Introduction

A Three-Dimensional Virtual World (3DVW) is a computer-based, simulated and graphical environment, usually accessible on the World Wide Web, that is intended for users to inhabit and interact using personalized graphical and animated self-representations, known as avatars (Boulos, Hetherington, & Wheeler, 2007). Virtual worlds are online spaces where individuals can interact with three-dimensional representations of physical locations or phenomena. The simulated environment could appear similar to the real world (with real rules, real-time actions, interactions and communications) or depict a fantasy virtual world. Recently, Internet-based 3DVW have thrived and hold promise to significantly impact the way people communicate and interact with each other.

Inside 3DVWs, people can manipulate elements and experience telepresence. Increasingly, researchers, organizations and educational communities are recognizing these environments as legitimate communication media which can be used as an effective media in teaching and learning. Users of these environments not only have the opportunity to interact with each other in a sociocultural and delightful activities but also can follow virtual wealth through activities such as selling and buying lands as well as creating and trading virtual goods using virtual currencies (Ba, Ke, Stallaert, & Zhang, 2010).

Currently, one of the most popular and active 3DVWs is Second Life (SL), which is an eminent platform that was developed by Linden Lab in 2003. It has an in-world marketplace where users can trade virtual goods for Linden Dollars, which are then convertible currency to US Dollars. To illustrate, according to a report provided by Linden Lab in 2013, over the past decade, almost 36 million accounts have been created in SL and 3.6 billion US dollars spent on virtual possessions inside the wide range of virtual lands. In the ten years since Second Life began, the total time people have spent on this platform is equivalent to almost 217,266 years. Based on the mentioned report, Second Life is visited by more than one million individuals monthly, and almost 400,000 new registrations are completed every month. Approximately 1.2 million daily transactions are conducted for virtual possessions in Second Life, 2.1 million virtual possessions made by users are for sale, and Second Life’s landmass now is about 700 square miles (Linden Lab, 2013).

The purpose of this chapter is to 1) identify the main activities in the application of 3DVWs in higher education. 2) highlight various 3D virtual world platforms that researchers have used in learning and teaching. 3) categorize various virtual environments designed for educational purposes. Therefore, the current chapter attempts to answer the following three research questions:

1. 1. For what purposes have 3DVWs been used in higher education?

2. 2. What types of 3DVW platforms have been used by researchers in higher education?

3. 3. What kinds of virtual environments have been created for educational activities using 3DVWs?

BACKGROUND

3DVWs have been broadly adopted to favor socialization and education. These worlds offer the possibility of simulating the real world as it is, or designing unique fantasy worlds. By interacting with these platforms, people can actively experience simulated realities, which can aid in understanding various concepts and support independent viewpoints for users as they accomplish specific tasks. Users can easily share the virtual environment for performing highly synchronous collaborative tasks, manipulating the same virtual objects (De Lucia, Francese, Passero, & Tortora, 2009).

Numerous advances in information technology are transfiguring teaching and learning styles, especially in higher education. During the past decade, educators from a variety of backgrounds have started using the online 3DVWs to support their teaching and learning activities. 3DVWs support a higher level of interactivity and richness for interaction, collaboration and communication than traditional media (Ghapanchi & Ghanbarzadeh, 2014). They also have the potential to create engaging and meaningful experiences for students and learners. In recent years, there has been remarkable growth in the application of these environments for distance education and e-learning. These immersive platforms offer various tools to create sophisticated and highly interactive simulations using in-world programming, modeling and scripting tools. 3DVWs support teaching and learning in an educational context and they offer the functionality and capability to manage the various aspects of education such as lecturing, presentation, administration and assessment of coursework.

A wide variety of organizations, educational groups, and government agencies currently provide regular events, seminars, and workshops in virtual worlds. Furthermore, many educational institutions and organizations are creating virtual learning environments to deliver courses (face-to-face and online) and events that include 3DVW presentations, discussions, simulations and role-playing. Not only do 3DVWs amplify learning beyond the capabilities afforded by teleconferencing and online web presentation tools, they also create opportunities for field trips that go far beyond the traditional learning spaces (Linden Research, 2011).

Many studies have been conducted on the application of 3DVWs in learning and teaching. For example, Hew and Cheung (2013) discussed evidence-based educational approaches related to the application of Web 2.0 technologies in both K-12 and higher education settings. In their study, Saleeb and Dafoulas (2010) analytically derived advantageous and disadvantageous categories and sub-categories of applying 3DVWs for conducting e-learning. Hew and Cheung (2010) reviewed past empirical research studies on the application of 3DVWs in educational settings such as K-12 and higher education and found that virtual worlds may be applied for the communication spaces, simulation of space, and experiential spaces.

