Design Of Virtual Worlds Research Articles

Transforming online education: the impact of gamification on teacher training in a university environment

Introduction: gamification consists of the application of game elements and mechanics in non-game contexts, such as education. The elements that can be included in a gamification strategy are very varied, from the design of characters and virtual worlds to the use of rewards and challenges. Aim: to analyze the implementation of a gamification strategy in the Master's Degree in Teacher Training. Methods: a case-control study was conducted. The sample consisted of 84 students who were divided into two groups: an experimental group, which received the gamification intervention, and a control group that did not receive any intervention. To evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention, student retention and knowledge acquisition were measured through the implementation of an assessment tool. Results: it was observed that the mean retention of participants between each session was similar in this group. This suggests that the length of the session itself did not have a significant impact on content retention. An increase in the number of interactions made in the chat between participants was observed, suggesting increased engagement and participation in the learning process. This increase in viewing time and student participation can be attributed to the implementation of the gamification methodology, which uses playful elements to motivate and maintain participants' interest in the learning process. Conclusions: the implementation of a gamification strategy in distance and online learning was an effective tool to improve student retention and knowledge acquisition.

Enhancing the Sense of Presence in Virtual Reality.

The vision of virtual reality, since Ivan Sutherland's first head mounted device in 1968, has been the re-creation of reality, something indistinguishable from reality, akin to what was depicted in the 1999 film, The Matrix. However, researchers and developers have largely favored visual perception over other senses, leading to the design of virtual worlds that perhaps look real but do not feel real. This favoring of the visual sense and more recently visual and audio senses, overlooks theory in psychology and phenomenology that places embodied action at the center of perception. That is to say, it is the virtual environment's ability to support and enable user actions that impacts perception and perhaps by extension, the user's sense of presence, not just the visual fidelity. Starting with Gibson's approach to action-based perception, we proposed a 4-D framework for creating virtual reality experiences that seamlessly blend extrinsic elements such as the user's real world context with intrinsic elements such as the hardware specifications, application, and interactive content, with the goal to enable a higher sense of presence.

Holistic digital-twin-based framework to improve tunnel lighting environment: From methodology to application

The design of the lighting environment inside the tunnel has a profound impact on the long-term operation of the tunnel. The existing field studies, full-scale experiments and simulation methods, mostly focus on the luminance level inside the tunnel, ignoring the effect of the luminaires and decorations from the visual perspective. This paper proposed a novel digital-twin-based integral method, including virtual world design (the virtual reality (VR) experiment and the numerical simulation) and real-world validation (the tunnel mock-up experiment and the field experiment), to improve the design of the luminaires and decorations in the interior zone of the tunnel. The VR experiment and numerical simulation in lighting software were firstly conducted to determine the lighting parameters. Then the obtained lighting scheme was tested and validated in the real scenarios, where tunnel mock-up experiments and field experiments were conducted respectively. According to the results from the numerical simulations and VR experiments, the double-side luminance scheme is more conducive to driving safety and once the power of the luminaires is excessive low, the driver's attention variation rate is also unsatisfied. Moreover, the use of the anti-collision lower-side luminaires enhances the luminance level of the road surface and the sidewall to a certain level. The obtained lighting scheme was applied in a newly built tunnel in Hangzhou. The statistics of accidents data indicate that the installed luminaires and decorations, which are obtained from virtual simulation, can provide a considerably safe lighting environment. Ten months of accident statistics show that the breakdown rate in this tunnel was only 10% of the similar tunnels, and the accident rate was only 3%, thus the safety and environmental performance have been proved to be significantly improved.

