3DvWs Platforms Used in Teaching and Learning

Since the advent of the first generation of 3DVWs, various companies have developed their own virtual world platform, and currently, there are a wide variety of 3DVW platforms. Individuals and numerous companies and organizations all around the world are using various samples of these platforms for their own purposes. There are a wide variety of active 3DVW platforms at the moment, however, this literature review sought to identify the platforms most widely used by researchers in their educational programs.

Figure 4 presents percentages of various 3DWV platforms found in the review of 164 studies. Second Life was the most frequently discussed 3DVW platform used for learning and teaching purposes in higher education; Second Life was discussed in 62% of 164 studies. Sixteen percent of the 164 studies used their own, self-developed 3DVW platform mainly using a designed single-purpose virtual world for extending educational activities. Open Simulator was discussed in 8% of 164 studies, as a platform utilised for learning and teaching in higher education. Seven percent of the papers discussed using other platforms such as Vacademia, Zora 3-D, Croquet and AliveX3D. Active World and AET Zone are the other platforms which were discussed respectively in 3% and 2% of studies. In 2% of the studies, authors did not specified the type of 3DVW that they have applied, therefore, the used platforms considered as unknown. Table 4 indicates all 3DWV platforms used in the literature, and the exact number of studies which used each one. According to the findings in the current study, Second Life is the most popular 3DVW platform for higher education, and Open Simulator, Active World and AET Zone were reported the least among the 164 studies.

Figure 4. Percentage of applied 3DVWs in higher education

Table 4. Number of studies for each 3DVW platform

3D Virtual World Platform	Number of studies
Second Life	96
Self-Developed	24
Open Simulator	12
Active World	5
AET Zone	3
Unknown	3
Vacademia	2
Barnsborough(AWEDU)	1
Croquet	1
GEARS	1
QA (Quest Atlantis)	1
Virtools Dev	1
Virtual Incubator World (VIW)	1
WonderLands/TEAL	1
Zora 3-D	1
AliveX3D	1

Gamage, Tretiakov, and Crump (2011) investigated educators’ perceptions of Second Life affordances for learning by conducting in-depth semi-structured interviews with 22 educators. Chen, Siau, and Nah (2009) assessed the efficacy of two instruction strategies in Second Life, and their effects on interactivity, social presence, and perceived learning. García-Zubia et al. (2010) described the implementation of a new remote lab that allowed students to control a micro robot from Second Life. Stiubiener, Barbosa, Kamienski, and Schweitzer (2011) in their study presented two tools developed to facilitate the use and automate the process of using Open Simulator for educational purposes. Dickey (2005) presented two exploratory case studies of different, but exemplary educational activities using Active Worlds for formal and informal education. In another study, Bronack et al. (2008) used the AET Zone platform for their teaching and learning purposes.

Categorization of Learning Environments for Educational Purposes

3DVW technologies provide the ability for users to design and create different kinds of virtual and 3D environments for various purposes. In all of the studies in our systematic literature review, researchers designed and developed specific spaces inside the virtual worlds in relation to their educational activities. The created virtual environments were categorized and 17 categories were identified. The majority of the studies created two or more categories of environments simultaneously. Table 5 shows the list of all virtual environments in higher education as well as the number of papers in each category in the literature.

Table 5. Virtual environments used in higher education and number of related studies

Virtual Environments	Number of Studies
Virtual classroom	63
Simulated place	31
Meeting area	22
Other environments	21
Virtual campus	15
Virtual laboratory	13
Gaming environment	10
Virtual library	9
Replica of known place	9
Virtual messaging environment	8
Board room	4
Sandbox area	4
Video room	3
Quiz environment	3
Poster room	1
Outdoor environment	1
Staff room	1

As it can be noted in Table 5, in 63 studies, researchers designed virtual classroom environments for their programs. These environments resemble actual classrooms or lecture theaters (having a number of seats, a lectern for instructor, a presentation display and video display), where students’ and instructors’ avatars can attend and communicate with each other using voice or text chat tools. Students can see the presentation slides, educational videos and they can even see the instructor’s face in an online and real-time video. For example, Gao, Noh, and Koehler (2009), Loureiro and Bettencourt (2011), Marcelino, Silva, Gruber, and Bilessimo (2012), and Yalcinalp, Sen, Kocer, and Koroglu (2012) designed various virtual classroom environments inside the 3DVW platforms.

In 31 of the 164 studies reviewed, researchers used simulated places for teaching and learning. In most cases, a specific place has been modeled, simulated and created; therefore, students can learn different things by visiting, interacting with and going around these places. For example, Cheng and Wang (2011) designed a 3D virtual supermarket to help business students transform abstract class theory into the concrete application ability in the real world. Brown, Rasmussen, Baldwin, and Wyeth (2012) developed a simulated 3D ICU (Intensive Care Unit) for students to practice key steps in handing over the 24/7 care requirements of intensive care patients during the first hour of a shift. In another study, authors designed a virtual hydroelectric power plant in Second Life to teach students how to produce electricity (Aydogan et al., 2010). Students also can observe the detail of the power plant's structure which cannot be shown even in a technical trip due to the plant being in-service.

