Experiences in Implementing an ICT

Asia Pacific Journal of Education, Arts and Sciences, Vol. 2 No. 2, April 2015
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Experiences in Implementing an ICT-Augmented Reality as an
Immersive Learning System for a Philippine HEI
Nestor R. Valdez1, Marcelo V. Rivera1 and Jaderick P. Pabico2
1
Technological University of the Philippines–Taguig, Taguig City 1632, Metro Manila
Institute of Computer Science, University of the Philippines Los Baños, College 4031, Laguna
2
1
{redhatpoinks,marcvrivera}@gmail.com, 2jppabico@uplb.edu.ph
Date Received: February 20, 2015; Date Revised: March 17, 2015
Abstract – The use and implementation of virtual
learning environments (VLEs) in higher education
instruction has been in place since the advent of
computer networking and popularized by the
accessibility of the Internet. Because of the fast-paced
advances in hardware and software technologies that
stimulate the human senses, the number and the quality
of researches on the use of three-dimensional (3D)
environments to augment the experiences of learners
have increased in recent years. Since VLEs can be
customized for the learners' needs, they have been used
to provide a virtual immersion that is otherwise
difficult, if not impossible, to experience in real-world
(e.g., teaching the effect of varying planetary gravities
on objects).
This paper presents the experiences in building and
implementing a 3D avatar-based virtual world (3DAVW) as a VLE (3D-AVLE) for the Technological
University of the Philippines-Taguig (TUP-T), a higher
education institution (HEI) in the Philippines. Free and
Open Source Software (FOSS) systems were used, such
as the OpenSimulator and various 3D renderers, to
create a replica of the TUP-T campus in a simulated 3D
world. The 3D-AVLE runs in a single server that is
connected to the learners' computers via a simply-wired
local area network (LAN). The use of various
networking optimization techniques was experimented
on to provide the learners and the instructors alike a
seamless experience and lag-less immersion within the
3D-AVLE. With the current LAN setup in TUP-T, the
optimal number of concurrent users that can be
accommodated without sacrificing connectivity and the
quality of virtual experience was found to be at 30
users, exactly the mean class size in TUP-T. The 3DAVLE allows for recording of the learners' experiences
which provides the learners a facility to review the
lessons at a later time. Classes in fundamental topics in
engineering sciences were conducted using the usual
teaching aid technologies such as the presentation
software, and by dragging-and-dropping the
presentation files to the 3D-AVLE, resulting to
increased learning curve by both the instructors and the
learners.
Keywords – 3D Virtual Learning Environment,
OpenSimulator, student performance
INTRODUCTION
The interest of students to latest information and
communication technology (ICT) applications and
tools, particularly online and network games,
multimedia, social networking, chat, and Internet
surfing, has been recently persevering. Students
consuming excessive hours on different online games
and activities have always been a concern to parents as
well as educators because these seemingly “addictive”
technological innovations are “taking away students
from books towards electronic gadgets” [1]. There is an
ongoing pattern that the classical way of teaching is no
longer effective to today's technology-aware youth. To
bring back the youth to “reading books,” a management
change that use these technological innovations for
instruction is inevitable [2]. More and more educational
institutions worldwide have already found out that
resistance to the forces of change brought about by ICT
is a futile curriculum management strategy. Educational
institutions have no other recourse but to accept these
changes and adapt to the innovations offered by these
technologies [3].
