Virtual School Environment Research Articles

Simulating Social Emotion Regulation in Virtual Reality

Virtual reality (VR) is a valuable research tool offering advantages in terms of high experimenter control and standardization in the simulation of vivid personal and social experiences. It has been used for assessments and training in social cognition with the use of virtual agents instead of face-to-face interactions – but its potential for the study of social emotion regulation has, perhaps surprisingly, largely remained untapped. The present study evaluates a novel immersive VR scenario designed to study the efficacy of social support by a virtual agent using a modified version of Cyberball, an established paradigm to induce the feeling of ostracism. Participants embodied a new pupil in a virtual school environment and played Cyberball, after which they either did or did not receive emotional support. Self-reports and psychophysiological markers demonstrated that the negative impact of social exclusion in Cyberball was successfully replicated, while participants also reported a significant improvement in emotional state after being supported by the virtual agent. These results indicate the potential of the developed scenario for research on social emotion regulation in immersive VR. Future studies could aim to test the efficacy of social support for people with difficulties in self-regulation, for example individuals with high social anxiety, with a view to developing training programs in VR.

Socially Supported by an Embodied Agent: The Development of a Virtual-Reality Paradigm to Study Social Emotion Regulation

Social emotion regulation, which can be understood as the intentional efforts by one person to regulate emotions of another person, is something we encounter and benefit from every day, and becomes especially important when a person is unable to handle an emotion or an emotional event by themselves. A paradigm that examines whether someone can perceive and benefit from regulatory efforts by another person, represented here by a virtual agent, would be highly relevant for experimental studies investigating social emotion regulation, as well as for interventions in the clinical and sub-clinical context. Virtual reality (VR) provides perhaps the ideal opportunity to test social interactions and difficulties with them, as it counters typical methodological problems of behavioral experiments, such as the trade-off between ecological validity and experimental control, as well as the difficulty of replicating social situations. The goal of the present methods paper is twofold: to provide a detailed description of the development of a novel paradigm consisting of two scenarios in VR designed to test the efficacy of social emotion regulation, and to present the anticipated results for the target populations of typically developing and autistic youth. Participants are presented with a virtual school environment and take part in two activities with a class of students and a teacher, all of whom are virtual agents. In both scenarios, participants experience a potentially stressful situation and are subsequently offered emotional support by a friendly student. Throughout the experiment, self-reports in the form of virtual smiley scales and psychophysiological measurements are collected as markers of the participants’ emotional states. Pilot results will be discussed in line with anticipated outcomes, to indicate that the experiment will be able to show the efficacy of social support by a virtual agent and provide insight into social emotion regulation for different populations. The school environment and the character of the friendly student also have the potential to be adapted for follow-up experiments on additional aspects of social emotion regulation for a variety of contexts.

Aplikasi Virtual Tour Sekolah Menengah Pertama (SMP) Negeri 3 Kota Pagar Alam Berbasis Android

Technological developments are increasingly rapid, giving rise to many new innovations from technology such as virtual tours. Virtual tour is one of the information media that displays 360? panoramic images in visual form. However, the use of virtual tour applications as a promotional medium and introduction to the school environment is still very little. In this study, the author makes a virtual tour application to help parties from SMP Negeri 3 Kota Pagar Alam in promoting and introducing the virtual school environment. The application development method used in this study is the Multimedia Development Life Cycle (MDLC) which consists of six stages of multimedia development, namely Concept, Design, Material Collecting, Assembly, Tasting, and Destribution. The tools used in this research are Unity 3D, Google Street View Application. The tools used in the development are Use Case Diagrams, and Activity Diagrams. With the formation of this virtual tour application, it can make it easier for all students, teachers and the wider community to see the environment of SMP Negeri 3 Pagar Alam City virtually.

Feasibility Study to Identify Machine Learning Predictors for a Virtual School Environment: Virtual Reality Stroop Task

An adaptive virtual school environment can offer cognitive assessments (e.g., Virtual Classroom Stroop Task) with user-specific distraction levels that mimic the conditions found in a student’s actual classroom. Former iterations of the virtual reality classroom Stroop tasks did not adapt to user performance in the face of distractors. While advances in virtual reality-based assessments provide potential for increasing assessment of cognitive processes, less has been done to develop these simulations into personalized virtual environments for improved assessment. An adaptive virtual school environment offers the potential for dynamically adapting the difficulty level (e.g., level and amount of distractors) specific to the user’s performance. This study aimed to identify machine learning predictors that could be utilized for cognitive performance classifiers, from participants (N = 60) using three classification techniques: Support Vector Machines (SVM), Naive Bayes (NB), and k-Nearest Neighbors (kNN). Participants were categorized into either high performing or low performing categories based upon their average calculated throughput performance on tasks assessing their attentional processes during a distraction condition. The predictors for the classifiers used the average cognitive response time and average motor response dwell time (amount of time response button was pressed) for each section of the virtual reality-based Stroop task totaling 24 predictors. Using 10-fold cross validation during the training of the classifiers, revealed that the SVM (86.7%) classifier was the most robust classifier followed by Naïve Bayes (81.7%) and KNN (76.7%) for identifying cognitive performance. Results from the classifiers suggests that we can use average response time and dwell time as predictors to adapt the social cues and distractors in the environment to the appropriate difficulty level for the user.

