

CONCLUSION

This chapter presents an overview of the application VR technologies in a variety of teaching and in learning environments, from primary schools to graduate courses.

The application of virtual reality in education can be seen as a set of technologies which influence, support and improve teaching methods, strengthening the educational process and helping to develop new ways of learning.

The wireless networks now blurring the distinction between inside and outside the classroom, and in some sense there are rooms within rooms and spaces within spaces, like Russian dolls, using VR technologies.

Important examples of uses of virtual reality include:

• Medical applications (e.g, training using virtual patients and virtual instruments to acquire a basic level of interpretative and manipulative skills) (Coyle, Traynor, & Solowij, 2015; Gallagher et al., 2005; Ota, Loftin, Saito, Lea & Keller, 1995; Satava & Jones,1996; Satava, 1995a, 1995b; Ziegler, Mueller, Fischer, & Göbel, 1995);

• Foreign language acquisition through immersion in a virtual environment where the language can be heard and its meaning understood (Boudreau & Okada, 1998);

• An educational environment in which chemical reactor design students can explore first-hand the concepts which they have studied in class (Bell & Fogler, 1995, 1997);

• Engineering training in virtual laboratories providing access in remote hazardous environments or in education for manufacturing engineers (Antonietti, Imperio, Rasi, & Sacco, 1999, 2000, 2001, Novak-Marcincin, Janak, Barna, & Novakova-Marcincinova, 2014) ;

• Spaces shared by users in the field of Architecture and Interior Design (Sala & Sala, 2005; Soares Calado, Márcio Soares, Campos, & Correia; 2013); and

• Virtual prototyping in engineering and in architectural education, for creating a new kind of prototypes (Sala, 2013a).

The literature presents the advantages of using virtual reality-based instruction for learning (Merchant, Goetz, Cifuentes, Keeney-Kennicutt, & Davis, 2014).

For example, Chen (2006) affirms that VR is a very important learning tool, but further investigations are necessary. For example, the ways to reach more effective learning when using this technology, and analyzing its impact on learners with different aptitudes.

Pantelidis (2010) is more critical, presenting the guidelines where it is not appropriate to use virtual reality. She affirms that VR is not a positive educational medium if no substitution is possible for teaching/training with the real thing. Virtual environment could be physically or emotionally damaging, and it is a technology too expensive to justify its use, considering the expected learning outcome (p. 65).

Virtual reality, connected to the Internet, to the VRML and to the WWW, is creating virtual spaces and virtual worlds (for example, Second Life) which have high potentiality in education, contributing to help an active learning process, and to improve the teaching impact (Bal, Crittenden, Halvorson, Pitt, & Parent, 2015; Bellotti, Berta, De Gloria, & Primavera, 2010; Kamel Boulos, Hetherington, & Wheeler, 2007; Kopp & Burkle, 2010; Reinsmith-Jones, Kibbe, Crayton, & Campbell, 2015; Zhou, Jin, Vogel, Fang, & Chen, 2011; Waters, 2009).

Second Life is becoming a discrete platform for distance experiences. Using SL in the traditional face-to-face and in hybrid distance education classrooms, this virtual world is promoting a new kind of active didactic where the students can explore Second Life Islands and they can share virtual learning environments (Bal, Crittenden, Halvorson, Pitt, & Parent, 2015; Bourke, 2007, 2008; Jabbari, Sandoval, & Waxman, 2015; Macedo & Morgado, 2009).

Is virtual reality a good educational tool for learning environments? The answer is positive, but it is important to consider that virtual reality and virtual worlds, as Second Life, are not a kind of “panacea” for all educational fields. In fact, they are not appropriate for every instructional objective. There are some teaching scenarios where virtual reality technologies and virtual worlds can be used for improving teaching and learning, and some where they should not be used.

In conclusion, only a deep knowledge of the VR technologies and their effective capabilities, together with a comprehension of psychological and cultural feedback of the students, to such technologies, can help us to create teaching paths where VR will play a central role.

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KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

Augmented Reality: It is a direct or indirect view of a real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as graphics, sound, and video. For example, the user’s view of the world is supplemented with virtual objects, usually to provide information about the real environment. Augmentation is in real-time.