The recent developments in ICT must not be seen by
educators and school administrators as its competitors
to students' attention but as opportunities to evaluate the
prospect of these developments as areas to enhance the
students' learning experience. Experiences learned by
educators worldwide in using such technologies show
that there are a plethora of motivating factors in using
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ICT for enhanced learning. One among the many cited to the following questions: How this new teaching
motivations is the flexibility of these technologies to approach will affect the academic performance of the
adapt to the learners' needs. The potential of ICT to students? Will this method be more effective than the
augment the traditional classroom settings has already traditional classroom type of teaching? With
been exploited by others in immersing students, for dissimilarity in culture compared to other countries, as
example, to the reconstruction of a combination of real well as the various regional differences within the
and imaginary environments that are remotely located, country, it is most likely that the result will vary if
existed in different times, and scaled differently [4]. conducted in a national level. Although the end result of
Imagine the experience a learner would have in a world this research undertaking is to measure the performance
geography class if she*can be in a foreign land of students who were taught certain topics under the
complete with the reconstruction of its geographical 3D-AVLE, the various outcomes of the research are
features, or in a history class in an ancient site complete presented in three different parts: software technologies,
with artifacts, or in a chemistry class in a sophisticated hardware setup optimization, and classroom
laboratory and is able to handle contraptions and implementation experiences; student perception; and
chemicals safely, or in an astronomy class in a galaxy student performance.
reduced to a navigable size. This list can go on and on
This paper presents the first part in the hope that
without boundary because there is no limit to learning other educational institutions within the Philippine
with ICT-augmented reality.
setting will learn from the experiences and come up
To date, there exists a number of developed systems with a better or customized 3D-AVLE setup of their
that provide augmented reality using 3D avatar-base own. The other two parts are discussed in detail in
virtual worlds (3D-AVW). Examples of such systems separate presentations [8,9].
are the (Teen) Second Life (SL/TSL) [5], Open
With the often and vast changes in ICT, it is
Wonderland (OWL) [6], and Open Simulator important to be in line with the current trend,
(OpenSim) [7]. SL/TSL is available commercially while particularly with the 3D-AVLE. As far as the records
OWL and OpenSim are free and open source software show in various archiving publications, this research
(FOSS) systems. Some higher education institutions study was the first to be conducted within the
(HEIs) worldwide have already implemented these 3D- Technological University of the Philippines-Taguig
AVW as their own VLE resulting to a 3D avatar-based (TUP-T), if not in the whole higher education system in
virtual learning environment (3D-AVLE). Figure 1 the country. Here, the students’ perception and
shows an example screenshot of one learning session performance of teaching and learning while being
using SL/TSL.
conducted in 3D-AVLE were measured. With this
To date, there are no studies that have been implementation, it is envisioned that the TUP-T campus
conducted in the Philippines that measure the will benefit in the future with the development of 3Dperception and performance of the students in a 3D- AVLE for TUP-T.
AVLE. This research endeavor aims to provide answers
(a)
(b)
Figure 1. A screenshot of an example learning session in the point of view of one of the
participants using (a) SL/TSL (image source: http://sitearm.files.wordpress.com), and
(b) OWL (image source: http://www.hypergridbusiness.com).
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Particularly, the curricula could be improved into 2 shows the conceptual relationship of various software
using this new mode of teaching, and if successful may technologies used in 3D-AVLE. The 3D-AVLE is
be able to accommodate the growing quantity of composed of a server which allows connections by the
incoming students to TUP-T, not only to accommodate clients. The whole client-server connectivity is provided
the growing population of the City of Taguig but also to by OpenSim [7]. The virtual objects that are stored and
the predicted influx of foreign students due to the computed by the server are rendered by the client and
formal implementation of the ASEAN Free Trade Area shown through a virtual environment viewer, while the
(AFTA) [10].
audio communication between clients are handled by a
In this paper, the software technologies used in standard audio transmission codec.
developing the 3D-AVLE are presented. The
methodology used in optimizing the limited hardware A. 3D-AVLE
One of the primary needs in creating a 3D-AVLE is
systems that TUP-T allowed to be used for this purpose
is shown. The experiences in implementing the 3D- the creation of 3D objects into the well-known SL/TSL.
