CIRCULACIÓN EXTRACORPÓREA

This is the primary usage of the VHD environment, in which students are allowed to observe the various constructions in the humanitarian support area and engage in a series of short quizzes as an assessment of the learnt knowledge. The main objective of this arrangement is to provide students with a learning aid that helps them to reflect the learnt theories and related knowledge in an interactive and engaging learning environment. Importantly, this scenario does not allow students to experience unique MUVE tasks such as modifying the environment, content creation or unlimited access. Therefore, the scenario characteristics fit well into the category of High-EM, irrespective of user self-regulation (SR low or high, although High-SR is anticipated). Students are given pre-arranged options of interactivity through guided stepwise learning paths, as the tasks are related to the assessments of the course modules. Fig. 5.11

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shows a stepwise participation in the learning activities about dilemma management as part of learning scenario 1.

Figure 5.11: Dilemma situations presented in Notecards for disaster management decision making At the end of the stepwise ordered learning engagement, students are directed to the assessment centre with Sloodle support. Student activities in this scenario are mainly concentrated on the selected Sloodle tools – Sloodle Choice and Sloodle Quiz Chair. Fig. 5.12 shows Sloodle supported student assessment activities. First, the students are guided from one learning location to the next using numbered arrows. In each location, a range of dilemma situations is presented through Notecards, as shown. Then students are asked to participate in the assessment tasks, in which they have to provide their decisions to address the dilemma and support the refugees while meeting the aid agency objectives. Through the Sloodle interface, the grades and answers are presented at the discretion of the teacher, while updating the Moodle records at the same time, for data consistency.

The learning activities in this scenario show the basic and typical learning use cases in an e-Learning online learning environment. Therefore, the policies for managing this MULE followed a strategy on minimizing 3D environment exploration features as such facility can distract the students from their learning objectives. After all, as the VHD project staff indicated in this scenario of use, students are using the VHD Island as only a part of their course with the rest based in Moodle and classroom teaching. A selected set from the policies that the researchers have tried to implement with VHD are shown in Table 5.7. These policies are defined according to the learning management needs of that scenario. Policies are grouped into the OpenSim function categories for clarification.

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Figure 5.12: Directed learning paths and Sloodle activities for VHD learning scenario 1

Category Management Policies

Land Mgt.

Students should not terraform the learning environment Students should not be given land ownership

Student must refrain from accessing restricted areas (if defined for a learning activity)

Avatar Activity

Mgt.

Students should engage in the learning tasks for ILOs Students should not distract others’ learning

Students should not misbehave in the environment User

Mgt.

User names may be mapped with real identities Users should be given appropriate privileges for tasks Users may not change their given home locations Content

Mgt.

Students should not alter/move learning content Students should not create content objects

Students should not alter/move the environment content Group

Mgt.

Students should not change settings of their assigned groups Students should not change their assigned groups

Students should not alter group owned objects or land

Table 5.7: A set of policies for the management of VHD learning Scenario I

For the implementations of these policies, the OpenSim function network tool was used by the VHD staff. Functions related to each policy were examined using the tool; by doing that possible implementation methods were identified. To indicate the benefit received by the VHD staff, an example policy implementation from the above list is selected for further elaboration.

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Figure 5.13: The ego-network of avatar activity function - Terraform

The selected function, Avatar Terraforming (changing 3D virtual land settings) and its functional interrelationships are shown in Fig. 5.13 (depth level 1). The policies indicate that students are not allowed to change the land attributes through terraforming. Here, the VHD staff members have considered a set of land editing functions such as Flattening, Raising, Smoothing, Reverting, etc. As the ego-network indicates, certain functions in parcel and group management intrinsically favour terraforming (green colour edges). Some of the functions at group and parcel management have a toggle behaviour i.e. they can be either true or false (orange colour edges). VHD environment incorporates different land parcels and group settings; therefore, to prevent students from terraforming, the VHD researchers have also used the Region level functions to block-terraform. The VHD staff reported that the use of the tool made their work efficient and reliable since they can check the conflicting interrelations as they set the EM functions through the client application. Moreover, since this scenario is the most frequent type of use, academics indicated that the efficiency and reliability brought in by the network topology in Gephi is quite useful for managing the VHD Island.

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