Avatar: It is the graphical representation of the user or the user's alter ego in a virtual world. The word derives from Hindu mythology, and it represents the descent of a deity to the earth in an incarnate form or some manifest shape.

Fractal Geometry: It is geometry used to describe the irregular pattern and irregular shapes present in nature. Fractals display the characteristic of self-similarity, an unending series of motifs within motifs repeated at all length scales. The term derives by the Latin from “fractus”, which means irregular.

Immersion: In Virtual Reality, immersion is a perception of being physically present in a non-physical world. The perception is created surrounding the user by the virtual reality technologies and by its devices, for example data gloves, head mounted display, sound or other sensorial stimuli, that provide an engrossing total environment.

Interaction: Into virtual reality, interaction is often described as the ability of the user to move within the virtual world and to interact with the objects of the virtual world. If the user can explore the virtual world and move objects within the interactive environment.

Prototype: In engineering is the first units manufactured of a product. It is tested so that the design can be changed if necessary before the product is manufactured commercially.

Second Life: is one of the most popular online virtual worlds. It was developed by San Francisco-based Linden Lab and launched on June 23, 2003. This virtual world can be accessed freely via Linden Lab's own client programs, or via alternative Third Party Viewers. The Second Life users are also called “residents”.

Telepresence: It is a set of technologies, such as high definition video, audio, and other interactive elements that permit the users to feel or appear as if they were present in a location which they are not physically in. Users can influence and operate in a world that is real but in a different location. The users can observe the current situation with remote cameras and achieve actions via robotic and electronic arms. This technology is used as collaborative tool.

Virtual Prototyping (VP): The construction and testing of a virtual prototype is called virtual prototyping. It is a computer simulation of a physical product that can be presented, analyzed, and tested from concerned product life-cycle aspects such as design engineering, manufacturing, service, and recycling as if on a real physical model.

Virtual Reality (VR): A form of human-computer interaction in which a real or imaginary environment is simulated, and users interact with and manipulate that world. It is modern technology which gives its users the illusion of being immersed in a computer generated virtual world with the ability to interact with it. The term was coined in 1989, by American writer and computer scientist Jaron Zepel Lanier.

Virtual Reality Systems: Set of hardware and software components which permit to realize virtual reality environments.

Virtual World: It is a computer-based simulated environment where the users can interact via alter ego in the computer representation in real time with different devices, for example head mounted displays.

Virtual Reality Modeling Language, Originally Known as the Virtual Reality Markup Language (VRML): A language that specifies the parameters to create virtual worlds networked together via the Internet and accessed via the World Wide Web hyperlinks. The aim of VRML is to bring to the Internet the advantages of 3D spaces, known in VRML as worlds whether they compromise environments or single objects. It was conceived in the spring of 1994 and it has been presented to the first annual WWW conference in Geneva, Switzerland. Mark Pesce was one of the inventors of this language, and he is recognized as the man who brought virtual reality into the World Wide Web. The term VRML was coined by Dave Raggett in 1994.

Chapter 2

Applied Areas of Three Dimensional Virtual Worlds in Learning and Teaching:

A Review of Higher Education

• Reza Ghanbarzadeh Griffith University, Australia

• Amir Hossein Ghapanchi Griffith University, Australia

ABSTRACT

Three Dimensional Virtual Worlds (3DVW) have been substantially adopted in educational and pedagogical fields worldwide. The current study conducted a systematic literature review of the published research relevant to the application of 3DVWs in higher education. A literature search was performed in eight high-ranking databases, and following scrutiny according to inclusion criteria, 164 papers were selected for review. The systematic literature review process was summarized, reviews undertaken by the authors, and results about the applicability of 3DVWs in higher education were extracted. A wide variety of application areas for the 3DVWs in higher education were found, and were classified into five main categories. Various 3DVW platforms and virtual environments used for educational goals were also identified. The results revealed Second Life as the most popular 3DVW platform in higher education. This study also found that by using 3DVW technology a wide range of virtual environments and virtual tools have been designed and applied in teaching and learning for higher education.