RESEARCH METHOD

A systematic literature review of the application of 3DVWs in higher education, based on Kitchenham (2004) guidelines was conducted. A systematic literature review is a methodical approach for identifying, evaluating, and interpreting previous studies conducted on a specific research field. Previously, several studies have used Kitchenham’s method to carry out a review on the literature (Amrollahi, Ghapanchi, & Talaei-Khoei, 2013; Ghanbarzadeh, Ghapanchi, & Blumenstein, 2015; Ghanbarzadeh, Ghapanchi, Blumenstein, & Talaei-Khoei, 2014; Ghapanchi & Aurum, 2011; Najaftorkaman, Ghapanchi, Talaei-Khoei, & Ray, 2013; Najaftorkaman, Ghapanchi, Talaei‐Khoei, & Ray, 2014).

In this section, the steps in the literature review process will be described including the procedure for inclusion and exclusion of pertinent literature, and data extraction and analysis during the search process will be discussed in detail.

Search Criteria, Databases, and Keywords

To begin the literature review process, inclusion and exclusion criteria were established:

• Both empirical and technical studies were included.

• Studies related to education settings other than higher education were excluded.

• Studies published between January 1990 and November 2013 were included.

• Studies in languages other than English were excluded.

Eight relevant scientific databases were used in the search process for the keywords: ScienceDirect, ProQuest Computing, IEEE Xplore, Association for Information Systems Electronic Library (AISel), Web of Science (via Thomson Reuters), Inspec (via Thomson Reuters), ERIC (Via ProQuest) and PsycARTICLES (via Ovid). The databases were selected based on their comprehensiveness in locating pertinent articles, chapters, presentations, papers; these eight databases cover thousands of sources. The initial result of search operations for the mentioned eight scientific digital libraries is shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Summary of the initial results for search in each scientific digital library

Digital Library	Search in	Number of Papers
ScienceDirect	Title/abstract/key	249
	Title	10
	All fields	13,430
ProQuest Computing	Anywhere except full text	224
	Title	14
	All fields	2,713
IEEE Xplore	Abstract	573
	Title	25
	All fields	1,665
(AISeL) Association for Information Systems Electronic Library	Abstract	23
	Title	1
	All fields	325
Web of Science (via Thomson Reuters)	Title	66
	Topic	1,615
Inspec (via Thomson Reuters)	Title	53
	Topic	2,644
ERIC (via ProQuest)	Abstract	194
	Title	17
	All fields	269
PsycARTICLES (via Ovid)	Abstract	20
	Title	2
	All fields	823

The advanced search option provided by each electronic database was used for the search operations. By using the following 48 search terms, title, abstract and keywords of the articles were searched in accordance with the various search patterns offered by each search engine. The key words that were used in the search are shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Key words used in the search

(“3D” OR “3 D” OR “3-D” OR “3_D” OR “three-dimensional” OR “three dimensional” OR “3 dimensional” OR “three D” OR “three-D”) AND (“virtual world” OR “virtual life” OR “virtual space” OR “virtual environment” OR “virtual reality” OR “virtual community” OR “virtual inhabited world” OR “inhabited space” OR “second life” OR “active world” OR “avatar” OR “virtual immersive world” OR “Multi user virtual environment” OR “MUVE”) AND (“educate” OR “education” OR “educational” OR “educating” OR “distance education” OR “distance learning” OR “train” OR “training” OR “lecture” OR “lecturing” OR “pedagogy” OR “pedagogical” OR “learn” OR “learning” OR “teach” OR “teaching” OR “instruct” OR “instruction” OR “instructing” OR “edutainment” OR “university” OR “universities” OR “higher education” OR “tertiary sector” OR “tertiary education”)

According to Kitchenham’s guidelines, the process of searching for and selecting relevant literature for the current study was completed in six different stages. Figure 1 shows this process.

Figure 1. Stages in the procedure of searching for and selecting studies

In the first stage, the eight scientific databases aforementioned were selected. In Stage 2, a search of the eight databases, by using above-mentioned keywords, was carried out respectively. As of November 15, 2013, the database searches revealed 1402 primary studies. In Stage 3, 865 papers were excluded on the basis of their titles. In Stage 4, 255 papers were excluded from the remaining 537 papers based on their abstracts. In Stage 5, 15 papers were excluded on the basis of the full text. One hundred three papers were replicas or there was no access to the full text. Finally, at the end of the procedure, the total number of relevant papers was 164, which seemed reasonable for generating an appropriate conclusion. Therefore, the search process stopped at the end of Stage 6. Table 3 indicates the number of related papers which were selected from each scientific database.

Table 3. Number of related papers selected from each scientific database

Scientific Data Bases	Related Studies
IEEE Xplore	62
ERIC (Via ProQuest)	38
ScienceDirect	27
Inspec (via Thomson Reuters)	19
AISeL	12
ProQuest	5
Web of Science (via Thomson Reuters)	1
PsycARTICLES (via Ovid)	0
Total number of related papers	164

Data Extraction and Analysis

The data extracted from each of the 164 papers identified in the literature search included:

• Performed activities by using 3DVWs for learning and teaching in higher education

• Utilized 3DVW platform

• Created 3D virtual educational environments for the study

To perform a data analysis, the full text of 164 extracted papers were read in their entirety in order to identify all information related to each of the mentioned research questions; then each paper was classified and labeled according to its main area of research and application area of 3DVWs. To make a better classification, the categorizing operation was performed two times. First, each paper was reviewed by one of the authors and an appropriate category code allocated, therefore, all papers were classified in various categories. To clarify the classification, the process was repeated for the second time by the other author. The results were discussed in a meeting with professionals in the similar research field. During the meeting, all categories were discussed and revised, and some of them were merged. Finally, all papers were classified into five major research categories based on the main activity and application areas of 3DWVs: virtual lecturing, discussion, field trip, simulation, and gaming. After this, some demographic information extracted from each paper, then investigated and finalized. Figure 2 shows the procedure undertaken in the data analysis process.

