Teaching Art History Online in a Multi-User Virtual Environment

Kevin Huotari

Teaching Art History Online in a Multi-User Virtual Environment

Retention in community college level online art history classes was significantly lower than in equivalent in-person classes.

Teaching Art History Online in a Multi-User Virtual Environment

Retention in community college level online art history classes was significantly lower than in equivalent in-person classes.

Non-traditional learners in online classes faced greater difficulty in maintaining engagement due to lessening of the affective component in course content.

Teaching Art History Online in a Multi-User Virtual Environment

This project was intended to help evaluate the efficacy of the use of an online virtual world such as Second Life as a way to increase student engagement in online classes by providing opportunities for real-time, virtual face-to-face student-faculty and student-student interaction.

Drop out and failure rates among distance learners are significantly higher than those for traditional, campus-based students and even higher among nontraditional students.

Nash, R. D. (2005). Course Completion Rates among Distance Learners: Identifying Possible Methods to Improve Retention. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 8(4).

Investigation into the use of virtual worlds for synchronous and asynchronous distance learning has indicated that Multi-User Virtual Environments afford opportunities for experiential learning and situated learning within a collaboration learning environment.

Dickey, M. (2005).Three-dimensional virtual worlds and distance learning: two case studies of Active Worlds as a medium for distance education. British Journal of Educational Technology. 36, 439-451.

Using an online virtual world such as Second Life may increase student engagement, particularly for online classes, by providing opportunities for real-time, virtual face-to-face student-faculty and student-student interaction.

Baker, S. C., Wentz, R. K., & Woods, M. M. (2009). Using Virtual Worlds in Education: Second Life as an Educational Tool. Teaching of Psychology. 36. 59-64.

The project was implemented in Linden Lab's Second Life, a Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE),a virtual-reality experience. Students visited a virtual-reality art gallery in Second Life.

Second Life is a client-server based MUVE that represents participants as avatars. Avatars have independent movement and animation control, can interact with one another through gesture, text chat, and live voice chat, and can create three dimensional objects. Avatars can create realistic simulations of physical environments.

How often do you use a courseware product (e.g., ETUDES, Blackboard, etc.)?• Never (1) 0 0.00%• Rarely (2) 0 0.00%• Sometimes (3) 0 0.00%• Often (4) 2 22.22%• Frequently (5) 7 77.78%• No answer 0 0.00%

I was able to complete the Gallery Visit Assignment because there was a gallery available to visit in Second Life.

• Strongly Disagree (0) 0 0.00%• Disagree (1) 0 0.00%• Neutral (2) 0 0.00%• Agree (3) 1 11.11%• Strongly Agree (4) 7 77.78%• No answer 1 11.11%

The Second Life gallery was more accessible to me than the real life galleries.• Strongly Disagree (0) 0 0.00%• Disagree (1) 0 0.00%• Neutral (2) 2 22.22%• Agree (3) 3 33.33%• Strongly Agree (4) 3 33.33%• No answer 1 11.11%

I was able to more successfully complete the Gallery Visit Assignment because Second Life offered the opportunity to speak with my instructor.

• Strongly Disagree (0) 0 0.00%• Disagree (1) 0 0.00%• Neutral (2) 0 0.00%• Agree (3) 1 11.11%• Strongly Agree (4) 7 77.78%• No answer 1 11.11%

I found the instructor's presence in the Second Life gallery helpful.• Strongly Disagree (0) 0 0.00%• Disagree (1) 0 0.00%• Neutral (2) 0 0.00%• Agree (3) 1 11.11%• Strongly Agree (4) 7 77.78%• No answer 1 11.11%

The technical requirements can be found here:http://secondlife.com/support/sysreqs.phpYou can download the Second Life client here:http://secondlife.com/support/downloads.phpCreate an Avatar in Second Lifehttp://secondlife.com/whatis/avatar.phpPress the Join Now button:https://join.secondlife.com/Second Life Classroom LocationTeaching 10Are you ready to teach in Second Life?NMCEducators -- SL Educators (The SLED List)30 things every newbie should know before starting second life