Use Case Mapping Challenges – A Case Study

The previous section elaborated on the importance of accurately mapping use cases and roles between OpenSim/SL and Moodle for successful managed learning in a blended MULE. However, it is understandable that for effective and widespread use of the proposed ideas, there should be a further level of concrete analysis of deployed systems where users can try to practice managed learning in a blended MULE. For that, a case study on Sloodle [190], an open source solution to mediate learning between Moodle and OpenSim/SL was carried out. For this case study, a prototype learning environment that meets the proposed blended MULE expectations was installed and tested. Moodle (version 1.99) as the e-Learning platform, Sloodle (version 1.0) and OpenSim/SL (version 0.7.2) as the MUVE were used. All these systems are free and open source.

With reference to the MUVE learning affordances given by Dalgarno and Lee [66] we can identify five of these that are suitable for use in a blended learning environment: learning activities that require increased spatial domain knowledge, experiential learning opportunities, intrinsic motivation and engagement, improved knowledge transfer and high collaboration [66]. These types of activities can be better supported in the MUVE instead of e-Learning or traditional environments. This analysis is performed with the basis of that view.

Before examining individual technical implementation offers of Sloodle, it is useful to discuss the underlying system integration model it follows; in fact, this model has resulted in the development of Sloodle Tools, which are further discussed later. The architectural goal of Sloodle is to mediate learning activities between Moodle and OpenSim/SL [190]. The way this goal is achieved is interesting; Sloodle takes Moodle tasks (Assignment, Quiz etc.) as the basis for their system design and develops a corresponding 3D content/functionality to represent that behaviour inside OpenSim/SL. The level of Moodle dependence is very high such that Sloodle is executed as a plug-in of Moodle (php scripted web server pages). This tight dependence results in certain Sloodle tools compromising their learning functionality when compared with the learning affordances of OpenSim/SL and Moodle independently. The observed functionalities are briefly described below while examining the challenges for a blended MULE with Moodle and OpenSim/SL.

Sloodle learning functions include 11 activities to map selected Moodle activities such as chat, forum, glossary, choice, content display and limited support of quiz and 3D content submissions for assignments. These functions are available as deployable tools (scripted composite prim objects) inside the 3D environment. A summary of Sloodle tools along with the corresponding Moodle task are listed in Table 4.1.

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Sloodle Tool Function Moodle Correspondence

Webintercom Synchronise Chat messages between Moodle and 3D MUVE

Chat

Presenter Display media files Content Display Toolbar Blog, Gestures and Avatar list

display

Forum Quiz chair MCQ question support Quiz Pile on quiz MCQ question support Quiz Prim drop Submit prim for assignment in

Moodle

Assignment MetaGloss Access Glossary in Moodle Glossary Sloodle Choice Synchronise Choice between

Moodle and 3D MUVE

Choice Vending machine Distributed content objects for 3D

MUVE (OS)

-- Awardsystem Connects Sloodle points with

Moodle Gradebook

Gradebook Picture Gloss Connects textures from Moodle

Glossary to a prim object

Glossary

Table 4.1: Sloodle tools and corresponding Moodle functions

Webintercom and Presenter provide important features for combined learning activities in Moodle and OpenSim/SL; synchronised user communications between the two environments, i.e., chat communication in OpenSim with chat communication in Moodle, can be useful for uninterrupted communication. This is particularly important if the students are expected to participate in a collaborative learning session with high interactivity. The published content for learning in Moodle can also be displayed in OpenSim using Presenter, which is a useful function for maintaining the consistency of learning activities and content; however with the advanced Media on Prim functionality of OpenSim Presenter may not always be required for content display.

However, using OpenSim chat channels to publish student compositions in Moodle tools such as Forum, Glossary and Wiki, is questionable as those entries are supposed to feature rich text and content. Usually, students and teachers tend to replace the medium and the submission methods of the traditional form of essays and comprehension tasks to e-Learning system, by using these generic e-Learning tools that are specifically designed to align with the generic transferrable skills of writing and comprehension. Moreover, these tools are generic to be used in a range of different subjects as they also allow students to express their attained core skills from the module by incorporating rich text or images to enhance their answers. These activities cannot be supported through OpenSim chat or IM channels due to their limitations of message size and text formatting, at present.