Non-verbal Aspects of Collaboration in Virtual Worlds: a CSCW Taxonomy-development Proposal Integrating the Presence Dimension

Virtual worlds, particularly those able to provide a three-dimensional physical space, have features that make them suitable to support collaborative activities. These features distinguish virtual worlds from other collaboration tools, but current taxonomies of the field of Computer-Supported Cooperative Work do not account for several distinctive features of virtual worlds, namely those related with non-verbal communication. We intended to find out how the use of an avatar, gestures, spatial sounds, etc., influence collaboration in order to be able to include non-verbal communication in taxonomies of the field Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. Several cases of collaboration in virtual worlds are analysed, to find the impact of these non-verbal characteristics of virtual worlds. We proposed adding the concept of Presence to taxonomies of Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and contribute with guidance for future taxonomy development that includes it as a new dimension. This new dimension of Presence is subdivided into "avatar" and "physical space" subdimensions. In turn, these are divided into "physical appearance", "gestures, sounds and animations" and "focus, nimbus and aura"; "environment" and "objects / artefacts". This new taxonomy-development proposal may contribute to inform better design of virtual worlds in support of cooperative work.

Functional Workspace Optimization via Learning Personal Preferences from Virtual Experiences.

The functionality of a workspace is one of the most important considerations in both virtual world design and interior design. To offer appropriate functionality to the user, designers usually take some general rules into account, e.g., general workflow and average stature of users, which are summarized from the population statistics. Yet, such general rules cannot reflect the personal preferences of a single individual, which vary from person to person. In this paper, we intend to optimize a functional workspace according to the personal preferences of the specific individual who will use it. We come up with an approach to learn the individual's personal preferences from his activities while using a virtual version of the workspace via virtual reality devices. Then, we construct a cost function, which incorporates personal preferences, spatial constraints, pose assessments, and visual field. At last, the cost function is optimized to achieve an optimal layout. To evaluate the approach, we experimented with different settings. The results of the user study show that the workspaces updated in this way better fit the users.

PEDAGOGICAL CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED IN THE DESIGN OF VIRTUAL WORLDS AS A LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Although virtual worlds emerged as a socialization environments, they have being used in various areas of education. In these environments, there are several studies focusing on challenges in teaching and learning, however what pedagogical challenges that instructional designers experience during the design in virtual worlds was not elaborated. In this study, the pedagogical challenges faced by designers of virtual worlds in designing the learning-teaching process have been investigated. 15 experts who participated in the virtual world design process have attended. A 30-item questionnaire developed by researchers was used as a data collection tool. The results showed that experts have difficulties especially in monitoring, evaluating, scaffolding and feedback in virtual worlds. Based on the results, how these challenges might be overcome are discussed.

De-Roling from Experiences and Identities in Virtual Worlds

Within dramatherapy and psychodrama, the term ‘de-roling’ indicates a set of activities that assist the subjects of therapy in ‘disrobing’ themselves from their fictional characters. Starting from the psychological needs and the therapeutic goals that ‘de-roling’ techniques address in dramatherapy and psychodrama, this text provides a broader understanding of procedures and exercises that define and ease transitional experiences across cultural practices such as religious rituals and spatial design. After this introductory section, we propose a tentative answer as to why game studies and virtual world research largely ignored processes of ‘roling’ and ‘de-roling’ that separate the lived experience of role-play from our everyday sense of the self. The concluding sections argue that de-roling techniques are likely to become more relevant, both academically and in terms of their practical applications, with the growing diffusion of virtual technologies in social practices. The relationships we can establish with ourselves and with our surroundings in digital virtual worlds are, we argue, only partially comparable with similar occurrences in pre-digital practices of subjectification. We propose a perspective according to which the accessibility and immersive phenomenological richness of virtual reality technologies are likely to exacerbate the potentially dissociative effects of virtual reality applications. This text constitutes an initial step towards framing specific socio-technical concerns and starting a timely conversation that binds together dramatherapy, psychodrama, game studies, and the design of digital virtual worlds.

