During this study, users expressed many positive opinions towards the potential of the cyber campus to help managing some situational and institutional barriers hindering access to education, and support participation in online learning. The most frequently discussed attribute of the cyber campus was the ability to offer access in education. Participants often underlined the ability to access immersive learning activities in the cyber campus from effectively anywhere there is an adequate Internet connection. They also frequently argued that such a tool could be an alternative solution to access learning when a student cannot physically attend the educational institution. For instance, the following participant underlined the ability of the virtual world to provide access in learning and facilitate collaboration and socialisation to support students when access to education is challenged:
Participant 17: “Virtual worlds are a nice alternative to attending on campus lectures, [allowing to] collaborate with fellow students without loosing the interaction and belonging [to the community] when access is difficult”
Some participants also focussed attention on the ability of the environment to offer consistencies between educational experiences in reality and the virtual world, and implied that this can allow them to participate in familiar and realistic learning activities when access to education is challenged.
Participant 26: “As far as I am concerned, I see virtual worlds as a really good alternative of real life education. You can do the lectures and the seminars as you can do in a university. The only difference is that you are not participating physically, but the education is still there.”
During this study, participants had repeatedly pointed out that the cyber campus could mitigate several barriers that affect their learning experience. Participants experiencing financial barriers impeding access to education, for example, indicated that remote attendance to online learning activities through the cyber campus could help reducing some of the costs that are associated with traveling to the educational institution.
Participant 21: “I think that using a virtual world for learning can provide much cheaper education. Less expensive participation, no transportation and other associated expenses…”
Participants encountering barriers because of family responsibilities had also frequently referred to the ability of the virtual world to allow accessing learning activities from remote locations. They also implied that this can enable them to better manage their family commitments and responsibilities.
Participant 23 “I think it is more convenient to be at home, you don't need someone to take care the children… You feel that you are there, in a campus, you see the others, you make gestures, you can talk, you can express yourself…”
For instance, two participants had to go away from their computer in order to manage their family during the discussion, and returned back after few minutes to continue participating. In both occasions, the participants appreciated the ability to review what was said in the public text chat, and continued participating in the discussion.
Participant 17: “Going to prepare my youngest night milk :) brb in 5 mins”
Participant 26: “Note that while having this session, I put my oldest daughter (3 years old) to sleep, feed my youngest (1 and a half years old) and also putting her to sleep.”
Female participants, whom their educational experience was affected during pregnancy, also expressed the potential of the environment to support them. Participants elucidated that the cyber campus could allow accessing and participating education during the late stages and first few months after the pregnancy, in which they could not attend the educational institution.
Participant 16: “Being able to access education remotely when pregnant and participate in the activities in this way would have definitely helped me.”
Participant 20: “Oh that would be paradise on earth Participant 16. I remember how difficult it was when I was pregnant. This would have definitely helped.”
Participants experiencing work related difficulties hindering participation to the educational institution and regular attendance to classes highlighted the ability to access information and meet with their colleagues in the virtual world.
Participant 18: “Virtual worlds can be a good additional tool to education and allow me to meet with classmates when I cannot go to class… The way lectures and seminars are done through cyber campuses are not much different from the traditional [classroom]. This was very interesting”
Participants also noted that using a cyber campus could help them manage their time more effectively. In particular, participants explained that they could access and participate in educational activities from home; therefore they do not need to make significant arrangements to attend classes. Participants noted that they could fit this method of online learning to their busy schedule. Some participants also explained that as a result of work responsibilities they do not have much available time to study, and suggested that participating in online learning though a cyber campus could allow them to prepare better for the lesson, because this method saves time on travelling.
Participant 21: “It helps you participate more effectively in terms of time management. I can fit such style of education easy in my busy schedule. It is important that I don’t have to travel to the university, as I am very busy with work, and this can work quite well for me”
Participants explained that during the virtual lecture, the environment supported effective communication and provided synchronous participation in warm social learning activities, and underlined that this can improve the educational experience of online learners.
Participant 11: “During this experience, I felt that I was somewhere familiar, [I could] sense people, I could navigate wherever I wanted even if there was a strict schedule to follow. This could have really helped me on my distance course!!!"
Participants experiencing mostly mobility disabilities suggested that participating in online learning activities through a cyber campus could alleviate some of the physical barriers that impede their transportation from and to the educational institutions and around facilities. Participants highlighted the capacity of the environment to support them attend social learning activities from convenient remote locations. In addition,
they indicated that using a cyber campus to access learning may help them save time and effort on preparation and transportation to the educational institution.
Participant 22: “I can access education from my own environment without having to fight for a parking spot, traffic and rude people. I can concentrate on following and participating on the lesson at hand.”
The following participant with hearing disability described the ability of the environment to facilitate visual interaction and communication with peers and learning material, suggesting that this supports her needs of visual interaction and participation in learning activities.
