Learn, Teach and Play in 3D Virtual Worlds
Organised by:
Jim Ang, City University London
Panayiotis Zapihris, City University London
David White, Oxford University
Steven Warburton, King’s College
PalithaEdirisingha, University of Leicester
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Schedule of the day
 11:00am: tea/coffee break
 1:00pm lunch (room E217)
 3:30pm: tea/coffee break
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What happened yesterday in Second Life
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What happened yesterday in Second Life
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What happened yesterday in Second Life
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What happened yesterday in Second Life
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Academic importance of virtual worlds
 Harvard University Law school (Nesson, Nesson, Koo 2006)
 Academic events
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Academic importance of virtual worlds
 Education in virtual worlds (Livingstone and Kemp 2006)
 Virtual museum (Cochrane, 2006)
 Sexuality (Bardzell and Bardzell 2006)
 Autism and social virtual world (Lester 2007)
 E-commerce in virtual world (Olivera, Shen, Georganas 2000)
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What about Human Computer Interaction (HCI) design?
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HCI: work vs play
 Consider a button labelled \"Solve Problem\"
it!
Solve
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Usability methodologies for games
 Observation, interview, virtual ethnography, thematic analysis
 Contribution:
o Models of play activity
o A methodological framework for game playability evaluation (Ang,
C.S., Zaphiris, P., Wilson, S.)
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Game-based learning design guidelines
 Affinity diagram
 Focus group
 Heuristic evaluation
 Contributions:
o A matrix of usability: interface,
play, rules, narratives, social aspects
and learnability.
o A set of guidelines
(Ang, Avni, Zaphiris, 2007)
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Inclusive design of games
 Equipment grants from Inclusive Digital Economy Cluster of
EPSRC
 Social and health benefits of games among older people
 Different perceptions and interaction styles
 Call for inclusive design
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‹#›

Eye tracking and social network sites
 JISC Emerge grants
 Social network site and Second Life for learning
 Usability of the systems
 Contributions:
o The relationship between eye gaze patterns and cognitive load
issues
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Social Network Analysis (SNA)
 Games and Social Network
 Combination of conventional HCI
(observation, content analysis) and
SNA techniques
 Block model: social role blocking
 P* model: statistical modelling for
social network data
 Outputs:
o characteristics of social network for
games
o network patterns for social roles
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Let the event begin!
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