Virtual Reality Smoking Cessation–Designed for Teens, by Teens

Introduction: Today, about 90% of adult smokers started smoking before the age of 18. As the largest preventable cause of disease and death in the United States, tobacco use accounts for nearly 500,000 deaths and hundreds of billions of dollars to care for smoking-related illnesses every year. While most smoking cessation programs are geared toward adults, there is a void in attempts to curb teen smoking. Objective: With funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Virtual Reality Medical Center (VRMC) sought to create a more effective way to help teens quit smoking. Utilizing cue exposure therapy to eliminate the association of smoking with objects and activities, the program uses virtual environments containing smoking cues to elicit the addictive behaviors and teach the users how to recognize and resist these triggers. Method: In a novel approach, VRMC recruited students from a local high school to aid in the design and development of virtual worlds in order to create an entertaining and effective program for teens. Researchers and the participants of this TeenSmoking program created a variety of anti-smoking environments ranging from scenarios at home, to peer pressure situations at school, all intended to elicit and educate users on addictive smoking behaviors. Conclusion: With past clinical success, researchers at VRMC hope to continue to implement widely available teen smoking cessation programs with enhanced usability, graphics, and multiplayer functionality. Overall, researchers hope to advance more comprehensive use of virtual reality to curb teen smoking addictions.

Diseño y usabilidad de interfaces para entornos educativos de realidad aumentada

The aim of the paper is to determine the elements, components and key facts to design interactive interfaces for augmented reality environments, focusing on the design and development of virtual worlds for educational applications.The article focuses on the usability study of three augmented reality applications interfaces developed for non touchable natural environments. The aim is to determine the menu and interactive items the user accesses without difficulty and also their navigation patterns. The most viewed elements and the ones that can´t be seen by the user, generating problems of navigation and usability, are analyzed too. The research results indicate that applications developed for non-touch environments can be stressful for the user, especially because of the time they spend with their hands up. The space around the student is also important for the learning process, and all the applications must be designed with some educational, rather than leisure tasks, or a fully open navigation.

People with Disabilities Leading the Design of Serious Games and Virtual Worlds.

Games and virtual worlds have many potential benefits for people with intellectual disabilities (ID) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), in terms of training, education, and rehabilitation. However, because this population presents a wide range of specific needs and abilities, it can be difficult to design games which are engaging and present optimum levels of challenge to players. By including individuals with ID and ASD in the design phase we can help meet their specific needs and preferences by personalizing an intervention through the exploration of experimental techniques, methods and assistive technologies. By embracing the Responsible Research and Innovation approach, we bring science and society closer together to shape the world for future generations. A number of approaches for achieving such inclusion have been described, such as User Sensitive Inclusive Design, Universal Design, and Design for All. Here we discuss three specific examples of the design of games and virtual worlds for people with ID/ASD and illustrate how they attempt to meet their needs. Namely 1) a blended approach of computerised program and applied behaviour analysis for reading skills 2) immersive gameplay for employment and transferable skills training and 3) virtual reality training to enhance communication skills.

Human Computer Interaction Based on an Integrated Design of Real and Virtual World

This research has focused on the idea of Groupware Matrix and Roomware and placed them in the field of integrated design of real, physical, architectural spaces and virtual, digital information spaces. Roomware main idea is the computer-augmented components in rooms, e.g. furniture. The general approach is to gather information via examples from i-LAND project where developing various Roomware devices to introduce the meaning and the use of interactive information and cooperation design. It describe i-LAND that consists of DynaWall, Interact able, and ComChair. i-LAND requires and provides other components of human-computer interaction and new forms of computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW). This helps the designer to gather information from architectural spaces and implement a new work practices and design. i-LAND also consists of various “Roomware” components, i.e. computer-augmented objects integrating room elements with information technology. It present the current realization of i-LAND as an interactive electronic wall, an interactive table, and two computer-enhanced chairs.

