Evaluating the Pedagogical Affordances of a Bespoke 3D Virtual Learning Environment for Interpreters and Their Clients

Abstract

Computer-generated 3D virtual worlds offer a number of affordances that make them attractive and engaging sites for learning, such as providing learners with a sense of presence, opportunities for synchronous and asynchronous interaction (e.g. in the form of voice or text chat, document viewing and sharing), and possibilities for collaborative work. Some of the research into educational uses of 3D virtual environments has engaged with how the learning opportunities they offer can be evaluated and has thus been experimenting with what needs to be evaluated to explore how learning takes place in virtual worlds and what methods can be used for the evaluation. Whilst some studies evaluate the design of the virtual world, its usability and its link to learning tasks (e.g. Chang et al. 2009, Deutschmann et al. 2009, Wiecha et al. 2010), others have sought to find out more about the interaction that takes place within virtual worlds. Peterson (2010), for example, focuses on learner participation patterns and interaction strategies in a language learning context, using qualitative methods including discourse analysis of learner transcripts (of text chat output in the target language) as the main research instrument, complemented by observation, field notes, pre- and post-study questionnaires and interviews. Alternatively, Lorenzo et al. (2012) compare collaborative work on a learning object in a virtual world with the same task in a conventional learning content management system. Other studies have sought to look more specifically at the learning processes that take place in virtual environments and in so doing have started to bring together theoretical frameworks from virtual world education with the psychological or cognitive aspects involved in learning (Henderson et al. 2012, Jarmon et al. (2009). Based on such approaches, especially the mixed methods approach adopted by Jarmon et al., this chapter reports on the pedagogical evaluation of the learning processes of trainee interpreters and clients of interpreting services (i.e. professionals who (may) communicate through interpreters in their everyday working lives) using a bespoke 3D Virtual Learning Environment.