AVLE as a different learning environment for the SL/TSL is the most popular commercially available 3Dstudents are discussed. Just to provide completeness to AVLE platform that has been used by various open and
the paper, a summarized portion of the results obtained distance education institutions worldwide. During the
in measuring the student perception and performance development days of SL/TSL, people would reproduce
are also presented, although the details are presented the buildings and classrooms they were familiar with in
elsewhere [8,9] and further improvements of these will real life [11]. Within SL/TSL, university teachers
typically think first of opportunities to present
be presented in the future.
information in ways they know, such as with slides and
video clips. While slides and video clips are possible in
SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES
SL/TSL, it is more efficient to use other well-developed
We discuss in this section the various software e-platforms intended for presentations. According to a
technologies used in implementing the 3D-AVLE. SL/TSL researcher in an HEI setting, SL/TSL allowed
Although we are able to find an acceptable performance them to explore potential applications for education,
of the 3D-AVLE with the combinations of these which were both impressive and surprising to everyone
software technologies, we provide caution to the readers involved in the endeavour [12]. Students who
that these may not provide optimal student experience participated in SL/TSL achieved a grade standing 28%
with their implementations as the system is also higher than the previous class who did not utilize virtual
dependent on the variability brought about by the worlds [13].
underlying hardware systems, data communication
systems, and more importantly, the peopleware. Figure
Figure 2. The conceptual relationship of various software technologies in 3D-AVLE.
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Figure 3. An age-group selection of avatars for the female gender in 3D-AVLE: (a) young adult,
(b) collegiate, (c) graduate, (d) adult, (e) middle-aged, and (f) elderly.
In creating 3D-AVLEs, there are development
platforms that can be used in order to lessen the cost, or
even to freely make them. OpenSim [7] is a free and
open source software (FOSS) 3D application server that
can be run on multiple operating systems and hardware
platforms. Because OpenSim uses the same messaging
protocol which is the core of SL [5], it can be used to
simulate virtual environments similar to SL/TSL [7].
However, since OpenSim is FOSS while SL/TSL is a
commercial platform [14], then OpenSim is a more
logical choice between the two for implementation in
TUP-T.
B. Avatars as Student Representatives
3D-AVLE is a first-person point-of-view (FP-POV)
system wherein what the student users see in the
computer monitor is the immediate virtual environment.
However, to differentiate it from most FP-POV systems,
the 3D-AVLE has a capability of a perceived camera
which pans-out of the point-of-view of the student user,
giving the user a third-person point-of-view of her
virtual representative. This virtual representative is
called an avatar, a personalized graphic representation
or rendering that represents a computer user or the
user's alter ego or character. The avatar allows the 3DAVLE user the capability to change roles: as an active
actor as herself, and as a spectator. 3D-AVLE provides
various capabilities to give the avatar its own
personality. Figure 3 shows an example selection of
avatars for the female gender in 3D-AVLE. There does
exist a selection for the male gender also.
C. Virtual Object Editors
Another tool that we found essential in creating a
virtual world is a virtual object editor, where another
FOSS is the Sweet Home 3D (SH3D). SH3D is an
interior design application software that helps in
outlining the structure of classroom buildings and other
3D objects. SH3D is easier to use because it can import
a blueprint of a floor plan which can speed up drawing
of the walls of an existing structure [15]. However,
SH3D saves work in a wavefront object file which is not
known to OpenSim.
Figure 4. The flowchart for creating virtual objects
using various virtual object editors.
Another editor that can be used in creating a 3DAVLE is the FOSS Blender 3D (B3D) editor. B3D was
developed to help graphics artists create 3D graphics
[16-18]. In fact many professionals and 3D artists
consider B3D as being the best open source solution for
3D computer graphics [19]. In this study, we used B3D
to convert the wavefront object file into its collada
counterpart. The collada formats are the 3D objects
inputs for OpenSim. The flowchart with corresponding
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object editors used for creating virtual objects from presses of the keyboard and the mouse movement,
models of real-world ones is shown in Figure 4.
similar to how first-person shooter games are
controlled. CVLV allows for photorealistic rendering of
D. Virtual World Viewers
bumps in textures, of shadows due to the effect of trees
In order for the 3D virtual objects to be visible and and atmospheric phenomena, and of reflections on
be manipulated by our students, we used the Cool shiny objects. For example, bumps in virtual walls are
Virtual Life Viewer (CVLV). CVLV is particularly used rendered with photo-realism if the real-world walls are
for SL/TSL and OpenSim grids [20], and is also FOSS. finished with bumps, multiple shadows are rendered
Another virtual life viewer is the Imprudence Viewer correctly due to the effect of sunlight scattering as a
(IV), which is also being used worldwide with result of cloudy skies, and wavy reflections are rendered
OpenSim. However, due to IV's limited functions like correctly on water reflections. Figure 5 shows the TUPthe capability to upload personalized objects [21], we T facade and the campus as respectively seen in
chose to use the CVLV, instead.
