Three-dimensional Virtual Worlds Research Articles

Exploring factors affecting communication in three-dimensional virtual worlds for second language learning: development and validation of a scale

PurposeThe use of three-dimensional virtual worlds (3DVWs) is increasingly becoming a common practice in language education to provide digital learning environments for second-language (L2) communicative classes. This study aimed to identify the key factors underlying communication in 3DVWs that can improve the communication skills of L2 learners.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve this, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were conducted to validate the identified factors affecting communication in 3DVWs. A self-reported questionnaire with 47 items on a five-point Likert scale was administered to 513 pre-service teachers, teachers and lecturers in the field of language education.FindingsThe results of the EFA revealed four factors that contribute to communication in 3DVWs, namely learner motivation, interaction pattern, language development and learner autonomy. CFA results provided support for the updated model, with statistically significant Chi-square results (χ² (df = 83) = 181.049, p < 0.001) indicating a good fit between the model and the data.Originality/valueThe findings suggest that the four EFA-derived parameters are valid and can assist instructional designers and L2 instructors in creating 3DVWs that enhance L2 learners' communication abilities. This study provides valuable insights for educators, instructional designers and researchers in the field of language education and technology-enhanced learning.

Factors affecting attitude to use metaverse technology application

The concept of the “Metaverse” is a three-dimensional virtual world that relies on simulations of reality to represent real-life experiences, and it can be classified as the next generation in using the Internet. In this research, we will examine the factors that may influence user acceptance of metaverse and the relationships between these variables highlight how different factors can be examined. The goal of understanding these factors is to determine how Metaverse developers can improve this technology to meet user expectations and enable users to better interact with this technology. To achieve this goal, a sample of 312 students’ participants from different age groups was selected to respond to an online Likert scale questionnaire ranging from) strongly disagree equal) to (strongly agree equal 5). The study found that perceived enjoyment significantly positively influences technology metaverse application. Moreover, perceived curiosity and perceived self-efficacy positively influence technology application metaverse transitions. In addition, perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) positively influence the attitude toward using the Metaverse technology/application, which means that all the previous factors have an overall positive effect on the attitude toward using the Metaverse technology application.

Multi-Antenna Coded Caching for Location-Dependent Content Delivery

Human-computer interaction continuously evolves towards a genuinely immersive experience, submerging users in a three-dimensional (3D) virtual world. A realistic, immersive experience necessitates a highly reliable and agile wireless connection to support immense data transmission. Yet, there are abundant but underutilized memory resources available at the devices which can be harnessed as supplementary assets to reduce the excessive burden on the wireless medium. What is more, the use of Coded Caching (CC) techniques enables the cumulative cache memory of users in the network to be used as an additional communication resource. To this end, a location-dependent multi-antenna CC-based content delivery scheme tailored specifically for wireless extended reality applications is proposed in this paper. First, a novel memory allocation process is developed, enabling an appropriate trade-off between local and global caching gains. In this regard, the local caching gain is maximized when the memory is mostly dedicated to locations with poor connectivity conditions (absolute fairness). In contrast, the global caching gain is maximized when the memory is uniformly allocated among all the locations. As a result of the memory allocation process, unequal fractions of location-dependent multimedia content are cached by each user. Given the asymmetric cache placement, a novel algorithm is proposed to create suitable codewords for each user during the subsequent delivery phase, which simultaneously achieves a global and local caching gain. The proposed delivery scheme also combines global caching and spatial multiplexing gains using a weighted max-min multicast beamformer design with multi-rate modulation. Numerical experiments and mathematical analysis demonstrate significant performance gains, in terms of the 95-percentile expected delivery time, compared to unicast and multicast scenarios where either the local or global caching gain is maximized.

Surreal Virtual Spaces Created in Cinema with Metaverse. Avatar: The Way of Water

The metaverse was first expressed in Neal Stephenson’s science fantasy novel “Snowcrash” as the idea of a three-dimensional virtual world, in which both visual and social content are designed by the inhabitants themselves. Metaverse, which means the other universe, is presented as a three-dimensional graphic virtual world in the computer environment in Stephenson’s novel. Cinema has started to use this technology in the design of spaces by quickly integrating with the metaverse technology. In this context, the surreal understanding of art, which manifests itself in the art of painting, has also taken its place in the space designs in the cinema with the technological developments in the film industry. In this study, the definition of intersemiotics is used to express the transactions such as space and theme between paintings and films in the art universe. The concept of intertextuality, which indicates the exchange between at least two literary texts, expresses the transactions of an art discipline with other art disciplines in the recent period, with the adaptation of the concept of intertextuality to other art branches. When the concept is adapted to cinema, the comparative processes of cinema with other art disciplines are evaluated in the context of intersemiotics. In this context, the re-creation of the fictional space of the thought created by virtual reality together with the surreal movement in the cinema is evaluated through the film “Avatar: The Way of Water”.

