This session will introduce the concept of an Ambient Simulation-based Learning EXperience (ASLEX), a variant of the Alternate Reality Game (ARG) developed in part using virtual world technology and delivered on mobile phones and tablets.

1. A prototype
Ambient Simulation-Based
Learning Experience
(ASLEX)

2.  Intended use
 Level 1 Bacterial Pathogens module
Pathogens: Past, Present, Future block
 Epidemic typhus as a case study for Pathogens Past
 Factors affecting typhus prevalence in Victorian Liverpool
 Evolution of virulence in rickettsia
 Contemporary relevance, e.g. refugee camps, disaster zones
 Mediated/augmented/virtual reality; ubiquitous
computing
 Integral formative and summative feedback
 Examined conventionally at end of module
Caveat: This is seriously unfinished concept-ware!

3. Workhouse
256x256 m
region
Wellcome Images ,CC by-nc 2.0 UK & NI

4.  Affective Context Learning Model (Shackleton-Jones)
 Learning is best when student emotionally engaged in advance
 Memorable events (“flash bulb memories”)
 Ambient Simulation-based Learning Experience
 Virtual world (OpenSim) via Android mobile devices
 Lumiya viewer (due Q4 2012; developer Alina Lyvette)
 Movement synchronized through real and virtual space (GPS)
 Format(s)
 Digital landscape vs Story-telling vs Timeline vs Simulation
 Group-based but each student has own hypothesis to test
 Landscape provides data/evidence/tools, virtual characters
 Students operate under resource constraints

5. Court
dwellings
Brownlow Hill
Men’s Infirmary
Women’s Infirmary Piazza
Offices
Fever hospital
Chapel
Scale and location approximate In-worldprim-based building

7. Standard viewer
Reality
Lumiya

8. Image, video, data, citation, etc Standard client
Wellcome Images ,CC by-nc 2.0 UK & NI
Lumiya
URL
Note 3D view
Text view
Long-touch
Menu
Chat
Samsung Galaxy Y (3” 320 x 240 px screen)

9.  Non-player characters
provide context, info and
narrative drive
 Prim or avatar, static or
Edelweiss Le Mont St Michel, SL
moving
 Menu-driven interaction or
scripted for AI
 Located via minimap or
contacts list
Native
Lumiya

10. PubMed search tool
Genome “player”

12.  Limitations
 Tech-driven or tech-enabled?
 GPS accuracy
 Android-only; frame rates, GPS, data plan
 Lumiya: closed source/commercial (free for edu regions);
subset of OpenSim, limited panning, avatar appearance, etc
 No RL map cf AR apps: ARIS (iOS), Wikitude
 Ethics of using virtual spaces
 Opportunities
 Multi-user, mixed reality
 Usable on desktop without GPS
(runs from server or USB on PC)
 Rapid development (out-sourcing)
 Collaboration/reuse
Google Project Glass