photographs and as 3D-AVLE virtual objects through
With the CVLV, a student can manipulate the movement the CVLV.
of her avatar using the combination of arrow key
(a) TUP-T facade
(b) TUP-T campus
Figure 5. The TUP-T (a) facade, and (b) campus as seen in photographs (left) and as converted
into virtual objects and seen through CVLV (right).
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satisfaction, operational speed, and perceived
E. Audio Chat Tool
contentment with regards to learning and teaching
We used the voice chat software suite called Mumble sessions conducted in our 3D-AVLE. Specifically, our
& Murmur to provide our students the capability to client desktops are equipped with Intel Core 2 Duo
interact and orally communicate with each other and processor, 2GB DDR3 memory, and Intel G41 Express
with their instructor. Mumble is the client software chipset with built-in video card. These desktops are the
system and is installed in the students' computers, while ones available in the TUP-T computer laboratory. Our
Murmur is the server software system and is installed in hardware system can handle 30 to 32 simultaneous
the laboratory's server computer. The software suite is online users. We measured the response rate of our 3DFOSS and performs audio communication with low- AVLE, particularly the smoothness of the rendering of
latency yet high quality voice chat capability through the virtual world viewer, and we found that it can
the Opus interactive audio codec [22]. Opus is the handle the load demand at maximum capacity. Even
standard for speech and music transmission over the though our hardware system can handle up to 32
Internet as specified in the RFC 6716 by the Internet concurrent users, we chose to connect up to 16 students
Engineering Task Force (IETF). Opus is a combination only to provide us with an allowance for a possible
of the Speex and the Constrained Energy Lapped backlog that we did not foresee in this optimization
Transform (CELT) ultra-low delay audio codecs. Both step.
Speex and CELT are audio compression and
transmission algorithms. The only difference is that B. Communication Platform
Speex was optimized for speech [23], while CELT was
We provided the students each with a headset and a
optimized for music [24]. Since Opus is a combination microphone which they used as their oral
of the two codes, then Opus is optimized for both communication tool. This hardware allowed the
speech and music transmission over the Internet and students to participate in class discussion, raise queries
therefore is a very good codec for interactive voice to instructors or fellow students, answer questions
communication.
themselves, participate in a debate, or voice out their
Aside from the standard audio transmission own opinion in the subject being delivered. With a press
characteristics of Mumble, we chose the suite because of a button, CVLV allows a student to “shout,” “talk,”
of the additional pre-processing it performs to remove or “whisper” [7, 20]. When the “shout” button is
background noise. The removal of the background noise pressed, a word spoken with a normal loudness by a
improves the clarity of spoken sound. Additionally for student will be heard with a louder volume in the 3Dstereo sound systems which we implemented for AVLE by all students whose respective avatars are in
realistic sound experience of the students, Mumble also the same room, the loudness of which is corrected by
performs positional audio [25] which allows the the distance of the user's avatar to the other avatars. A
realistic sound rendering of the position of the source of “talk” means that the spoken words of the user will only
sound. For example, if Student A is talking to the avatar be heard by those users whose avatars are in close
of Student B who is standing at Student A's right side, proximity to hers. A “whisper” allows a user to directly
the audio of Student B will be louder at Student A's talk to a selected avatar, and only the person
right speaker. If Student A leaves the virtual classroom, representing that avatar will be able to hear the spoken
her audio will not be heard by the students whose words by the user, even if in reality the user actually
respective avatars were left in the virtual classroom. shouted those words.
