Presentation slides of the academic paper. Mikhail Fominykh, Ekaterina Prasolova-Førland and Peter Leong: "Formal and Informal Collaborative Learning in 3D Virtual Campuses," in the 6th International Conference on Collaboration Technologies (CollabTech), Sapporo, Japan, August 27–29, 2012, Information Processing Society of Japan, ISBN: 978-4-915256-86-8 C3804, pp. 64–69.

1. Formal and Informal Collaborative
Learning in 3D Virtual Campuses
Mikhail Fominykh and Ekaterina Prasolova-Førland
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
Peter Leong
University of Hawaii-Manoa, USA
The Sixth International Conference on Collaboration Technologies
August 27–29, 2012
Sapporo, Japan
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2. 3D Virtual Worlds and Virtual
Campuses
o Why 3D Virtual Worlds
– Three dimensional
– Sense of presence
– Collaboration
– Visualization and creativity
– 3D content manipulation
o Why Virtual Campuses
– Authentic environment
– Learning tools and facilities
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3. Formal and Informal Learning in 3D
Virtual Campuses
o Formal
– Blended or virtual courses
– Lectures, discussions, exams, and more
o Informal
– Virtual tours, scavenger hunts, role playing, and
games
– Rich interactions, authentic content and culture,
identity play, simulation, community presence
– Visualization, and content production
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4. Case Study across Two Virtual
Campuses
o RQ
– How to design a 3D virtual campus?
o Goal
– Develop implications for virtual campus design to
facilitate formal and informal learning
o Analysis framework
– Learner
– Place
– Artifact
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5. Study settings
o Participants
– 37 Students (Cooperation Technology course at NTNU)
– Presenters and attendees
o Activities
– 3D Visualization of the major curriculum topics
– Two events in two virtual campuses
o Observation
– Design of Virtual Campus facilities for different
learning modes
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6. Virtual Campus of NTNU
o Facilities
– Reconstructions of campus buildings
– 3D educational visualizations (student projects)
– Virtual Science Fair
– Meeting and working places
o Activities
– Virtual tours
– Cooperation technology course projects/role plays
– Research project presentations
– International seminars
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7. Virtual Campus of NTNU
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8. Role-playing presentation of a student
project
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9. Role-playing presentation of a student
project
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10. Cooperation seminar in the virtual
campus of NTNU
o Formal learning
– Seminar (five virtual presentations of EU projects)
– Question-and-answer session
o Results
+ Geographical independence
+ The novelty and excitement
+ The comfort of use for the lecturer and the audience
– Technical problems
– Attention distractions both inside and outside the
virtual environment
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11. Cooperation seminar in the virtual
campus of NTNU
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12. Implications for facilitating formal
learning in 3D virtual campuses
o Learner
– More active use of the avatar, such as moving around,
body language, visual effects, changing appearance
o Place
– Minimalistic appearance to avoid disruption of attention
– Structure facilitating better deployment of the 3D space
and flexible moving and grouping of avatars and tools
o Artifact
– Integrating social tools normally used by the students
– In-world tools for interactivity, e.g. quizzes and polling
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13. Virtual Campus of COE UHM
o Facilities
– Reconstructions of campus buildings
– Authentic Hawaiian places and simulations
– New fictitious social spaces
o Activities
– Courses/seminars
– Conference sessions
– Virtual graduation ceremonies
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14. Virtual Campus of COE UHM
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15. Wist-Everly Hall complex
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16. Holomua Learning Area
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17. Dockside coffee shop
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18. Official launch of COE SL Island
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19. Virtual Graduation Ceremonies
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20. Guided tour to the virtual campus of
COE UHM
o Informal learning
– Virtual tour (guided tour)
– Feedback in student blogs
o Results
– 11 themes including general impressions, campus
atmosphere & infrastructure, learning, experimental
teaching, Hawaiian culture, navigation problems,
etc.
– Majority felt immersive Hawaiian sense of place
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21. Guided tour to the virtual campus of
COE UHM
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22. Implications for facilitating informal
learning: 3 major themes
o Appreciation for strong Hawaiian sense
of place
o Recognition of need for social spaces
o Frustration with navigation problems
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23. Implications for facilitating informal
learning in 3D virtual campuses
o Learner
– Improve navigation - teleportation & thematic areas
– Spaces for social & community building
o Place
– Appearance - replica & fictitious places
– Structure - buildings connected by paths & teleports
– Roles - demonstration/exhibition, social/workplace,
information space, virtual stage
o Artifact
– Some SL tutorials & Hawaiian-theme artifacts
– Need to develop tools to support course activities
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24. Future Work
o Formal and informal educational
activities in 3D virtual campuses
– Important to sustain a balance between formal and
informal learning
– Adjusting for specific formal or informal approaches
in both academic and corporate settings
– Exploring and extending implications to apply for
virtual campuses, classrooms, offices, conference
facilities, and other types of environments developed
on different platforms
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25. Thank you!
Mikhail Fominykh
mikhail.fominykh@svt.ntnu.no
https://my.secondlife.com/Mihail.Palace
http://slideshare.net/mfominykh/
Ekaterina Prasolova-Førland
ekaterip@idi.ntnu.no
https://my.secondlife.com/Amaritis.Miranda
Peter Leong
peterleo@hawaii.edu
https://my.secondlife.com/Ikaika.Miles
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