Virtual meeting areas have been designed and used by 22 of 164 studies. These areas are mainly furnished by seats and chairs, and they contain presentations and video displays. The avatars can get together in the place and they can use microphones/speakers (voice chat) or text chat tools for sending public or private messages to each other. The main purpose of these places is to hold across-distance meetings with students, instructors or staff. For example, Bronack et al. (2008), Nikolaou and Tsolakidis (2012), and Konstantinidis and Tsiatsos (2008) developed a virtual meeting area to hold educational meetings.

Fifteen of the 164 studies discussed the development of a university campus for their activities. They designed various parts of a real campus and students could enter the campus using their avatars and visit different sections inside. In some cases a replica of a real university campus is designed so the virtual campus exactly resembles the real one. In other cases, researchers designed different buildings and views for the campus and they only inserted the parts, buildings or rooms that students needed to attend or visit. For example, Bers and Chau (2010), Nishide (2011), and Nishide and Ueshima (2004) developed a campus using 3DVWs for their teaching and learning programs in higher education.

Virtual laboratories are the other virtual environments which have been created and developed by researchers for higher education. These laboratories are simulated environments that present the ability to perform most of the activities of the real laboratories in a virtual manner. For instance, Muller, Chilliischi, and Langer (2012) designed a virtual mechatronics lab in Open Simulator, developed for mechatronics training, which combines immersive 3D worlds and real lab equipment. Zhong and Liu (2012) created a virtual chemistry laboratory to discuss the technical difficulties that users face when developing 3D virtual worlds. A physics laboratory was designed by dos Santos, Guetl, Bailey, and Harward (2010) in order to support students understanding of physics concepts.

In nine papers, authors designed a replica of a known and popular place in the world to help students get familiar with the place and atmosphere. These virtual clones are mainly used for field trips and similar activities. For example, Hsu (2012) created a virtual island of France for tourism education. In two other studies, researchers used Second Life to simulate a Saami tent and a Kalasha valley and dwellings for archaeology students (Edirisingha, Nie, Pluciennik, & Young, 2009; Salmon, Nie, & Edirisingha, 2010).

Virtual messaging environments have also been created and used in educational settings for communication purposes. In these environments, users of virtual worlds can have interaction with each other using voice or text chat tools. For example, Traphagan et al. (2010) used a text chat tool for students to complete all course activities collaboratively with group members. Wigham and Chanier (2013) offer a classification of verbal and nonverbal communication acts in Second Life and outline relationships between the different types of acts by using a voice forum.

In addition to the environments mentioned, other virtual spaces have been designed for different educational purposes. Some of the other virtual environments are video rooms, virtual libraries, board rooms, poster rooms, outdoor environments, staff rooms, sandbox areas, and other miscellaneous environments.

FUTURE DIRECTION FOR RESEACH

One of the principle goals of this research was to classify various application areas of 3DVWs in the field of education. Therefore, based on the literature, the authors provide five meaningful categories of applications in higher education (virtual lecturing, discussion, field trip, simulation, and gaming). Hence, future research can explore additional applications of these environments in the education sector. They can identify various criteria to evaluate value-added activities and strategies for effective integration of this technology into a curriculum. Future research also need to be more creative to figure out new effective ways of teaching and learning rather than to replicate the traditional methods of education. In spite of the considerable level of academic research related to the educational application of 3DVWs, research pertaining to the practical applications of such tools are seemingly inadequate, particularly as opportunities continue to arise and continue to evolve in utilizing this technology in the field of education.

The current systematic literature review and the results provide various implications for a wide range of organizations, universities, educational communities, schools, academic staff, educators, instructors and individuals which are able to use this study to consider all the capabilities and derived experiences that are associated with the application of 3DVWs in the professional and pedagogical objectives they want to achieve. This study also identifies any gaps that were apparent in the published research. Despite the fact that researchers paid more attention to educational benefits of 3DVWs, still there are some gaps in the literature and future research should be conducted to explore improvements to previous studies. The mentioned implications as well as existing gaps in conjunction with the topic will be discussed as following:

Collaborative Learning

According to the findings of the current study, the focus of previous studies was mainly on the possibilities of using 3DVWs for delivering distance courses, and the students' learning outcomes in the investigated studies were mostly positive for distance education. Nevertheless, as these technologies provide effective opportunities for students in respect to collaborative learning, team work and self-learning, future studies may best contribute by investigating the impacts of such technologies on individual and group student outcomes and experiences.

Gaming and Machinima

Gaming and machinima aspect of 3DVWs has also received little attention in the higher education field. Machinima, in definition, is the “art of making animated movies in a 3D virtual environment in real time” (Marino, 2004). Entertainment environments and leisure activities as well as using computers and video games have been identified as significant educational resources. Games help impart knowledge, develop course-related skills and reinforce positive habits in students of all ages, in the form of play. Future studies are expected to put more attention to this capability of 3DVWs in teaching and learning programs.

Geographical Context

According to findings of the current study, the majority of studies in the literature in this field, have been done in North America and Europe, and there are only a limited number of studies from other countries of the world. A comparative research within various cultural and social environments is recommended in order to more effectively comprehend the influence of geographical contexts on the use of 3DVWs in higher education.