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Furthermore, asking students to participate in quizzes, assignments and text based assessment activities in OpenSim instead of Moodle can introduce further difficulties for student work. Except for questions that require short and specific answers, quite often, in written answers there can be a grading component that corresponds to the student’s ability to present the answer. This is fairly common when it comes to structured or essay type questions. Sloodle tool support for Moodle Quiz and Assignment tools is limited to Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) and prim submissions; when it comes to complex text based assessment activities, students are often required to re-login to Moodle after of their initial submission, to enrich the entries that have been done through raw chat interfaces while they were inside OpenSim. Accessing Moodle through an in-world media browser directly would allow a certain level of rich text support as shown in Figure 4.5. Accessing Moodle directly in web format can be important for formal assessment and feedback to prevent teachers introducing unproductive use cases that do not match the learning affordances of MUVEs.

Figure 4.5: Creating a rich text entry for a Moodle course using the in-world web browser without Sloodle mediation (direct access to Moodle through URL)

Another important fact to consider is the accurate map of user collaboration facilities provided in MUVEs with the e-Learning environment. Specially, web based learning activities by their nature are not designed for rich collaboration in real time, but a user session based individual browsing, asynchronously. The efforts to use collaborative web browsing techniques with Moodle have not been successful in attracting a wide user community to date, due to the complex system properties and the implementation challenges. A collaborative web browsing (‘co-browsing’) tool is being developed as an extension to the Sloodle system [191]. However, it is too early to evaluate such a tool for successful and complete web browsing for serious collaborative learning activities.

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Additionally, the recent add-on functionality of Media on Prim lets the students benefit from a range of media data formats such as HTTP documents and video streams, without specific tool support from Sloodle. Although this functionality can support student activities in the e-Learning system while they are inside the virtual world, due to its open nature Media on Prim can compromise the privacy and confidentiality of a student’s work if other students are also present, nearby. This is a new challenge which was not present with in-world web browser or external web browsers as any interaction with those browsers is private with respect to other users. In particular, assignments, quiz activities and forum posts that are graded need to be hidden from the other students. Moodle supports this feature with a strong access control and user privileges. Therefore, a clear understanding of which learning tasks / resources should be displayed in-world as part of the blended MULE, considering the confidentiality needs of such tasks or resources, is necessary to maintain the same level of security of those as in Moodle.

Prim Drop and Vending Machine are important tools for mediating the 3D content ownerships, their associations and avatar identity registration with Moodle course modules. Vending Machine does not correspond to a particular Moodle activity but it ensures distribution of the other Sloodle tools for learning so that teachers can comfortably setup their preferred learning tasks in-world. Because of this approach, even a teacher with a limited experience of integrating OpenSim with Moodle can confidently design and practice blended learning in a MULE. Prim Drop facilitates the assessment tasks in particular, as teachers can publish an assignment in Moodle as part of summative assessment, asking students to develop 3D content to be evaluated. Effectively, there is no seamlessly integrated mechanism to update the Moodle Assignment parameters such as submission time, number of attempts, etc. other than the Prim Drop tool.

Finally, the Sloodle tools Registration Booth, Access Checker and Login Zone that provide the functions required for platform integration with accurate identity and access control mapping between OpenSim and Moodle, were investigated. In fact, these tools are quite important for successful data and user consistency in blended MULE solutions. Although, they are not related to a particular set of learning use cases, they ensure uninterrupted teaching and learning sessions at the system administration level; hence, facilitate system administrators of Moodle and OpenSim to automate most of the role and data mappings.

Therefore, in summary, trying to achieve all learning use cases of an e-Learning system in MUVEs as part of the proposed blended MULEs is not advised for serious learning scenarios. In the case study, it was identified that textual and document based learning content and activities that require complex text comprehension with rich data formats are not yet fully supported in OpenSim/SL compared to Moodle. As a result, academics that wish to use and explore blended MULEs should rationally decide on appropriate use case implementations according to the learning affordances of the domain and the requirements of their teaching and learner support. Moreover, students should be encouraged to explore learning activities according to the learning affordances of the environment. Essentially, we should avoid forceful integration of ineffective learning use cases between the environments for the mere reason of blending.

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