Enhancing L2 speaking proficiency through collaborative tasks in RILCA world: the case of East Asian learners

The use of three-dimensional virtual worlds (3DVWs) in language education has been widely acknowledged in the field, and researchers have expressed a growing interest in their proliferation in second language (L2) learning and instruction. In order to improve the Thai-speaking abilities of learners of Thai as a foreign language (TFL) in three Asian nations, this study implemented collaborative tasks in the Redesign of Instruction for foreign Language and Communication Achievement (RILCA) World hosted by Second Life over a 10-weeks period. The participants were forty second-year undergraduate students enrolled in Thai courses in China, Japan, and Hong Kong. A pre-experimental design was employed, which involved administering a pretest measure, followed by ten identical collaborative tasks, and a posttest to each of the three classes in RILCA World. The results of the investigation demonstrate that the use of collaborative tasks in RILCA World can provide L2 learners with educational opportunities that are unrestricted by time and geography and enhance TFL speaking results. The implications of these findings for the applicability of 3DVWs and collaborative tasks in boosting foreign language speaking skills are highlighted. The collaborative tasks and insights presented in this study not only serve as a practical resource for TFL educational scenarios, but also contribute to the body of knowledge regarding a range of L2 learning and teaching in 3DVWs.

Integrating Digital Twin and Advanced Intelligent Technologies to Realize the Metaverse

The advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have led to technological advancements in a plethora of domains. Healthcare, education, and smart city services are now enriched with AI capabilities. These technological advancements would not have been realized without the assistance of fast, secure, and fault-tolerant communication media. Traditional processing, communication and storage technologies cannot maintain high levels of scalability and user experience for immersive services. The metaverse is an immersive three-dimensional (3D) virtual world that integrates fantasy and reality into a virtual environment using advanced virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) devices. Such an environment is still being developed and requires extensive research in order for it to be realized to its highest attainable levels. In this article, we discuss some of the key issues required in order to attain realization of metaverse services. We propose a framework that integrates digital twin (DT) with other advanced technologies such as the sixth generation (6G) communication network, blockchain, and AI, to maintain continuous end-to-end metaverse services. This article also outlines requirements for an integrated, DT-enabled metaverse framework and provides a look ahead into the evolving topic.

Interactive Pedagogical Approach to Teaching in Nigerian Universities: Using Metaverse as Enabling Technology

This paper explored metaverse literature and scholarly works to dissect the concept and potential s of metaverse, being a combination of three-dimensional virtual and real world inhabited by blockchain, artificial intelligence, digital twins, and other cutting -edge intelligent technologies. The study revealed that Metaverse offers a fully immersive educational experience like real-world classroom layouts in 3D form or constructed as partially or fully virtual scenes according to the learning content and the resources can be visualized, especially for the invisible or abstract concepts, items, or events in the physical world. The study further revealed the various challenges confronting the utilization of metaverse technologies in Nigerian Universities which range from inadequate infrastructural facilities, poor research activities, lack of stable electricity, lack of bandwidth and connectivity, inadequate ICT facilities and lack of technically experienced lecturers . The researchers recommended that government should allocate 26 percent of her total budget as recommended by UNESCO to educational sector to enhance the provision of necessary infrastructural facilities needed for the utilization of metaverse technologies in Nigerian Universities. The researchers further recommended that Federal, State government and Universities should undertake in-service training of lecturers through workshops, conferences, seminars and symposia on usage of metaverse, connect the Universities to stable electric grid , employ only competent and qualified lecturers as well as motivate them in terms of salary and other allowances so as to enable them discharged their duties effectively.

