Designing Effective Learning for Virtual Worlds, Part 2 – Analysis and Design

Practical Applications of Research for September 23, 2009.

The second article in a series by Dr. Irene T. Boland, based on her dissertation research.

In Part 1 of this article series, we investigated the special planning that is required for virtual worlds learning, in addition to the usual criteria considered for an eLearning project. In this article, we discuss effective Analysis and Design – as it pertains to virtual worlds.

Analysis
The analysis phase of instructional design typically focuses on quantifying and describing the characteristics and motivations of learners along with specific objectives for the learning experience. Familiar learner analysis criteria include the educational background of the learner, and the intrinsic or extrinsic motivations each one has toward the learning. Additional learner analysis criteria that should be considered include learner experience and comfort level with technologies used in education or training. These technologies include computers, the Internet and 3D environments.

A gap analysis typically measures the distance between learners’ current content or procedural knowledge and the level of knowledge or skill the learners need to acquire. For learning in a MUVE, an additional gap needs to be measured and remediated—the ability to perform basic functions in the MUVE. Learners may need to be supported with step-by-step instructional movies that guide them through the processes of: creating a user account, customizing the avatar, avatar locomotion (walk, fly, run), touching and using objects in-world, and searching for and teleporting to a location.

Because of the sizable learning curve involved in becoming competent at basic functions in a MUVE, it is recommended that a learning experience in a MUVE take place over a longer period of time, such as weeks or months. This will enable learners to get past the initial learning curve and focus on learning the target content.

Design
A design phase may be focused on creating the learning site within the MUVE or on creating a learning experience within an existing learning site in the MUVE. Questions to consider in designing the learning experience include how to chunk and sequence the content and whether to expect learners to interact and learn synchronously or learn asynchronously.

Chunking and sequencing content. In my study, each accounting transaction was supported with an instructional movie that focused specifically on the general understanding of a single accounting transaction, and then demonstrated how to use a 3D model of the accounting equation to practice the transaction. Each movie taught one type of transaction. The longest movie had a running length of 90 seconds. Learners could pause, rewind, fast forward and reply the movies as needed. The sequence of the content was determined by the order in which the content was taught in class. Generally, it progressed from simpler to more complex transaction types. Where there were dependencies between transactions, they were taught in logical sequence to show the impact the earlier transaction had on the subsequent transaction. Learners then used a series of practice problems which they solved in-world using a 3D model of the accounting equation. This interactive model was created by Dr. Steven Hornik, an accounting and Second Life expert and a professor at the University of Central Florida.

Synchronous or asynchronous learning. MUVEs can be used for either synchronous or asynchronous learning experiences. When designing instruction for small synchronous groups, participants can be trained into specific roles such as a team manager who drives the team toward a goal or a team recorder who composes the team’s answer to a learning task for assessment. A mentoring role can also be filled by the teacher, or by an assistant or specially trained peer learners. You may choose to have your learning environment open continuously to accommodate the variety of schedules your learners keep. Since learners may show up at any time, having a number of support personnel is a good idea—as no one individual could be available 24 hours a day.

In Part three: Design, Implementation and Evaluation

Is there a topic you’d like to see in a future Practical Applications of Research? Post it as a comment below – or email your request to dr.irene.boland at elearningfuture.com

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6 Comments

/Diane September 28, 2009

Thank you Irene, for sharing your thoughts and research on designing MUVEs. I’m new to elearning and finding this though-provoking!
Alex Heiphetz October 1, 2009

“Because of the sizable learning curve involved in becoming competent at basic functions in a MUVE, it is recommended that a learning experience in a MUVE take place over a longer period of time, such as weeks or months. This will enable learners to get past the initial learning curve and focus on learning the target content.”

–More realistic alternative is to create simulations / environments that ***by design*** will not require much in a way of learning irrelevant features (flying, walking, running). Learners get comfortable with new way of learning and the environment fast and, at the same time, learn technicalities of irrelevant features without paying much attention to them.
Johnnie O'Dell October 1, 2009

Hello Dr. Irene Boland,

This is truly the learning environment of the future. The synchronous and asynchronous learning seems to be a modulated model. That is when teams are present in the MUVE, synchronous learning can take place. However, when one or more students are absent, then the program switches to asynchronous learning. Moreover, avatars do not require sophisticated investment in computing equipment. Such as video, or other conferencing programs. I really see this as a benefit enabling the student to express emotion through the avatar, adding meaning to communications.

Thank you,
Johnnie O’Dell
Chris Brannigan October 2, 2009

Hi Irene and thank you for sharing your work. Much appreciated by the community.

Learning curve – In reality I think the onus is on us as designers to make the interface easier for our learners to get to grips with; and this is possible. It should not be a barrier to or even part of the learning experience. Understandably, very few clients would sign off a learning experience in which 20% of the time was spent learning an interface that was irrelevant to the learning content. Indeed, most learners would not engage long in such an experience either.

In your accounting example, a 3D model of the accounting equation? What role did the 3D play in this learning experience?

Did the learners physically manipulate 3D symbols in the equation?

Did they explore a 3D accounting scenario, such as in a business scenario, in which these equations had to be applied to successfully investigate and conclude?
Chris Brannigan October 7, 2009

Thanks for sharing the links to the materials. Looking forward to seeing the results.

How did you go about deciding upon that particular design? From what I can see, the 3D is being used mainly as a ‘stage’ upon which the learner will perform accounting processes in a virtual spreadsheet. Do the learners collaborate in the virtual learning experience?

The 3D in itself does not appear to be intrinsic to the learning process, for example, the learning could be conducted in a virtual office, with recommendations to be given to executives based upon applying accounting knowledge to real problems in a social environment. Practically, that would be a bigger undertaking in that it would require specific 3D and it would use a different learning approach more akin to case based reasoning or maybe a problem based approach. Did you consider other ways?
Editor December 22, 2010

Hello Chris,
Thanks for your comment! You bring up an excellent point – just because you can use a 3D world to teach a topic doesn’t necessarily mean you should. It can be a very expensive route depending on how much technology you need to buy or build to create the learning experience. When it comes to accounting, I am sure there are more cost-effective ways to teach it using technology. In this case, this set up (accounting in SL) was very cost-effective for me because it was a ready-made environment complete with learners. I partnered with a university professor who was using the SL site he built with his accounting students. If budget is a constraining factor (and when isn’t it?) I would reserve use of a 3D world for topics where movement within or through a 3D environment is integral to the learning (such as in map-reading skills). The learners in my experiment had the following supports: movies that explained the accounting concept in general, movies that demonstrated how to use the 3D model with a realistic transaction from that concept, and practice problems for their hands-on use of the model. The model is not a spreadsheet format, but a dynamic bar chart that shows the balancing of accounts visually. Other experimental models could have been undertaken, surely. It’s just a matter of getting all the required ingredients together at once place and time. It’s a lot of moving parts.
I’m looking forward to hearing more from you, Latoya.
Best regards,
Irene T. Boland, Ph.D.