[Opensim-users] Hoping for a fearless comparison of opensim vs unity 3D

[Kay McLennan]

On Sat, Jul 19, 2014 at 11:45 AM, Tom <tom.willans at bessacarr.com> wrote:


> ...For many educational uses adapting and changing objects is not needed...
>

While it is true that some types of educational simulations are well suited
for static simulations (like a virtual tour of the inner workings of a
human body part or a historic recreation of a city), static (Unity
platform-like) builds are completely ill-suited for the types of online
economics and business studies college courses I teach.

Even the online courses that utilize extensive instructor- or
institution-created materials always simultaneously utilize a textbook (to
insure the transmission of the relevant portion of the course-specific
common body of knowledge).  In turn, the textbooks I utilize in all of my
courses change each year.  Sometimes the textbook changes simply involve a
[maddening] re-sort of the chapters (to enable the publisher to change the
edition and sell more new copies of the text).  Still (and more
importantly), it is often the case that the material in the textbook
changes (and these changes need to be reflected in the course materials and
activities).  For example, social media marketing is now one of the most
important components in the field of marketing but was barely mentioned in
textbooks even as recently as a few years ago.  Similarly, the cases in
business ethics textbooks continue to change at an almost exponential rate
owing to the abundance of new real work examples of unethical behavior
(think GMC, BP, the financial meltdown, GMOs, fracking, and more!).

Further, college students (including traditional and non traditional aged
students) are pressed for time and require course-specific learning
simulations only.  That is, students do not have the time to explore
virtual world simulations that are only tangentially related to the course
learning objectives.  Rather, the virtual world learning simulations have
to be graded activities that are worth their time (in the sense of being
detailed and expansive enough to contribute specifically to their
understanding of the course material).  Again, in the same way high quality
college textbooks and online course sites require continual updates and
upgrades, high quality virtual world simulations need to be updated and
upgraded -- to contribute specifically to students' understanding of the
course material.

Also (and this is a BIG item), I am constantly thinking up (and testing)
new types of virtual world learning simulations.  In other words, my view
is that it would be too limiting to be only be able to create a simulation
once.  In contrast, right now, I currently have about 40 or more different
types of virtual world learning simulations "in play" [read:  that I
collect student feedback data on (based on student -- Likert scale-based --
views on the interactivity, engagement, and contribution to learning
outcomes for each simulation -- see some of the early data collected at:
https://sites.google.com/site/fvwc12mclennan/student-survey-data-2)].
 Note:  Over the years, students have provided excellent and surprising
feedback.  For example, in the basic economics course I teach, I thought
students would be keenly interested in the Free Trade Game I built (with
each student the president/king/queen/dictator of their own island nation).
 However, the in-world PP slides (from my lecture notes that are also
uploaded into my course site) and the in-world vocabulary flash cards were
rated markedly higher than the Free Trade Game in every category.

Note:  My college-level students almost universally [first] say they need
asynchronous virtual world learning activities ONLY (in keeping with how
all of my online courses are asynchronous).  However, after the students
get some experience with the virtual world learning activities, they almost
universally request real time meet-ups in-world!  That is, one of the main
attractions of virtual worlds continues to be the ability to interact with
others in-world.

Finally, while I keep trying all of the different available virtual
platforms, to date (and for the reasons detailed above), I believe the
OpenSim platform is the best fit for my online college-level virtual world
learning simulations.  [Still, I will confess to being particularly taken
with the genius and intuitive "ease of use" of the smartphone control panel
or interface feature in the Cloud Party virtual world viewer.  That is,
while the Firestorm or Singularity or other OpenSim viewers work perfectly
for me (and I do NOT think a virtual world viewer has to be
browser-based!), I wonder if a second type of OpenSim viewer (that is
geared for a beginning user only) might be needed (?)...]

Best,
Kay

*Kay L. McLennan, Ph.D.*
*Professor of Practice*
*School of Continuing Studies*
*Tulane University*
*kmclenna at tulane.edu <kmclenna at tulane.edu>*
*e-Teaching in Virtual Worlds @
https://sites.google.com/site/fvc13mclennan/
<https://sites.google.com/site/fvc13mclennan/> and
https://sites.google.com/site/fvwc12mclennan/
<https://sites.google.com/site/fvwc12mclennan/>*
*e-Course Teaching Schedule & Syllabi @ http://www.tulane.edu/~kmclenna/
<http://www.tulane.edu/~kmclenna/>*
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