Without positional audio capability, all students will
hear each other's spoken words with the same loudness
IMPLEMENTATION EXPERIENCES
and at the same perceived direction, even if the avatar
representing the student is far from the other students.
A. Access to 3D-AVLE
Like any other multi-user applications, each student
HARDWARE PLATFORM
needs to undergo registration first before they can be
allowed to participate in the 3D-AVLE. The students
A. Client Desktop Computers
needed to sign-in with their Firstname and Lastname on
In our 3D-AVLE hardware subsystem, we used 30 the respective text boxes provided by 3D-AVLE in the
desktop computers with identical motherboards, registration box. For security purposes, students set
processors, memory capacities and operating systems. their own respective passwords. After the registration,
We wanted our students to experience the same they started with the creation of their own avatar.
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(a) View of the back end of a TUP-T classroom.
(b) View of the front end of the same classroom.
Figure 6. The back and front end views of a TUP-T classroom as seen in photographs (left) and
as converted into virtual objects and seen through CVLV (right).
We allowed our students to change their avatar
appearances as they please by providing then with a
wide variety of choices for clothes and accessories. As
soon as their accounts were created, we then proceeded
in setting up the things needed to start the lesson in the
virtual classroom. Figure 6 shows the back and front
views of a real TUP-T classroom and its virtual
counterpart in the 3D-AVLE.
B. Preparation of Teaching Materials
We needed to upload the images of the presentation
slides that we used to deliver our subject matter. The
slide images were transferred from the OpenSim
inventory to Sloodle [26] using a drag-and-drop
process. Sloodle is a presentation slides presenter used
primarily for OpenSim. With the presenter, the
presentation slides was translated into an object with a
script to display the slides using navigational buttons.
We experienced permission lock-out while using
Sloodle, which maintains a list of students that we
allowed to view our presentation slides. Initially, we
provided permission to 10 students without problem.
However, when we added the number of students to be
allowed access to the slides, the problem surfaced when
the presenter need to accept the request to view the
presentation from the 13th to 15th random users. Here,
CVLV hanged up after the permission window showed
up. This affected the rest of the students who were
already given permission. To resolve this, students who
were included in the permitted list needed to log-out of
the 3D-AVLE leaving behind those that need to be set-
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up. As soon as the request for the remaining students both groups took. The pretest questions asked were the
was accepted, the problem was solved.
same for both groups. The students in Group A
proceeded to take the lesson conducted in 3D-AVLE
C. Measurement of Student Perception
while those in Group B took the same lecture in a
We modified the Athabasca University LimeSurvey traditional classroom setting. Students from both
Community of Inquiry (COI) framework for Virtual groups, then, took the post-test examination. We
Worlds to provide us a measure for assessing the repeated this process with 3 more other lessons.
students' perception in using the 3D-AVLE. COI is a However, in succeeding lessons, students from the two
survey form developed to allow researchers, teachers groups interchanged. The students who took the
and students to assess the learning that occurs in immediate past preceding lesson from 3D-AVLE took
SL/TSL [27, 28]. We customized COI for use by the the immediate next succeeding lesson from the
TUP-T students. The COI contains three categories: traditional classroom. Similarly, those students who
Teaching Presence (TP), Social Presence (SP), and took the immediate past preceding lesson from the
Cognitive Presence (CP). In order to measure traditional setting took the immediate next succeeding
numerically the different elements of the COI from a lesson from 3D-AVLE. Results show that students who
student’s perspective, we used the five-point Likert took their lessons from 3D-AVLE performed better in
scale instrument [29-31] as follows: 1 means Strongly the post-test while all pretest scores for both groups are
Disagree (SD), 2 means Disagree (D), 3 means Neutral not statistically different from each other [9]. This result
(N), 4 means Agree (A), and 5 means Strongly Agree is in agreement with what was found earlier by other
(SA). These numbers estimate the perception of the researchers [13].