Slicing4Meta: An Intelligent Integration Architecture with Multi-Dimensional Network Resources for Metaverse-as-a-Service in Web 3.0

As the next-generation Internet paradigm, Web 3.0 encapsulates the expectations of immersive and interactive experiences in a decentralized manner. Metaverse, a virtual world interacting with the physical world, is becoming one of the most potential applications to push forward with Web 3.0. In the Metaverse, users expect to tailor immersive and interactive experiences by customizing real-time Metaverse services (e.g., augmented/virtual reality and digital twin) in the threedimensional virtual world. Nevertheless, there are still no unified solutions for the Metaverse services in terms of orchestration and management. Therefore, continuous and seamless upgrading of network systems is essential yet challenging to support Metaverse services. In this paper, to provide scalable solutions for tailoring Metaverse services, we propose a new concept, named Metaverseas- a-Service (MaaS), where users only need to purchase the MaaS models that are needed (e.g., computing, communications, and data resources) to achieve their required Metaverse services. Furthermore, to unify the orchestration and management of MaaS models, we propose a novel architecture, called Slicing4Meta, to customize Metaverse services by integrating MaaS models and the associated multi-dimensional resources. Additionally, we propose the classification for typical Metaverse services based on the quality of experience (QoE) requirements and illustrate how to fulfill the QoE requirements under the Slicing4Meta architecture. We then illustrate a virtual travel study case, in which we examine the relationship between the QoE and the multi-dimensional resources by quantitatively modeling the QoE of Metaverse users. Finally, we discuss some open challenges of Slicing4Meta and propose potential solutions to address the challenges.

Metaverse dalam Pembuatan dan Penggunaannya: Kegiatan Metaverse di Bidang Bisnis Online dan Pengaturannya di Indonesia

Metaverse is a platform in a three-dimensional virtual world, where users can explore the 3-dimensional world with other Internet users using avatars by interacting like in the real world. Users can also have the same opportunity to change their economic situation in the virtual world. The metaverse becomes a means to do many things, such as social activities by creating communities in the metaverse, meetings, teaching and learning activities, and economic activities. The researcher will discuss about analyzing the impact of the metaverse on the development of the digital economy in Indonesia and what regulations are appropriate for the activities in the metaverse world. The research method used in this research is the Normative Juridical Method and Qualitative Method in which researchers will quote secondary data such as laws and regulations, scientific journals, and law books.

How users cognitively appraise and emotionally experience the metaverse: focusing on social virtual reality

PurposeDespite the increasing interest in the metaverse—immersive three-dimensional virtual worlds wherein personalized avatars interact with one another—little is known about how users cognitively appraise and emotionally experience it. To fill this gap, the present study explores the emotional, behavioral and social consequences of users' cognitive appraisals, while focusing on social virtual reality (VR) as a representative entry point to the metaverse.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on cognitive appraisal theory against the backdrop of a framework for classifying emotions, this study develops and tests a theoretical model to account for users' continuance intention and its consequences in the social VR context based on two-wave panel survey data collected from 216 users of social VR platforms, including AltspaceVR, VRChat, Bigscreen and Rec Room.FindingsThe results of the first survey showed that perceived opportunity was more strongly influenced by technological opportunity than social opportunity, whereas perceived threat was more strongly affected by social threat than technological threat. Integrating the data collected from the first survey with those of the second survey, we also found that users' continuance intention positively influenced both their behavioral engagement and social self-efficacy.Originality/valueBy adopting a longitudinal approach, this study provides insights that may be valuable to researchers and practitioners who seek to use social VR for business purposes. This study also contributes to the metaverse literature by conceptualizing and operationalizing the opportunity and threat factors of social VR and identifying salient emotions that users experience in this context. Finally, this study has practical implications for addressing the social and technological features that may cause adverse user experiences in social VR.

Effects of Simulation Games on students’ Computational Thinking and Game Experience for Programming Courses in Primary School

There is substantial evidence that incorporating interactive environments for game-based instruction has a significant potential to support the development of computational thinking and programming skills in primary education students. However, it is not clear whether a simulation game (SG) with different user interface elements, created via three-dimensional (3D) virtual worlds and visual programming environments to project various problem-solving exercises in a simulated reality, can significantly influence students to think and practice "computationally" their solution plans into code. The current study aims to identify any possible added value of each instructional approach by measuring students’ game experience and learning performance. This quasi-experimental study involved ninety participants (n = 90) aged between 10 and 11 years that consisted of two comparison conditions. The experimental group (n = 45) received training using OpenSimulator in combination with Scratch4SL, whereas the control group (n = 45) was trained using Scratch. The findings indicate considerable differences in students’ game experience and satisfaction, but no statistically significant difference in their learning performance and knowledge gain was identified. This study provides several design implications for user interface and game elements to inform educational practitioners and instructors about the benefits that each approach can offer students for better knowledge acquisition and deeper disciplinary understanding.

