Ioannis Vrellis

Designing a Collaborative Learning Activity in Second Life - An Exploratory Study in Physics

Multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) seem to have great potential in education. Current educational uses of MUVEs seem to exploit them more as group interaction platforms and less as worlds where users learn by interacting and modifying the environment in a constructivist approach. There is also a need for systematic research efforts that will lead to guidelines and principles for designing and evaluating effective learning activities in MUVEs. This paper presents preliminary empirical results from an exploratory study with university students. A collaborative problem-based physics learning activity was designed in Second Life® (SL), following a constructivist approach. Students (n=30) collaborated “in-world” in pairs assisted by a tutor, in order to solve the problem. Data were gathered using a questionnaire and session recordings. The study focused on issues related to educational environment design, collaboration and instruction. Results indicate that satisfactory, engaging and effective collaborative learning activities can be realized in SL.

Presence in a Collaborative Science Learning Activity in Second Life

Multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) are surrounded by hype regarding their impact on and potential in education. Many issues regarding the educational affordances of MUVEs and the learning experience of users are still under research. Presence is an important phenomenon users experience when interacting with and via virtual environments and seems to play an important role in learning. This chapter presents empirical data gathered from an exploratory study regarding a problem-based physics learning activity in Second Life (SL). Our aim is to gain knowledge and experience about the sense of presence (spatial and social) that emerges while students collaborate in MUVEs. Students (n = 30) collaborated “in-world” to solve a problem. Data were gathered using the Temple Presence Inventory questionnaire. Results indicate higher scores of social presence than spatial presence. Correlations were found between dimensions of presence, subjective computer expertise, and tendency to become involved in activities.

Primary School Students' Attitude towards Gesture Based Interaction: A Comparison between Microsoft Kinect and Mouse

This paper attempts an empirical study regarding the attitude of primary education students (n=32) towards gesture based interfaces in educational contexts. A simple construction activity was designed and tested both with Microsoft Kinect and the traditional mouse. The main finding was that Kinect was preferred over mouse, even though it was less easy to use. It seems that gesture based interfaces increase students motivation and engagement. Nevertheless, in order to fully exploit their potential as educational tools, the following are needed: more robust motion sensing technology, exploitation of the kinesthetic taxonomy and customized educational software.

Technological Factors, User Characteristics and Didactic Strategies in Educational Virtual Environments

Technological factors, user characteristics and didactic strategies do not function consistently across Educational Virtual Environments. This study investigates the impact of viewing condition and didactic strategy on attention allocation, suspension of disbelief, spatial presence, and learning outcomes in an Educational Virtual Environment concerning ancient Greek pottery. Our results show that the viewing condition does not affect attention allocation, suspension of disbelief, and spatial presence. Learning outcomes are better in the monoscopic viewing condition. Didactic strategy has an impact on suspension of disbelief and learning outcomes. Domain specific interest associates with higher level of attention allocation and spatial presence, while spatial presence is not related to learning outcomes. More research is needed in order to identify the role of each one of the above factors in Educational Virtual Environments.

A Comparison between Oculus Rift and a Low-Cost Smartphone VR Headset: Immersive User Experience and Learning

Differences in technological characteristics between expensive head-mounted displays like Oculus Rift and low-cost mobile-based Virtual Reality (VR) devices may affect the experience of the user and learning in virtual environments with an educational content and therefore are important to be studied. This paper describes a study that aims at finding differences in levels of spatial presence, usability, simulator sickness, satisfaction, workload and learning outcome between Oculus Rift and a low cost smartphone VR Headset, when users interact with an educational virtual environment. Our results do not show differences in the variables studied. It seems that mobile-based VR systems could provide acceptable levels of immersive user experience and contribute to the pedagogical use of VR.

A Virtual Environment for Training in Culinary Education: Immersion and User Experience

Although virtual environments (VE) with various levels of immersion have been used and evaluated in vocational and adult training with positive results, no such environments exist for culinary education. The aim of this study was to design a VE for culinary education and evaluate it in terms of user experience with two different levels of immersion: low (desktop) and high (head-mounted display—HMD). Twenty-four students and graduates of an Institute of Vocational Training specializing in either ICT or culinary arts participated in this study. Results showed no significant differences in terms of spatial presence, usability, and workload between the two groups. Nevertheless, participants using the HMD interface needed more time to complete a recipe and experienced much higher simulator sickness. It seems that the lower immersion interface is more appropriate for this specific VE.

Brain Activity and Visual Scientific Content: A Study on Earthquake Precaution

Scientific thinking and science education involve, among others, cognitive processes. The cognitive processes can be detected through neuroimaging techniques and contribute to a better understanding of the environmental stimuli used in science education. Electric brain activity of 15 female students was analysed at theta and alpha frequency bands while interacting with affective visual stimuli in a digital learning environment for earthquake precaution measures. The participants recognized all the ten objects, showed visual awareness and mental effort and distinguished their meaning as useful and non-useful items. These results indicate that brain activity can be used for the design and assessment of digital learning environments and contribute to the field of educational neuroscience.

Do Children in the Spectrum of Autism Interact with Real-time Emotionally Expressive Human Controlled Avatars?

Abstract Children in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are characterized by impairments in social skills and they usually face difficulties in recognizing facial emotion expressions. Early intervention and treatment is of major concern and therefore a number of detection and teaching methods have been developed, including the use of ICT. This article presents a brief but extensive literature review on the way tutors are represented in digital environments. The results showed that there is a need for further investigation on the effectiveness of the methods used for the interaction of children on ASD with technology tools, as well as on knowledge transfer. Since there is a lack of empirical data concerning the preference of different interaction modalities by children with ASD, this article also reports on an exploratory study conducted to investigate the acceptance and preference of three different real-time modalities used in facial emotion recognition by two children with ASD (low and high functioning autism). The results indicated a discrepancy between the two children which can be mainly attributed to the differences accompanied the categorization of children with ASD in low and high functioning autism.