Research interests within virtual worlds

From WolfWikis

Below are topics we may be discussing within this group.

Please post open questions, hypotheses, or any other information for now. We can formally define research goals later if there is interest.

Online Environments/Virtual Worlds

Questions and research interests about virtual environments, principally, Second Life.

• Is there an active Second Life community at NCSU?
• How could we create an active virtual community at NCSU?
• SHOULD we create a virtual community at NCSU? Is there enough momentum to make it worthwhile? Is the technology ready? Is it worth the investment? (What if we threw a virtual party and no one came?)
• What is the potential for virtual environments to be primary places for education (and not just fancy toys)? What are successful examples?
• LAS here [Lala Lassally in sl] We have decades of research on group dynamics, and how to help groups function better, in rl. Over the past decade there has been a growth in research on how to help people who are in virtual (not geographically co-located) teams. With virtual environments, we have virtual teams in virtual worlds. This research area is wide open -- how do virtual teams in virtual worlds work? Are there ways to help them work better?

Other topics?

• Other interests?

How should we be approaching "buildings" and space in Second Life?

LAS here [Lala Lassally in sl] -- Let me suggest that we not just recreate our current red brick campus, let's create ways to create structures that will facilitate moving about and learning in the virtual environment. I do think that we should have a strong NC State brand -- and sure iconic buildings [the bell tower] will serve us. But please, let's not just build a bunch of buildings with classrooms!

I'm thinking about what it will be like to learn to interact as working groups, and how groups in sl will have to develop norms and processes that help them work. I'm thinking about having floating skyrooms, or maybe even a tree with platforms, so that the group members can have their own working space.

Orion [Peace Furst] -- As you know Lala, I have built a "floating skyroom" that I am calling the Peace Furst Conference Room and have started a SL group NCSU in Second Life. The room is on my own land, but I can make it group access so group members can use the slide projectors. If anyone wants to use it contact me.

• Time to talk!! At a recent 'Best Practices' conference in sl, Fleep Tuque from the University of Cincinnati shared some research findings on educational building set up in sl. Here are my notes from viewing a machinima of the presentation:

Fleep Tuque [Chris Collins at University of Cincinatti]

What doesn’t work It is hard to find universities – your islands are not named for your university. Nothing was more frustrating than not being able to find a name of a university – you need to put the university name in the land description. SLED list is the best one for a list, but there is no contact or sl coordinates. [example UCIT is really University of Cincinatti IT]. There were numerous educational institutions that were not on the list. Searched in groups and in land, and determined from that if a site was an educational island. Found and visited 62 institutions. Looked at land, how space was being used. Most spaces had built some traditional classroom space – not many institutions are building things that fit the non-physics of space. Noted University of Texas Dallas used interesting building. Was hard to tell if classes or instruction was actually taking place anywhere on the islands Hardly any evidence of instructional video, other multimedia.

What works University logo or sign Notecards that explained what objects/buildings/informational signs for visitors Presence of a footpath gives a visual path of where you’re supposed to go. The absence of a footpath is confusing. Links to outside websites for the university, especially if there was some popular press about their sl activity Teleport systems to get visitors to different places Sandboxes Usable office space for faculty – it can help signal identity, can be used as a functional place (office hours); or as a handy reference space (full of tutorials, etc) Regular events that are open to a public of interest pump up activity and traffic

Surprising findings Lots of Campus social areas / dance clubs Lots of alumni groups that were reaching out Interesting variety of what was going on Seeing transitions, having a little building like on Edusisland, and then administrators look for an iconic replica, so you need to get more space to put one up. It seems that every university has to have some of those, and it takes a learning curve to figure out what would be workable, and to develop the skills to put things up.

so time to start planning. Our DELTA folks have had a student also doing research on building -- time to start planning the island.