Simulasi Metaverse Konser Musik Virtual Berbasis Roblox

Metaverse as a form of technological advancement has become a hot topic of discussion at worldwide. Metaverse is a technology that can create a three-dimensional virtual world by utilizing modern technology, where users can interact as if they are in a real-world through three-dimensional avatars. In Metaverse, users can do many things as usual, such as gathering with friends, working, learning, playing, shopping, experimenting, creating, and so on. Almost all physical activities and social interactions can be done in Metaverse. However, research on Metaverse is currently limited to knowledge and theory, and there is not much research discussing the detailed and actual form of Metaverse itself. Therefore, as a first step in building Metaverse, this research will focus on creating a virtual music concert as a simulation of the Metaverse world using the Roblox platform with the aim of creating a Metaverse simulation with a virtual music concert theme, providing references related to the appearance, environment, and atmosphere that can be used in Metaverse, as well as introducing features and user flow when watching a virtual music concert.

Blockchain for the metaverse: A Review

Since Facebook officially changed its name to Meta in Oct. 2021, the metaverse has become a new norm of social networks and three-dimensional (3D) virtual worlds. The metaverse aims to bring 3D immersive and personalized experiences to users by leveraging many pertinent technologies. Despite great attention and benefits, a natural question in the metaverse is how to secure its users’ digital content and data. In this regard, blockchain is a promising solution owing to its distinct features of decentralization, immutability, and transparency. To better understand the role of blockchain in the metaverse, we aim to provide an extensive survey on the applications of blockchain for the metaverse. We first present a preliminary to blockchain and the metaverse and highlight the motivations behind the use of blockchain for the metaverse. Next, we extensively discuss blockchain-based methods for the metaverse from technical perspectives, such as data acquisition, data storage, data sharing, data interoperability, and data privacy preservation. For each perspective, we first discuss the technical challenges of the metaverse and then highlight how blockchain can help. Moreover, we investigate the impact of blockchain on key-enabling technologies in the metaverse, including Internet-of-Things, digital twins, multi-sensory and immersive applications, artificial intelligence, and big data. We also present some major projects to showcase the role of blockchain in metaverse applications and services. Finally, we present some promising directions to drive further research innovations and developments toward the use of blockchain in the metaverse in the future.

Digital school or online game? Factors determining 3D virtual worlds in language classrooms for pre-service teachers

ABSTRACT A three-dimensional virtual world (henceforth, 3DVW) is a novel phenomenon with enormous potential as a virtual community for broadening meaningful life experiences. Previous 3DVW research, however, has not addressed the determinants that influence L2 students’ expectations. The primary goal of this study was to employ a combination of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to identify significant factors impacting 3DVW in the next-normal L2 classrooms. Drawing on the empirical research, a countrywide sample of 1174 student teachers completed a 50-item questionnaire to investigate the essential features of 3DVW in relation to language learning and instruction. Half of the respondents were subjected to exploratory factor analysis (EFA), while the other half were retained for CFA. The findings of EFA indicated that a five-factor model of the 3DVW best explains the data: (1) target language practice, (2) collaboration, (3) authentic environment, (4) engagement, and (5) self-control. CFA was a good fit, bolstering the five-factor solution. Overall, the reliability and validity offered by these factors were satisfactory. The inherent limitations and future research directions are highlighted.

Investigating the role of psychological needs in predicting the educational sustainability of Metaverse using a deep learning-based hybrid SEM-ANN technique

ABSTRACT Metaverse is an immersive three-dimensional (3D) virtual world inhabited by avatars beyond the physical realm. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the education system and the need to accelerate the digitalization of education has received a lot of attention. Metaverse can be an alternative solution for sociocultural interaction and to continue education. Accordingly, this study aimed to identify key factors in predicting the educational sustainability of Metaverse. The study empirically tested the role of psychological needs (i.e. hedonic motivation, affiliation, dominance, achievement, and autonomy) in predicting educational sustainability. The study employed a hybrid method integrating covariance-based structural-equation-modeling (CB-SEM) and deep artificial neural network (ANN) model. The CB-SEM results indicated that the need for autonomy and hedonic motivation significantly predicted the educational sustainability of Metaverse. Further, deep ANN models indicated that hedonic motivation was the most important input factor, followed by autonomy, affiliation, dominance, and achievement. Findings have practical implications for developers of the Metaverse environments and theoretical contributions for educators who manage and implement such environments.

