Schedule of Questions
The aim of the following questionnaire is to explore teacher perceptions around accepting MUVE (Multi-User Virtual Environments), such as Second Life, as an educational tool. It is not our aim to promote MUVE or to assert that they should or should not be used. Before presenting the questionnaire, I will demonstrate the virtual classroom I have built in Second Life utilising MUVE as an example for its use in an educational environment.
The questionnaire asks your opinion regarding various issues relating to educational use of MUVE raised in the literature. When answering these questions, please emphasise the relevance and the impact of these issues in the context of your specific work environment - in courses in which you participate, participated in the past or are likely to participate in the future.
Background
1.Please, briefly describe your background as an educator.
2.Please, describe in a few words your experience with computers and Internet. 3.Do you use computers and Internet in teaching? If yes, please, briefly describe
your experience.
4.Do you play video games? If yes, please briefly describe your experience. 5.Are you familiar with Second Life or other Multi-User Virtual Environments? If
yes, please briefly describe your experience.
6.Are you currently involved with education-related activities in Second Life or any other MUVE? If yes, please describe your experience.
TAM factors
7.How do you find the feasibility of navigation in the demonstrated virtual class? 8.In which ways does the ease of use of MUVE is likely to have an impact in your
acceptance of it as a teaching tool?
9.Teachers may find the MUVE’s rich multimedia experiences and new opportunities for creativity as an enjoyable medium. In which ways is the enjoyment of MUVE likely to have an impact in your acceptance of it as a teaching tool?
10.As elaborated, many educational institutions use MUVE as a teaching tool. In which ways will your colleagues’/other educator’s acceptance of MUVE as a teaching tool by likely to influence your own acceptance of MUVE?
11. In which ways the availability of technical or course design support would likely to have an impact in your acceptance of MUVE as a teaching tool? 12.The use of MUVE in teaching may be more or less compatible with your existing practice – MUVE may more or less “fit” the way you normally conduct courses, or the way your organisation expects you to conduct your courses. In which ways will such a fit (or its lack) likely to have an impact in your acceptance of MUVE as a teaching tool?
13.All electronic environments raise security and trust issues – private information may be revealed, or the environment may suddenly become unavailable due to problems with the provider offering the environment. In which ways would the issues of security and trust have an impact in your acceptance of MUVE as a teaching tool?
14.MUVE presents an environment similar to computer games – an environment highly familiar to many students, and associated with having fun, rather than
with learning. In your opinion, what are the implications of such familiarity for student learning in MUVE?
15.In many cases, avatars in MUVE could use information facilities similar to facilities available to real people in the “real-life”. For example, avatars could make PowerPoint presentations or send text messages (via Twitter). In which ways could the availability of familiar information facilities in the virtual world have an impact on student learning in MUVE?
Usefulness
16.MUVE offer a media-rich experience: 3D visual, sound, and interaction via movement, manipulation, speech and text. How do you think the media richness of MUVE is likely to have an impact on student learning? 17.Immersive environments such as MUVE are known to induce a flow
experience - participants find that addressing challenges in the environment is highly exhilarating, so that they tend to spend a lot of time immersed in the environment. In which ways would the flow phenomenon in MUVE have an impact on student learning?
18.MUVE could allow students who normally do not meet (e.g., extramural students, or students enrolled in the same course at different campuses) to meet in a virtual space, making them aware of each other, enabling them to
collaborate and offering opportunities for serendipitous interactions. In which ways does this would have an impact for students learning in MUVE?
19.MUVE can allow teachers to emotionally connect with extramural students – e.g. via voice intonation and gestures – to convey encouragement, approval, disapproval and so on. In which ways such a capability would have an impact for students learning in MUVE?
20.MUVE can allow educators to conduct teaching in authentic settings
reproducing the “real-life”, thus enabling discovery and situated learning. For example, a class studying real estate valuation could valuate virtual houses presented in MUVE. In which ways such a capability would have an impact on students learning in MUVE?
21.In MUVE, students are represented by avatars. A student may assume an avatar that differs from her/his real persona – for example, an avatar
corresponding to a different age or sex. This may allow students to experience social situations from different points of view. In which ways such role
projection capability would have an impact on student learning?
22.As demonstrated, you could create an environment entirely under your control: virtual rooms, furniture, teaching props, even your own virtual buildings. In which ways does the high degree of control in creating a teaching environment likely to have an impact for your acceptance of MUVE as a teaching tool? 23.MUVE could allow educators to conduct teaching in settings that are highly
relevant to the topic under study and conducive to discovery learning, and at the same time not possible in the “real-life”. For example, a group of students could travel inside a model of the Matrix project as shown in the
demonstration. In which ways such capability would have an impact on student learning?
24.What are your views in relation to the benefits that a MUVE can offer? 25.What are your perceptions on future of MUVE?