Participant 19: “I'm deaf, by the way. The freedom to experience learning in a visual medium like this with text communication and the opportunity to work with people and interact with people I'd never meet or get to even talk with in the real world, it's very empowering for someone like me”
Furthermore, some participants suggested that the cyber campus encouraged them to participate in learning activities by removing language barriers and shyness.
Participant 23: “Virtual worlds really helps you participate in learning activities, because you can contribute without the barriers of the foreign language, it gives the chance to attend to a university and we actually interact with each other.”
Limitations
7.4.
As in any research project, this study also had its own associated limitations that affect the reliability and trustworthiness of the results. A number of limitations were identified regarding the results of this study and are discussed in this Section.
One of the most important limitations of this study was that the participants’ opinions were based on a limited experience they had with the environment, its educational functionalities and learning activities. In order to better support the claim that a cyber campus can support students experiencing barriers impeding access to education, it would have been more appropriate to interview users involved in learning activities carried out for more substantial periods of time. The opinions gathered in the study came from users who participated in one learning experience, and this can serve as an initial indicator of the user preferences, which require further validation. In addition, it
can be argued that the approach of demonstrating the educational affordances of the cyber campus during the virtual lecture and learning activities, could have introduced bias in the participants’ opinions about the environment.
Another limitation concerned the sample of this study that may have represented a number of experiences but does not cover all barriers in access and participation to education. In addition, this lack of sample diversity limits the transferability of the findings of this study.
The use of the public text chat to communicate during the activities and focus groups instead of a combination of text chat and voice was also a limitation. During this study, participants felt tired after prolonged typing and confused because they were trying to communicate simultaneously through the public text chat. Despite the fact that some participants preferred this method of communication as identified in this study, it would have been more appropriate to allow them to use voice if they wanted to. However, limiting communication through the public text chat allowed better management of the conversations, ensured that technical or other difficulties that are associated with voice communication would not interfere, and was found as an attribute that contributed to participation to the discussion for some people.
The use of virtual focus group method to collect data also has some limitations. This method lacks real group dynamics and misses the important nonverbal input during the discussion. In addition, the Puzzle and Pyramid (replacement session) teams had small numbers of participants, comprising 4 and 2 participants respectively. The rule of thumb for focus group research is 6 to 12 participants and this was considered a limitation, as there was not enough participation to influence bigger discussions. Also, lack of expertise in conducting qualitative research, and the fact that the virtual focus group and the prepared questions were not piloted before conducting this study are also limitations. Furthermore, data collected through focus group research can be interpreted differently across moderators (Calder, 1977). Additionally, the conclusions of this study were mostly based on the reflections and opinions of the participants, but it is arguable that more general conclusions may be drawn from those reflections.
Chapter Summary
7.5.
This Chapter presented the findings of the qualitative study set out to explore the situational and institutional barriers hindering access and participation in education, and how a cyber campus can support online learning for students experiencing those barriers. To conduct this study, a virtual focus group method to interview people was employed, and the data was analysed using thematic analysis. The findings of this study revealed a number of barriers hindering access to education and participation in learning activities, affecting the students learning experience. These barriers were categorised to situational and institutional barriers according to Cross (1981) framework and presented in this Chapter. The results were also analysed to identify the characteristics that can support online learning and alleviate some of the barriers hindering access to education. The findings revealed the characteristic of presence, awareness, communication and sociability, together with the level of the environment realism, anonymity of users in the environment and synchronicity in activities. However, disadvantages related to anonymity, synchronicity and lack of human interaction in virtual worlds were also identified.
During the virtual focus group sessions of this study, it was observed that participants communicated effectively and contributed to the development of relaxed, friendly and socially warm atmospheres. Participants equally contributed to the discussions, shared their personal experiences and stories, and respectfully listened and contributed to each other’s opinions. Towards the end of the sessions, participants expressed their satisfaction and reported that they had enjoyed participating in the session and the previous experiment.
A number of limitations were identified relating to the level of confidence and validity of the findings, and must be put under deep consideration for any further work to be performed based on this research project.
Having successfully conducted the empirical experimental studies as planned in Chapter 3, the next Chapter discusses the conclusions of this research project, including the research contributions, the associated limitations, and the future work that can be conducted as a result of this investigation.
Chapter 8 - Conclusions, Limitations and
Future Work
Introduction
8.1.
This Chapter summarises the research carried out and discusses the implications and contributions of this research project. Section 8.2 provides a research summary. Section 8.3 revisits the research objectives and answers the research question set in the beginning of this thesis. This Section also discusses the conclusions and contributions of this research project. Section 8.4 presents the associated limitations of this research project. Section 8.5 discusses the possible directions for future work as a result of this research project, and Section 8.6 concludes this Chapter.
Research Summary
8.2.
