Learner Support in Multi User Virtual Environments

Judith Molka-DanielsenJ.Molka-Danielsen@himolde.no

Molde University College

NOKOBIT 2008 in Kristiansand, Norway, 17.-19. Nov. 2008

Social Constructivist based learning

• The conception of learning as self-governed, problem-based and collaborative processes is derived from a social constructivist approach:

– Individuals decide how to proceed and solve problems based on their unique needs, perceptions and understanding of the available resources.

– Problem-based activities describe a learning process in which students are directed at solving a problem. A student tries to solve the problem and direct their own problem-solving process.

– Learning is considered a social and active process. Resources are not learning materials until they are used actively by students.

(Vygotsky, 1978; Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989)

Tools that support learningIndividual personal tools are owned and controlled by individual students.

Potentially they support a student's independent work process. Examples: Word, PowerPoint, Flash, FrontPage, Netscape Composer, Corel, PhotoShop – graphics, Webwinder – tests and ReadyGo – tests.

Social Network Tools support relationships between people and collaborative activities.

– Blogs and blogrolls – A 'blogroll' which is a list of links to other, related weblogs. RSS feeds.

– Social bookmarking – bookmarking web pages on the web, instead of in your browser. i.e. Del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us) and Furl (http://www.furl.net). Tag the page with keywords of own choice. Social bookmarks can be viewed by other people. You can also see who else has bm the same pages as you and what else these people have bm.

– Wikis – support collaborative construction, development and production. A wiki is a web page which can be edited dynamically directly from the web page itself. Everybody with access to a wiki can make changes. i.e. (http://www.wikipedia.org).

Social Network tools can be used to support both individual and social work processes.

Examples– A student working on solving a problem, can use a

blog to communicate and present ideas and thoughts. – The student can use wikis or other kinds of web

pages to develop the project. – An e-portfolio can be used to arrange resources of

relevance to the work. Individual personal tools support self-governed and constructive processes.

LMS

• LMS are well suited for managing student enrolment, exams, assignments, course descriptions, lesson plans, messages, syllabus, basic course materials, etc.

• LMS are to a large extent developed for the management and delivery of learning – and not for self-governed activities of students.

(Source: Dalsgaard, 2006)

Example of It’s Learning

• Common tools found in LMS and in It’s Learning are individual tools for content creation and administrative tools to manage courses and students.

• In contrast to the administrative strengths, the tools for social communication are less developed. – A common module for chat and whiteboard with the possibility to

upload files in the same tool has variable quality as based on access rate. It nominally requires broadband access for acceptable quality of service. In addition, private alternatives for the same functions can be found, such as Skype or MSN, and these are easier to use. The private tools are also already linked to established social networks.

It’s Learning Features• Administrative tools – course lists, student management,

quizzes and attendance• Communication tools – chat, whiteboard• CMS – content creation & management, private & public

library, search tags• Multimedia – integrates with other content developers,

material lists• 3rd party integration – allows 3rd party tools to open, like

Skype or MSN• Student created ePortfolios – integrate web pages and

blogs, can select what they publish• Web registrations – for those outside the class, with

secure access• Mobile applications – share calendars, video clips, send

to blogs

It’s Learning supports multimedia content from different content providers.

• Integrate 3rd party proxy tools: another web application, such as a video conference system can start up in the It’s Learning window without real integration of the source systems. Integration with tools like Skype have been tested. Although they can be opened within It’s Learning, the integration is limited in functionality.

• Support ePortfolios: this means that students can connect to their own blogs or webpage content. The content in the ePortfolio on an item by item basis can be published to the Internet or be available only to the LMS course.

To gain content from the publisher and Greig Music Education the user should click on « Legg til innhold fra Diglib ». (Source : https://www.itslearning.com/help/nb-NO/ApplicationHelp.htm)

Interface to multimedia content by Grieg Music Education.(Source: www.musicdelta.com )

• It’s Learning have cooperated with Norwegian publishers, Greig Music Education, and the media house for TV2 to allow for the development of school required materials lists.

• Allows possibility to build digital learning collections and interactive access to student exercises and exams.

Second Life (MUVE)• SL is a general purpose 3D

platform, created by its residents. • SL is used with increasing

frequency for education.• It has open client side

development, but closed server side. As a result it’s hard to save what you create in SL, and there are challenges to integrate with other web tools.

• Since SL did not have the features of common LMS, some have decided to add these through Moodle and SLoodle.

• SLoodle is an in-world interface to open source LMS: Moodle.

First a Moodle server must be set up. Later 2D artifacts of Moodle will appear as 3D objects in SL.

SLoodle Features

• SLoodle set contains: 1. control panel – configuration panel; 2. recycle bin, 3. classroom “profile” manager and 4. object vendor.

• Object vendor allows for rezzing of items: Access Checker, Access Checker Door, Choice , Enrolment Booth, LoginZone, MetaGloss, Password Reset, PrimDrop, Quiz Chair, Quiz Pile-On, Registration Booth

• SLoodle customizable toolbar – allows for blogging with the Moodle server and classroom gestures.

• WebIntercom is a chat function that can be setup between SL and a chat on the Moodle server.

SLoodle in SL

Educators’ Survey

Summary of respondents:• 17 respondents: 11 male and 6 female.• Average age = 47 years.• 4 different countries.• Used SL before? 19% No; 31% < 6mo.; 50% < 3yrs. • Used SLoodle? 9 of 16 never heard of it. 1 attended a

course.

Most requested features: interact w/ lessons (10), interact w/ wiki (8), forum -asynchronous discussions(8), assignments – that can be graded (8), Calendar (7), Student list (7), Quiz (6), Email (5), database – allows arbitrary structured data to be collected (4).

Least requested features: Choice – survey (3), RSS (3), Moodle grade book (1), LAMS sequence activities (1).

Educators’ Survey

Added features requested:• Integration of video and other social networks like

Facebook.• Make all content in SLoodle and SL searchable from a

search engine• Video integration (streamed and archived)• Podcast• Course documents and literature lists• Upload and downloading of files

Summary Remarks• LMS are often managed as closed systems even if the

code is open source (i.e. Moodle). • MUVE like SL lack integration with 3rd party web tools,

and lack tools for individual work processes (i.e. content creation), but are strong at supporting social interactions.

• SLoodle tried to add the features of an LMS to a 3D MUVE. – The only features obtained are a subset of Moodle,

and this might not be the best LMS to meet your organizations needs.

– SLoodle could be useful for some because teachers like teaching in SL and they wish for the management features of an LMS.