virtual learners [32-33] as they answer their respective
levels of agreements to the respective statements in the SUMMARY
COI. We conducted the survey after the students took
In this paper, we presented our experiences in
their second examination and the results show that the creating and implementing a 3D-AVLE for TUP-T. We
3D-AVLE can provide the students with the teaching, discussed the particular software that we used and the
social, and cognitive presence that they need for corresponding reasons why we chose them. We
learning. We presented this result in detail in another presented our hardware platform and how we optimized
paper [8].
them for use by up to 16 students who concurrently
connected to be able to attend a virtual lesson. We also
D. Measurement of Student Performance
presented our implementation experiences, including
To measure the performance of a student in a 3D those activities where we measured the student
virtual environment, we conducted pretest and posttest perception on using the 3D-AVLE, as well as their
examinations during their 3D-AVLE learning performance in taking lessons with it. Students
experiences. The measurement is based on the perceived that the 3D-AVLE was successful in
framework shown in Figure 7. Here, we divided our providing them with teaching, social, and cognitive
classes into two groups, Group A and Group B. Each presence [8], and at the same time, using it for learning
group is composed of up to 15 students. For each increases student performance [9].
lesson, we conducted a pretest which all students from
Figure 7. The conceptual framework for measuring the performance of students in 3D-AVLE.
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[4] C. Inman, V.H. Wright & J.A. Hartman. 2010.
Use of SecondLife in K-12 and higher education:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS,
A review of research. Journal of Interactive
AND AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
Online Learning 9(1):44-63.
This research endeavor was funded by the
Department of Science and Technology (DOST) [5] Linden Research, Inc. 2007. SecondLife.
(http://www.lindenlab.com).
Advanced Science and Technology Human Resource
Development
Program
(ASTHRDP)
Graduate [6] Open Wonderland Foundation. 2010. Open
Scholarship with M.V. Rivera and N.R. Valdez as
Wonderland (http://openwonderland.org).
scholar-grantees under the Master of Information [7] Open
Simulator.
2011.
OpenSimulator
Technology (MIT) program of the Graduate School
(http://opensimulator.org).
(GS) of the University of the Philippines Los Baños
(UPLB) with J.P. Pabico as their senior research adviser. [8] M.V. Rivera, N.R. Valdez, and J.P. Pabico. 2013.
Student
perception
in teaching
within
The hardware subsystems used for the 3D-AVLE are
OpenSimulator.
In
Proceedings
of
the
6th
UPLB
from the TUP-T, as well as the subject students.
CAS Student-Faculty Research Conference
The Ethics Committee of TUP-T approved the
(SFRC 2013), NCAS, UPLB, 13 December 2013.
conduct of this research on the students as human
subjects of research. The authors declare that the [9] N.R. Valdez, M.V. Rivera, and J.P. Pabico. 2013.
Student performance in a 3D interactive virtual
academic and social well beings of the students were
environment. 11th National Conference in
respective during the conduct of the research.
Information Technology Education (NCITE
The following are the respective contributions of the
2013), Villa Paraiso, Mambajao, Camiguin, 24-26
authors: N.R. Valdez assembled and optimized the
October 2013.
hardware subsystem of the 3D-AVLE, conducted the
real-world observation and statistical analyses of the [10] ASEAN Secretariat. 1999. ASEAN Free Trade
Area (AFTA): An Update, Jakarta, Indonesia,
student performance experiments, and prepared the final
November 1999 (http://www.asean.org).
paper; M.V. Rivera assembled and optimized the
software subsystem of the 3D-AVLE, implemented the [11] D. Jacques and G. Salmon. 2006. Learning in
social experiments and statistical analyses on student
Groups: A Handbook for Face-to-Face and
perception, and prepared the final paper; and J.P. Pabico
Online Environments, 4th Edition. Routledge:
formulated the hardware and software problems,
UK, 360 pp (ISBN 0415365260).
provided the requirements for the solution to the [12] K. Hudson. 2010. Applied training in virtual
problems, interpreted the statistical analyses, and edited
environments. In W. Ritke-Jones (ed.) Virtual
the final manuscript.
Environments
for
Corporate
Education:
All authors declare no conflict of interest.
Employee Learning and Solutions. IGI Global:
USA, 426 pp (ISBN 1615206191).
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