[Opensim-users] Looking for help reproducing a user study in OpenSim

[Marcus Alexander Link]

Hi Elizabeth,

I can imagine most of the folks who are using/administrating OpenSims
are already busy with their own projects. I can imagine that an
OpenSim Provider could be interested in supporting a project like
yours and provide a already installed sim, which then just need to be
duplicated for more studies.

Maybe ask the guys at http://www.simhost.com/ or any other OpenSim hoster ..?

Marcus


On 4/29/10, Elizabeth Lowry <emlowry at vt.edu> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I tried telling the individuals who answered my first email back in March
> about this, but I haven't gotten any responses yet.
>
> I'd really like to compare the results I'm getting from my study with
> someone else's - I've posted instructions at
> http://hokiegrid.cs.vt.edu/index.php?&page=smodul&id=34&btn=33&subbtn=34 and
> I'd really like to talk to some of you about reproducing my experiment.
>  Please?  It's for science!
>
> Thank you,
> Elizabeth Lowry
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 10:29 AM, Elizabeth Lowry <emlowry at vt.edu> wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> My name is Elizabeth Lowry and I'm a Master's Student in the Computer
>> Science program at Virginia Tech.
>>
>> As part of my thesis, I'm going to be running a user study using OpenSim.
>>  I'll be packaging my setup, including the data collection tools, in an
>> OAR,
>> and I'm hoping some of you will be willing to reproduce my experiment
>> using
>> that OAR and let me compare your results to mine.
>>
>> The idea of the experiment is to measure the effect of levels of spatial
>> presentation in a virtual environment on that environment's effectiveness.
>>  I'll be presenting two lessons -- one on the photoelectric effect, a
>> topic
>> with a level of inherent spatial content, and one on a yet-to-be
>> determined
>> topic that isn't inherently spatial, like music or logic -- at three
>> levels
>> of spatial presentation -- as a slide show given in the virtual world, as
>> a
>> set of posters arranged in space (with the slides from the
>> previously-mentioned slideshow as the posters), and as a set of full-on 3D
>> exhibits (presenting the same information as the slides) taking advantage
>> of
>> a virtual environment's ability to present 3D objects.  Subjects will
>> visit
>> exactly one of the topic/level-of-spatial-presentation combinations for a
>> set period of time and their learning will be measured by comparing their
>> scores on quizzes before and after visiting.
>>
>> The question I'm hoping to answer is: How much effort is really worth it
>> in
>> the construction of a virtual learning environment?  And does this level
>> of
>> effort vary between topics that are inherently spatial and ones that
>> aren't?
>>  If the full-3D versions of the learning environments in the study lead to
>> the greatest improvements in quiz scores, it'll indicate that the greater
>> amount of effort required to build such environments pays off in better
>> learning.
>>
>> Obviously, more work would need to be done in the future, whatever the
>> results of this study -- but to get solid results on this study, I'd like
>> your help.
>>
>> Is anyone on this list in a position to run a user study in OpenSim with
>> 30
>> or more participants by mid to late April?
>>
>> Thank you,
>> Elizabeth Lowry
>>
>