Talk at VS-GAMES 2013, Bournemouth University, closing the SLACTIONS workshop on Technology Challenges of Virtual Worlds in Education & Training towards widespread adoption. Roadmap towards the special issue on the same topic of the Journals of Educational Technology and Society, call open until November 2013.

1. Technology Challenges of Virtual Worlds in
Education & Training - Research directions

2. Technology Challenges of Virtual Worlds in
Education & Training - Research directions
Leonel Morgado
leonelm@utad.pt

10. Spacewar!
1962

11. MUD
1978

12. 1985

14. 1
Access
3
Deployment
2
Production

15. 1
Access
3
Deployment
2
Production
Interligação
Software
Networking
Interconnection

16. 1
Acesso
3
Operacionalização
2
Production
Walkad – Varvello, Diot, & Biersack, 2009
– Badumna
VastPark
Networking

17. 1
Acesso
3
Operacionalização
2
Production
Walkad – Varvello, Diot, & Biersack, 2009
– Badumna
VastPark
Networking
There is but a handful of studies on network
behaviour of these applications
Almost no vulnerability studies

18. 2
Production
1
Acesso
3
Operacionalização
Stage3D/Molehill

19. 2
Production
1
Acesso
3
Operacionalização
Stage3D/Molehillon plug-ins/add-ins similar issues to those above (albeit
simpler due to widespread use of some)
Adequate graphics hardware
Administrative access for installation, maintenance…
Limited support for WebGL
Possibility of operational conflicts
Streaming quite demanding in terms of latency

20. 2
Production
1
Acesso
3
Operacionalização
Interconnection

21. 2
Production
1
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3
Operacionalização
Interconnection
Choosing a world limits educational activity to its users
esources are limited to those available within that world
ent approaches (e.g. Hypergrid) have scalability issues in
their design
Space decomposition is a promising path

22. 1
Access
3
Deployment
2
Production
Professionals
Amateurs

23. 3
Deployment
2
Produção
2
1
Acesso
Amateurs
Professionals
Game engines
OLIVE
Artificial agents engines
Quagents
BEcool
Virtual world platforms

24. 3
Deployment
2
Produção
2
1
Acesso
Amateurs
Professionals
Game engines
OLIVE
Artificial agents engines
Quagents
BEcool
Virtual world platforms
Common approach in serious game development
Users seen as player/trainer with strict roles
Greater control over user experience
Greater implementation flexibility
Greater resource requirements
Pre-planned educational process and events

25. 2
Produção
2
1
Acesso
3
Deployment
Professionals
Amateurs

26. 2
Produção
2
1
Acesso
3
Deployment
Professionals
Amateurs
Can be done in many worlds (varying degrees)
Less resource requirements
Spaces can be adapted by non-developers
for context and customization
Enables “ordering” of components
to developers (instead of entire systems)
Definition of behaviours by end-users
remains a challenge
Choreographies still cannot be shared as easily
as images, videos, documents, models, etc.

27. 3
Deployment
1
Acesso
2
Production

28. 3
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2
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Enable regular & sustained
use by educational actors
in general, not just
occasionaly nor just by
enthusiasts.

29. 3
Deployment
1
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2
Production
Defining
methods,
practices, &
processes

30. 3
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1
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2
Production

31. 3
Deployment
1
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2
Production
Identity of each student?
Using a new set of credentials or the institution’s?
How to prevent intrusions and have guests?
How to archive tasks & results?
How to distribute resources & components?
How to provide support to participants?

32. 3
Deployment
1
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2
Production

33. 3
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4 problems

34. 3
Deployment
1
Acesso
2
Production
MULTIS
Store virtual world content (proprietary
formats) in the LMS/information system

35. 3
Deployment
1
Acesso
2
Production
MULTIS
Place content from the LMS/information
system into the virtual world platform

36. 3
Deployment
1
Acesso
2
Production
MULTIS
Send to the LMS/information system the
events and data from the virtual worlds

37. 3
Deployment
1
Acesso
2
Production
MULTIS
Use the LMS/information system to control
the behaviour of the virtual worlds platform

38. 1
Access
3
Deployment
2
Production
Future perspectives?

39. Thank you!
Let’s discuss this!
leonelm@utad.pt