DESIGN:

PEDAGOGIC

 

Multi-user VRML Environment for Teaching VRML:

Immersive Collaborative Learning

 

Vladimir Geroimenko and Mike Phillips

School of Computing, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, Devon PL4 8AA, UK

vladg@soc.plym.ac.uk

mikep@soc.plym.ac.uk

 

Abstract

VRML-based environments can be used very effectively for teaching a variety of online courses. This paper describes the development of an Internet-based collaborative learning environment in which VRML is not only the means but also the subject of teaching. Such a VRML environment is designed to assist and support employees of the 'New Media' industries enrolled on short courses run by the Interactive Media Group in the School of Computing, University of Plymouth.

This paper focuses on some key issues in the design of the VRML teaching environment and using it for real-time and on-demand course delivery. One of the most interesting issues is the experience of learning and teaching VRML while being within a VRML world. Such an immersive method of learning provides students with unique experiences and significantly increases the efficiency of the learning process.

 

1: Introduction

Distributed Virtual Environments can be used very effectively for teaching a variety of online courses and for supporting collaborative work [1, 2]. The main goal of our project was and is the development of an Internet-based collaborative learning environment in which VRML is not only the means but also the subject of teaching. Such a VRML environment is designed to assist and support employees of the 'New Media' industries (including; digital TV, Interactive Media developers, electronic publishing, Information Architects, etc) enrolled on short courses run by the Interactive Media Group in the School of Computing, University of Plymouth. The project will ultimately deliver a number of on-line VRML spaces/places and software tools that will allow participants to collaboratively create their own 'haptic' learning sub-environments within the overall architecture of the project.

 

2: The architecture of the virtual environment

This learning environment is a Web Site made up of pages which consist of the following three frames: a VRML browser frame for navigating through 3D virtual environments, a chat frame for text-based communication and a reference frame for representing VRML specifications and codes. Currently, we are developing three slightly different prototypes of the multi-user collaborative environment based on VNet, Sony and Blaxxun software. These software are different in terms of the quality of rendering, the availability of cross-platform versions, the richness of communication and navigation such as pre-programmed avatar gestures or text-to-speech chat window options, and so on. It is very difficult to say at this moment, which of the above versions will be preferred by students. Therefore, we have decided to make a usability test after all the working prototypes will be completed to choose the most appropriate version on the base of real-life practice.

The 'hub' of the OnLine Multi-user Learning Environment is inspired by and based on Bentham's architecture for the Panopticon. Jeremy Bentham's (1748-1832) 'Panopticon; or the Inspection House' (circa 1791, see [5]) was never build to serve its intended function. Within this virtual environment the 'fluid architecture' of the 'Panopticon' becomes the perfect form to support a social learning interaction where the surveyors co-operatively survey themselves. At each level or module or the structure, each 'cell' in this Panopticon is a gateway to another 'place' where work can be done. Each layer of the building houses a module. Access to the modules is provided through the 'Core' which runs up through the centre of the 'building'. Here participants can register for a particular module, and have access to that layer of the building.

From the pedagogical and also technological point of view, there are two distinguishing areas within the 3D environment. The first area is a chain of spaces in which a variety of VRML nodes, scripts and other elements are represented and also grouped according to the similarity of their content into several tutorials. In other words, this space a unique 3D version of the VRML specifications where students can learn the basics of the language as well as they can come back to this session any time for reference. The second space offers opportunities for students to present their own VRML objects and environments. This part of the virtual world is highly changeable offering a flexible environment with significant creative potential.

 

3: 3D and 2D representation of the contents

The 3D representation of the VRML specification is one of the most difficult issues. It is quite obvious that there are no simple ways of translating this document from 2D format into 3D. Firstly, it is hardly possible to create a complete 3D version of the VRML specification because of a great deal of its logical and other "non-spatial" details. Secondly, a 3D space has its own logic. Therefore, to represent the VRML content adequately, one needs to create 3D objects, environments, animations and other spatial structures. It is impossible to do this just by coping the structure and logic of the appropriate text of the VRML specifications.

Of course, it depends on the logical complicity of the part of the VRML specification being converted into a 3D form. For example, the standard VRML building blocks, such as primitive shapes (box, cone, cylinder and sphere), are very easy to represent both in the 3D environment and in the 2D reference frame. To create a 3D model that would show how a specific type of sensors, interpolators or lights works is a more difficult task. This task is complicated mostly from a pedagogical (not technological) point of view: how to present 2D content in a 3D way that would show the essence of the subject matter in a clear visual form.

The pedagogical effectiveness of using the VRML environment depends on the extent to which the contents of the 3D environment and the 2D reference frame are mutually supplementary. That is, they must help students to understand each other's material represented through contrasting forms.

 

4: Immersive collaborative learning

This 3D online environment may be used in three ways. A teacher can use the environment to deliver real-time lectures and workshops that are, in terms of teacher-student communication, very similar to standard sessions in real-life classrooms. Secondly, a group of students can meet in this environment, without a teacher, to learn VRML together and to discuss some VRML related questions. Thirdly, any student can use this environment to teach himself or herself VRML.

Navigating through the virtual environment, students can experience most of the VRML nodes and samples as virtual objects and interact with them. For example, a group of students (represented by their avatars) can gather around a red cube, click on it to see its behaviour (rotation and changing colour), learn the appropriate VRML codes in the frame nearby and then discuss this sample with the teacher and/or each other.

In order to make our environment accessible from any ordinary computer, we have created it as Web-Based Desktop Virtual Reality. Of course, the sense of immersion in Desktop VR is not as strong that offered by head-mounted displays, but nevertheless it exists in a limited form [3, 4]. Students can feel themselves as part of a virtual environment (the sense of "being there") because of their active behaviour within the environment. When one navigates through the virtual space, to interact with virtual objects and to communicate with the avatars of other participants using familiar 'real world' processes (i.e. worrying constantly about your position in the space and synchronising your action with other people) a specific sense of immersion is developed. Our research shows that by being within the same world as interactive VRML objects, students are able to learn VRML materials much quicker and deeper than in a non-virtual learning situation.

 

5: Conclusions

We have found that the use of a specially created VRML environment to teach the VRML specifications provides students with the unique experience of immersive collaborative learning and significantly increases the efficiency of the learning process. The main problems connected with designing and creating such an environment are locating appropriate 'architectural' forms of space and representing information in a hybrid 3D/2D form.

6: References

[1] Frécon, E. and Nöu, A. Building distributed virtual environments to support collaborative work. VRST '98. Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Virtual reality software and technology 1998, pp. 105-113.

[2] Neal, L. Virtual Classrooms and Communities. GROUP '97. Proceedings of the international ACM SIGGROUP conference on Supporting group work: the integration challenge, 1997, pp. 81 - 90.

[3] Robertson, G., Czerwinski, M. & van Dantzich, M. Immersion in Desktop Virtual Reality. UIST '97. Proceedings of the 10th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, 1997, pp. 11-19.

[4] Steinke, G. Preparing Students to Communicate in a Virtual Environment. SIGCPR '97. Proceedings of the 1997 conference on Computer personnel research, p. 249.

[5] Bentham, J., Works, ed. Browning, IV, 1834 (The Bentham Collection University College London).