Figure 2. The procedure of data analysis

RESULTS

The purpose of this literature review, as stated in the Introduction, was to perform a systematic literature review on the application areas of 3DVWs in learning and teaching in higher education, in order to answer three research questions in relation to the mentioned technology and higher education. In this section a discussion of findings will be presented for each of the research questions.

Applications for 3DVWs in Higher Education

The results of this literature review of 164 research articles, revealed that 3DVWs have been adopted and applied in a wide range of areas in higher education for teaching and learning. According to the nature of educational activities performed, articles were sorted into five main categories: virtual lecturing, discussion, field trip, simulation, and gaming. Some of the studies implemented two or more activities simultaneously. Figure 3 depicts the major categories of application areas of 3DVWs in the higher education settings.

Figure 3. The major categories of application areas of 3DVWs in the higher education setting

Virtual Lecturing

In this application, by using 3DVWs, a virtual replica of a classroom setting or a laboratory as commonly used for presentations and lectures, is designed. The instructor can use two or more screens for presenting slides, videos, pictures, web resources, and even an online-desktop when a part of the desktop needs to be presented to the students. Students usually attend the virtual classroom using their own avatars and there are possibilities to make contact between the instructor and the students using two mechanisms, text chat and online voice. For voice chat instructor and students need to have microphones and headsets hooked up to their computers. Around 9% of the investigated studies in the literature have content relevant to virtual lecturing, and they have mainly established a virtual lecturing activity to deliver a course to the students. For example, Barry et al. (2013), Callaghan, McCusker, Losada, Harkin, and Wilson (2009), Dafoulas, Saleeb and Loomes (2012), Dreher, Reiners, Dreher, and Dreher (2009), and Mendonça, Carreira, and Sampaio (2011) carried out studies related to this category.

Discussion

Discussion boards and online meetings are another application in the 3DVW-related virtual learning programs. During the distance discussions or meetings, students engage in several social activities, such as discussions about a subject matter, sharing their perspective(s), presentation of students’ projects, consultation, asking questions, etc. For instance, studies of Di Blas and Poggi (2007), Prasolova-Forland (2004), and Zhao, Sun, Wu, and Hu (2010) are classified into this category as they involve virtual meeting or discussion room for various educational purposes.

Field Trip

Field trips are mainly used as an application for self-learning. A virtual representation of a specific place such as a museum, a gallery, a hotel, a hospital, and a scientific site is designed to create visitor awareness about the place and provide information that students need. Students are able to navigate their avatars into the designed environment to visit the virtual site. Students usually perform a virtual trip to a virtual place, visit the site, read the provided information, and observe some activities inside the site. Almost 15% of studies in the literature used 3DVWs for conducting field trip programs. For example, Aydogan, Aras, and Karakas (2010) have built a hydroelectric power plant in Second Life with all its important parts to teach how to produce electricity. Using avatars, students walked around and flew towards the power plant to figure out how it worked. In another study, access to a number of digital 3D models of European theatre designs was provided and participants visited the Theatre of Epidaurus during a virtual field trip; participants also explored Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre (Nicholls & Philip, 2012).

Simulation

Other studies in the current systematic review applied 3DVWs for simulation purposes in higher education. Simulation is the act of imitation of a real-world system’s or process’s operation over time. It is a powerful tool that is commonly used to teach processes that are generally difficult to practice in the real world (Wang & Zhu, 2009). By using virtual worlds’ designing and programming tools, as well as simulation techniques, the virtual clones of a specific place or an environment is modelled and designed for training purposes. By working with simulated environments, students get familiar with various concepts which are usually inaccessible in the real world. For example, in a study conducted by Grenfell (2013), students were working to simulate the development of a virtual art exhibition space. In another study, researchers simulated an on-line garment store in Second Life with static objects, such as buildings, sofas, costumes, advertising boards, direction boards, etc. (Dong, Ma, & Wang, 2010).

Gaming

Computer games are effective approaches to teach various educational concepts. Students who play computer games tend to learn the intended concepts, and in most of the cases, they find it a relatively enjoyable experience of learning (Wang & Zhu, 2009). Around 10.5% of the studies in the literature have used games as a provocative tool for teaching and learning. For example, in one of the studies, to determine whether and how a 3DVW enhanced software engineering education, authors designed a Second Life-based game for computer science students (Ye, Liu, & Polack-Wahl, 2007). In another study, authors designed a 3D virtual quest game to enhance English vocabulary acquisition through interaction, negotiation of meaning and observation (Kastoudi, 2011).