Designing and deploying a virtual social sandbox for autistic children

Purpose This exploratory study was intended to investigate the design and feasibility of using a web virtual reality based social learning space for autistic children at home. Materials and methods The researchers of the current study developed and implemented an open-source, web virtual reality based learning program for children with autism. Endorsing mixed-method convergent parallel design, we collected both qualitative and quantitative data from four autistic children, including repeated measures of social skills performance, self- and parent-reported social and communication competence, observation notes, and individual interviews. Results The study found preliminary evidence for a positive impact of deploying a virtual reality-based social sandbox on the practice and development of complex social skills for autistic children. All participants showed significant reduced social communication impairments from the pre- to the post-intervention phases. Nevertheless, participants’ social skills performance in the virtual world was mediated by two social task design features—external goal structure and individualization. Conclusions Play- and design-oriented social tasks in the three-dimensional virtual world framed meaningful social experiences or the naturalistic intervention for social skills development.

Metaverse: Opportunities and Challenges for Marketers

Imagine if you are told that the life in which you are living, will going to be changed. How it will make you feel if you get to know that you can meet with your family members, friends, and go to work, not in real life, but rather in a three-dimensional virtual world? A world that is created artificially. Metaverse is a step ahead of imagination. Indeed, it is defined as an imaginary world where we can be a part of it, we can earn money from it, and ultimately, where, we can be a star by living our dream life.

Digital forest recreation in the metaverse: Opportunities and challenges

The metaverse could provide a new way of interacting with nature through immersive three-dimensional virtual worlds. This digital nature recreation has the potential to shape users' perceptions, knowledge, and behavior toward nature. Despite this potential, its user demand is currently unknown. This study analyzes the demand for digital forest recreation in the metaverse by conducting a discrete choice experiment with university students as potential metaverse users to fill this knowledge gap. The study results revealed that users preferred digital forest recreation to experience outdoor adventure and a nature-based digital twin in the metaverse, indicating that digital forest recreation has the potential to influence human-nature interactions. The students required responsible and immersive metaverse platforms for digital forest recreation that were not subject to invasions of user privacy (e.g., selling big data of users), biased algorithms (e.g., racism), algorithms selling virtual goods, cyberaggression (e.g., trolling), and less immersive virtual experiences. These findings highlight both opportunities and challenges for creating user-centered digital forest recreation in the metaverse. The research contributes to understanding potential interactions between technological, social, and ecological systems.

The Effects of Machinima on Communication Skills in Students with Developmental Dyslexia

Many research efforts in the international literature have been conducted to investigate various fundamental issues associated with communication skills cultivation of students with developmental dyslexia. However, little is known when it comes to the impact that ‘immersive technologies’, such as three-dimensional virtual worlds, without considering any exploration of their impact to assist boys and girls with developmental dyslexia cultivate communication skills. Motivated by this inadequacy in the literature, the purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of the machinima approach, created via OpenSimulator and Scratch4SL, for students with developmental dyslexia in vocabulary learning and practicing. This embedded mixed-methods research was conducted over a four-week timetable in-class course, with forty students (n = 40) aged 10–12 years old. All students were equally separated into two groups in line with their gender. Boys and girls were encouraged to unfold the communication skills developed (i.e., spelling, writing, reading) by creating their own stories, after viewing educational videos and machinima scenes, before and after the treatment. The results indicate that machinima positively affected students’ learning outcomes and achievements. Machinima can improve immediate knowledge gains in boys compared to girls to purposefully translate their cognitive thinking into storytelling, when problem-solving situations through simulated realism are considered. This study also offers insights for educational implications and design guidelines for machinima creation, providing empirical evidence on its effect on the participants’ linguistics understanding and communication skills for language learning in girls and boys with developmental dyslexia.

메타버스 금융서비스 도입이 기업가치에 미치는 영향

With the recent advances in immersive technologies, metaverse, a three-dimensional virtual world focused on social connection, has become one of the most burgeoning technological trends in the current digital economy. However, there is little empirical research measuring the economic value of metaverse applications. Employing the event study methodology, this study finds that the announcement of a metaverse-related business activity for financial services has positive effect on the market value of the firm, which is equivalent to market capitalization of $15 million dollars. Additional analysis shows that an announcement of the roll-out of a metaverse application has higher impact on firm value than an announcement of other types of metaverse-related business activities, including a new business partnership for metaverse business and participation in metaverse industry alliance. This study offers significant implications for the theory and practice concerning investment decisions on metaverse applications and strategic planning of metaverse-related business activities.