Cultivating Student Belonging and School Connectedness.

The effect on students from the COVID-19 pandemic, violence related to racism, and loss of customary school routines may cause loss of both school connection and a sense of belonging. School nurses can positively influence student belonging and school connection as they encounter students throughout in-person school and virtual school environments. School nurses build connections with students whom they know and outreach to students whom they identify as vulnerable in the areas of belonging and school connectedness. With a mind-set of the Framework for 21st Century School Nursing Practice and in collaboration with a school team implementing a multitiered system of support, school nurses intentionally outreach and cultural sensitivity to grow positive school climate that benefits students.

Communication in Online Learning – How Important is It?

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe teacher experiences of teacher-to-student technology-mediated communication (TMC) in secondary virtual school (VS) environments in Alabama. The central research question for this study was: How do virtual school teachers in Alabama describe their experiences of teacher-to-student technology-mediated communication in secondary virtual school environments? Students educated in virtual environments use TMC, so teachers must know what kinds of TMC work best. The problem is that the teacher voice has been ignored in identifying teacher-to-student TMC that is effective in secondary VS environments. Using purposeful sampling of 12 VS teachers in Alabama, this research utilized semi-structured interviews, artifacts, and an asynchronous online focus group to uncover teacher experiences of teacher-to-student interactions in VS environments. In seeking meaning from their experiences, the predominant theme of whatever is best for the students became evident. Four themes developed pertaining to the participants’ experiences: Teacher mindset, teacher presence, integration of technology into instruction, and technology issues.

Assessing the emotional impact of virtual reality-based teacher training

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose the use of a virtual reality (VR)-based approach to improve teacher education and life-long professional development. Through constant training in real-life based situations but within a safe three-dimensional virtual school environment, teachers are given the opportunity to experience and learn how to react to different types of incidents that may take place in a school environment.Design/methodology/approachThe current paper presents the design cycle that was followed for the implementation of the VR teacher training system. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated with a case study that aimed to promote teachers’ understanding of student’s problematic situations related to substance use. As part of the experimental investigation, the impact of the VR system on participants’ emotions and mood states is evaluated through Electroencephalogram (EEG) measurements, heart rate (HR) recordings and self-reported data.FindingsResults indicate significant changes to participant’s negative emotional and mood states, suggesting that the scenario and the VR experience had a strong impact on them. Moreover, participants’ HR was increased during the experiment, while the analysis of the EEG signal indicated that the participants experienced a stressful situation that could justify the change in their negative emotions and mood states.Originality/valueThe proposed VR-based approach aims to provide an innovative framework to teacher education and the related training methodology. In the long-term, the proposed VR system aims to form a new paradigm of teacher training, an alternative safe method that will allow user-teachers to learn through trial and error techniques that reflect real-life situations within a three-dimensional school space and without the risk of harming real students. To the best of our knowledge this is one of the first systematic attempts to use a VR-based methodology to address real teachers’ needs. The development of the VR application is linked to both strong theoretical foundations in education derived from the literature but also from real teachers’ problems and requirements derived from an extensive literature analysis, survey and interviews with experts including teachers, school counselors and psychologists. The VR tool addresses specific teachers’ competences as outcome, after an extensive documentation of existing Teachers’ Competence Models and significant guidance by experts who pointed specific competencies of primary importance to teachers.

PERSONALIZED VIRTUAL SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT USING CLASSIFIER ALGORITHM AND SEMANTIC ADVISOR-ASSISTING FRAMEWORK

As we knew that every individual is different than each other and their brain levels are also different, some students are very bright and some arenot, so there is a need to develop such system which will teach them as per their thought process and learning habits. This research aims to developa personalized virtual school environment for students which help them to learn the things same as they learn in school physically, but the thinghere is each student will be treated differently as per his/her ability. Hence, this system would be a virtual school for any student, which resemblesthe CBSE school system in India. In this virtual school, all things are present such as teachers, homework, games, and exams which present in actualschool except one which is the physical classroom because in virtual environment the course and things are personalized for each student as perhis/her thoughts and brain level, so here the student can seat in his/her home and can learn at any time with help of computer. The system is a webbasedenvironment and machine learning would be used for doing personalization on family and knowledge context of student. This web system contains four components: (1) Classification based on family context, (2) classification based on knowledge context, (3) learning material selection algorithm, (4) web-based learning system on top of above three, are discussed in this paper.