Designing and Developing Game-Like Learning Experience in Virtual Worlds: Challenges and Design Decisions of Novice Instructional Designers

Many virtual worlds have been adopted for implementation within educational settings because they are potentially useful for building effective learning environments. Since the flexibility of virtual worlds challenges to obtain effective and efficient educational outcomes, the design of such platforms need more attention. In the present study, the aim was to investigate design issues and the concerns of novice instructional designers who were developing a virtual learning environment with a gaming approach. Active Worlds (AW), an immersive virtual environment, was selected as a platform to develop virtual world projects that presented instructional materials. Twenty-three novice instructional designers participated in this study. Data were collected through observations, interviews, document analysis, and a questionnaire. The results indicate that the novice instructional designers were most challenged when attempting to incorporate motivational and assessment features in their project designs. They ignored collaboration opportunities of the design platform. They also accepted that they could not achieve to provide a feel of real game. The results suggested that design and development in virtual worlds has many challenges but a broad experience for novice instructional designers.

Who turned the clock? Effects of Manipulated Zeitgebers, Cognitive Load and Immersion on Time Estimation.

Current virtual reality (VR) technologies have enormous potential to allow humans to experience computer-generated immersive virtual environments (IVEs). Many of these IVEs support near-natural audiovisual stimuli similar to the stimuli generated in our physical world. However, decades of VR research have been devoted to exploring and understand differences between perception and action in such IVEs compared to real-world perception and action. Although, significant differences have been revealed for spatiotemporal perception between IVEs and the physical world such as distance underestimation, there is still a scarcity of knowledge about the reasons for such perceptual discrepancies, in particular regarding the perception of temporal durations in IVEs. In this article, we explore the effects of manipulated zeitgebers, cognitive load and immersion on time estimation as yet unexplored factors of spatiotemporal perception in IVEs. We present an experiment in which we analyze human sensitivity to temporal durations while experiencing an immersive head-mounted display (HMO) environment. We found that manipulations of external zeitgebers caused by a natural or unnatural movement of the virtual sun had a significant effect on time judgments. Moreover, using the dual-task paradigm the results show that increased spatial and verbal cognitive load resulted in a significant shortening of judged time as well as an interaction with the external zeitgebers. Finally, we discuss the implications for the design of near-natural computer-generated virtual worlds.

WorldBrush

We present a novel approach for the interactive synthesis and editing of virtual worlds. Our method is inspired by painting operations and uses methods for statistical example-based synthesis to automate content synthesis and deformation. Our real-time approach takes a form of local inverse procedural modeling based on intermediate statistical models: selected regions of procedurally and manually constructed example scenes are analyzed, and their parameters are stored as distributions in a palette, similar to colors on a painter's palette. These distributions can then be interactively applied with brushes and combined in various ways, like in painting systems. Selected regions can also be moved or stretched while maintaining the consistency of their content. Our method captures both distributions of elements and structured objects, and models their interactions. Results range from the interactive editing of 2D artwork maps to the design of 3D virtual worlds, where constraints set by the terrain's slope are also taken into account.

Possible Futures

Our journal, JVWR, is celebrating this year its 8th year anniversary. This issue (our customary beginning of the year assembled issue) includes again the top of the crop of papers in our field. We would like to thank our Issue Editors Dr. Stephanie Blackmon from the University of Oklahoma (OK, USA), and Dr. Patricia Anderson from Carolina University (NC, USA) who took upon themselves to bring to our readers this Assembled 2015 issue.Much has changed since 2008 when the JVWR was founded by Jeremiah Spence. The virtual is becoming the real and the real is becoming the virtual. It seems that the term “virtual worlds” as a key term for an academic domain, does not make sense anymore.We look forward to jointly define the future (our next seven years) of this publication, and in doing so -- assist in the design of both real and virtual worlds.

Functionalization and the Real Virtual

In this article the authors are going to explore a tendency in virtual world design towards the creation of non-functionalized virtual worlds, i.e. worlds which only exist to exist without resembling any function in their design. They are going to show how this tendency is grounded in the ongoing process of formatization in the real world by introducing a 4-step model of de-functionalization and show which chances exist for these non-functional virtual worlds to affect the real world through the mental world conception of the user.