This research project explored the use of cyber campuses as an online learning tool to support students experiencing situational and institutional barriers accessing education.
To investigate this, a four–step research design was planned and conducted as follows: 1. Literature review
Chapter 2 presented a comprehensive review of the literature that helped to develop a sound understanding of the current state of the existing research. Extensive investigation of the literature looking at barriers hindering access and participation to education was performed, together with investigating the use of technology to support online learning. Existing knowledge in the field of virtual worlds was also discussed, as well as the concept of cyber campuses and their educational capabilities, and some examples were presented. Investigation of virtual worlds characteristics of presence, awareness, communication and sociability was performed, as these are the factors that contribute to the efficacy of educational MUVEs. Furthermore, the literature behind the design of cyber campuses, and the associated disadvantages of such environments were also investigated.
From this review, the need to ascertain the extent to which a cyber campus can support students experiencing situational and institutional barriers accessing education
was identified, together with the need to find out more on how to design such environments.
2. Research Design
To address the identified research gap, a combination of quantitative and qualitative research was chosen and details are presented in Chapter 3. While formulating the research design, the need of a cyber campus environment to use as a proof of concept and to conduct experiments with had emerged. Thus, the design and development of a prototype, and evaluation of its efficacy to support the characteristics that contribute to online learning activities was planned. Moreover, a qualitative study was also planned to explore perceptions of barriers hindering access and participation to education, and the use of a cyber campus to alleviate those barriers and support participation in online learning activities. This comprised employing virtual focus group method for data collection, and thematic analysis to analyse and report data.
3. The Design and Evaluation of SHU3DED
The third stage of this research project focussed on the design and evaluation of the SHU3DED cyber campus. The prototype was designed and developed following some of the best practices and examples of educational virtual worlds, and design guidelines from the literature. A technical evaluation was conducted to test the functionality and stability of the system (Chapter 4). Following this, an initial evaluation of the environment’s educational efficacy comprising two experimental studies was performed (Chapter 5). During these experiments, a number of limitations were identified in respect to the experimental design as planned and the appropriateness of the sample involved, and changes were required to improve the quality of data. After a series of changes to the experimental design, appropriate sample was identified and an extended evaluation of the environment was performed (Chapter 6).
4. Qualitative Investigation.
After the environment evaluation, a qualitative study was conducted in the form of focus group (Chapter 7). A series of virtual focus group sessions were conducted within the cyber campus, involving the sample that had already participated in the evaluation experiment discussed in Chapter 6. This study investigated people’s experiences with barriers in accessing education; explored their opinions regarding the educational characteristics of the environment, and their perceptions on how such environment can mitigate some of the barriers they experience, and support them participate in online learning activities.
Research Conclusions
8.3.
Through theoretical and empirical investigation, this thesis contributes to the knowledge base on understanding how a cyber campus environment can support participation in online learning activities for students experiencing situational and institutional barriers hindering access to education. To ascertain this, the following research objectives were set and completed.
O1: Identify some of the situational and institutional barriers hindering
access and participation to Higher Education.
To address the above objective, the literature behind the barriers hindering access and participation to education was investigated, together with exploration of the opinions of a sample of people experiencing them. The conducted virtual focus group study revealed barriers related to the situation of each student, and issues emerging from educational institutions. The findings of this research project supports the relevance of Cross’s (1981) situational and institutional barriers in modern days, confirming their existence and significance to the students’ learning experience.
O2: Determine the extent to which a cyber campus can support online
learning activities.
Developing a cyber campus prototype and using it to conduct a series of online learning activities helped to achieve this objective. The experimental studies of this research project indicate the potential of the cyber campus to facilitate participation of geographically dispersed users in online learning activities. The environment enabled users to co-exist in the same shared space and participate, communicate and collaborate in activities effectively, developing the feeling of ‘being there’. The users were able to anticipate the existence and location of other users in the environments and their actions. The environment also supported socialisation and informal interactions between them. Users were interacting with each other and the environment, and were engaging in activities. Furthermore, the design and arrangement of the environment was positively evaluated, users were productive and satisfied from the experience.
O3: Identify the main characteristics of cyber campuses that can support
participation in online learning activities for students experiencing situational and institutional barriers accessing education.
The findings of the evaluation and virtual focus group studies helped to address the above objective. Considering that in a MUVE learning is strongly related to the students perceptions of presence, awareness, communication and sociability, the extent to which these characteristics are supported by the environment were evaluated using the De Lucia et al. (2009) evaluation framework. The evaluation results indicated that the cyber campus provided high sense of presence and awareness of the existence, actions and roles of users in the environment during the learning activities. The communication and sociability of the environment were also positively perceived, suggesting that SHU3DED can effectively facilitate social interactions. Opinions regarding these characteristics were also collected and analysed in the virtual focus group study. This allowed identifying and understanding how these characteristics contribute to the