Any Time, Any Place, Any Pace-Really? Examining Mobile Learning In A Virtual School Environment

Over the past decade, the number of K-12 students engaged in online learning has increased from between 40,000 and 50,000 to more than two million. Students have also gained increased access to mobile devices throughout recent years, and educators have actively looked for ways to capitalize on this trend. A case study of students enrolled in an Advanced Placement European History course, offered by a statewide, supplemental virtual school in the Midwest. The students were studied over the course of four weeks, using Mobl21, an app that works on mobile devices, and offers an emulated version that runs on a computer. The results showed that despite the fact that existing literature indicated students’ perceptions were positive toward mobile technologies; these students’ perceptions were negative. The isolated implementation of the project may have affected these perceptions. However, students’ access to mobile devices limited the project implementation.

The Feasibility and Acceptability of Virtual Environments in the Treatment of Childhood Social Anxiety Disorder

Two significant challenges for the dissemination of social skills training programs are the need to assure generalizability and provide sufficient practice opportunities. In the case of social anxiety disorder, virtual environments may provide one strategy to address these issues. This study evaluated the utility of an interactive virtual school environment for the treatment of social anxiety disorder in preadolescent children. Eleven children with a primary diagnosis of social anxiety disorder between 8 to 12 years old participated in this initial feasibility trial. All children were treated with Social Effectiveness Therapy for Children, an empirically supported treatment for children with social anxiety disorder. However, the in vivo peer generalization sessions and standard parent-assisted homework assignments were substituted by practice in a virtual environment. Overall, the virtual environment programs were acceptable, feasible, and credible treatment components. Both children and clinicians were satisfied with using the virtual environment technology, and children believed it was a high-quality program overall. In addition, parents were satisfied with the virtual environment augmented treatment and indicated that they would recommend the program to family and friends. Findings indicate that the virtual environments are viewed as acceptable and credible by potential recipients. Furthermore, they are easy to implement by even novice users and appear to be useful adjunctive elements for the treatment of childhood social anxiety disorder.

What are secondary students’ expectations for teachers in virtual school environments?

A recent evaluation of the new North Carolina Virtual Public School (NCVPS) in the USA revealed numerous expectations for virtual school teachers from secondary students. Specifically, students expected their teachers to actually teach rather than moderate a course shell, supplement course shells with content and projects that illustrate relevance, provide for both content and peer interaction, and respond to questions and provide feedback quickly. The data suggest a possible content‐related interaction where a limited course shell can be bolstered by a proactive teacher, but potentially flounder among teachers who do not expect or know how to supplement an online course. Data further suggest a potential communication‐related interaction where increased opportunities for student–student and student–teacher interaction could potentially decrease the actual or perceived need for individualized attention that is particularly challenging for virtual teachers to provide. These results can be used to establish teacher expectations and design professional development experiences that prepare teachers to undertake divergent roles unique to online instruction.

The reality of virtual schools: A review of the literature

Virtual schooling was first employed in the mid-1990s and has become a common method of distance education used in K-12 jurisdictions. The most accepted definition of a virtual school is an entity approved by a state or governing body that offers courses through distance delivery – most commonly using the Internet. While virtual schools can be classified in different ways, the three common methods of delivery are by independent, asynchronous or synchronous means. Presently, the vast majority of virtual school students tended to be a select group of academically capable, motivated, independent learners. The benefits associated with virtual schooling are expanding educational access, providing high-quality learning opportunities, improving student outcomes and skills, allowing for educational choice, and achieving administrative efficiency. However, the research to support these conjectures is limited at best. The challenges associated with virtual schooling include the conclusion that the only students typically successful in online learning environments are those who have independent orientations towards learning, highly motivated by intrinsic sources, and have strong time management, literacy, and technology skills. These characteristics are typically associated with adult learners. This stems from the fact that research into and practice of distance education has typically been targeted to adult learners. The problem with this focus is that adults learn differently than younger learners. Researchers are calling for more research into the factors that account for K-12 student success in distance education and virtual school environments and more design research approaches than traditional comparisons of student achievement in traditional and virtual schools.

Toward Practical Procedures for Predicting and Promoting Success in Virtual School Students

Two lines of research have emerged to study the causes and prevention of student failure in virtual (K–12) schools: studies of learner characteristics and studies of learning environment characteristics. To develop a useful model for predicting failure and promoting success in virtual school environments, a study was designed to measure the relation between a combination of student and environmental factors derived from previous research and successful course completion during one semester at a large (N = 4,100) virtual school. Study findings yielded a model that can discriminate between successful and unsuccessful online school students and is especially effective at identifying those likely to succeed.

Cyber Dilemmas: Balancing Free Expression and Learning in the Virtual School Environment

Cyber Dilemmas: Balancing Free Expression and Learning in the Virtual School Environment