Virtual environment design and storytelling in video games

Video games have been the focus of discussion by researchers of gaming and narratology regarding their narrative capabilities for quite some time. While some researchers argue that interactive media such as video games can not contain narratives due to their inherent nature, others suggest that when analyzing video games as a narrative medium a different approach may also be considered. Given that the sequence of events that are presented to the user are not as ordered as they are in traditional narratives, it can be surmisedthat the traditional definition of narrative (a sequence of events) would not apply in the case of video games. However this should not mean that the medium can not contain narrative qualities, it only raises the need to a new approach for the consideration of narratives in video games. In this thesis I suggest that instead of using the traditional narrative arc as a basis for evaluation for narratives in video games, one may also consider the indigenous qualities of the medium itself in terms of its narrative capabilities. Focusing on environment design in virtual worlds by examining how they are designed, authored and presented to the user; and how they are tied to the narrative design of a game, I aim to point out the ways in which game mise-en-scenes are used as storytellers in their own rights.

Motivation and beliefs about the nature of scientific knowledge within an immersive virtual ecosystems environment

We explored Grade 6 students’ (n=202) self-efficacy, epistemic beliefs, and science interest over a 10-day virtual ecology curriculum. Pre- and post-surveys were administered, and analyses revealed that (1) students became more self-efficacious about inquiring scientifically after participating in the activity; (2) students on average evinced a shift toward more constructivist views about the role of authority in justifying scientific claims; (3) students who identified more strongly with being a science person evinced greater gains in self-efficacy, developed a less constructivist view about the role of authority in justifying claims, and became more interested in science overall; and (4) students who held an incremental theory of ability evinced greater gains in self-efficacy. We discuss the implications of these findings for science educators and instructional designers in the design and use of immersive virtual worlds for middle school science students.

The Aspatial Economics of Virtual Worlds

This article compares and contrasts the economic geography of the physical world with that of virtual worlds, with an analytical focus on the spatial (and aspatial) characteristics of Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo II (released in 2000) and its massively multiplayer online roleplaying game World of Warcraft (released in 2004). The purpose of this article is to show that although virtual worlds are not immune to aspatial economic laws, geographic constraints on economic interaction in virtual worlds are optional inclusions. Virtual world designers can manage the inclusion, disinclusion, and degree of emphasis on space and place in order to carefully craft a specific user experience. Hence, even though virtual worlds may provide the illusion of operating in a spatially bounded environment, the underlying mechanics of the world may not have spatial constraints.Nevertheless, the article concludes that there still remains a role for geographic analysis in virtual worlds, especially because, though space may be deemphasized, virtual world designers still may go to great effort to emphasize place to create the users’ experiences. Further, the study of the economics of virtual worlds may provide insight into possible future economic situations of the physical world as increasingly more physical goods become digital.

New Landscapes and New Eyes: The Role of Virtual World Design for Supply Chain Education

With the common availability of advanced educational technology, we are able to increase the emphasis on the design of learning experiences and benefit from the given flexibility and variety of opportunities to create learning spaces. As instructional design models become more commonplace we examine their role vis-a-vis with the fidelity of the experience while learning. High- fidelity experiences are known to be valuable in learning as they provide authenticity in learning and motivation; yet, high fidelity comes at the cost of greater investment. In this paper we outline our experiments with two setups of differing levels of fidelity: using Second Life and the consumer-focused Oculus Rift Head-Mounted Display (HMD). We show qualitatively interpreted comments and user responses to demonstrate importance of the level of fidelity, uncover important elements, and relate back the fidelity to the learning experience. High-fidelity experiences can be supported by software and hardware that are now readily available but present the seductive opportunity to greatly improve participant engagement in the virtual environments presented.