Vol. 6 No. 1
Year: 2010
Issue: Jun-Aug
Title: Learning Behaviors and Interaction Patterns among Students in Virtual Learning Worlds
Author Name: Chin-Syan Lin, Jung Tsan Ma , Yi-Rung chen , Ming-Shiou Kuo
Synopsis:
The goal of this study is to investigate how students behave themselves in the virtual learning worlds. The study creates a 3D virtual learning world, entitled the Best Digital Village, and implements a learning program on it. The learning program, the Expo, takes place at the Exhibition Center in the Best Digital Village. The space in the Expo is divided into three zones: the Lobby, the Exhibition Hall, and the DIY Rooms. Students have to form teams in four before entering the Expo and carrying out their learning tasks respectively. In the Lobby, students are encouraged to sign up in a guestbook and browse through the user guide of the Expo. The Exhibition Hall consists of 3D objects of famous architectures and landmarks around the globe. When students approach the 3D objects, information about the objects will show up in a separated window. Students are encouraged to discuss about the objects online while they are in the Exhibition Hall before taking a quiz about them. Finally, students are asked to enter their team’s DIY Rooms together with teammates and create a 3D artifact with imbedded online tools. There were 16 teams of school students from two different countries took part in a 5-week experiment for the study. Twelve items of quantitative data were collected with the data logging mechanism of the virtual learning world. The statistic t-test is utilized to analyze these data. Results show that school students engaged more in communication with peers than in navigating learning objects in the virtual learning world. The study also reveals that virtual learning community and proximal learning community play an equal role in terms of interaction patterns among school students inside the virtual learning world.
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