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Disputation Mikhail Fominykh - Department of Computer and ...

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Collaborative Work on 3D Educational Content<br />

C4: Guidelines for designing virtual campuses <strong>and</strong> educational virtual cities<br />

A concept <strong>of</strong> a virtual campus integrated into a virtual city is suggested in<br />

the thesis. City context extends the possibilities <strong>of</strong> a virtual campus to<br />

support learning <strong>and</strong> socializing. At the same time, a campus enriches a<br />

virtual city with social meaning <strong>and</strong> educational content. Together, the<br />

integration <strong>of</strong> a virtual city <strong>and</strong> a campus connects local <strong>and</strong> distributed<br />

learning communities. The guidelines include the following dimensions:<br />

appearance, informational resources, community resources <strong>and</strong> tools,<br />

navigation facilities, <strong>and</strong> atmosphere. The guidelines are developed based<br />

on the results <strong>of</strong> the exploratory study conducted in the VCYO <strong>and</strong> first<br />

two exploratory studies on educational visualizations. Other relevant<br />

studies previously conducted at NTNU were used to a minor degree.<br />

Contributions to learning communities (Topic 3)<br />

The following contributions are intended to increase underst<strong>and</strong>ing <strong>and</strong> provide<br />

practical instructions for supporting learning communities in 3D CVEs.<br />

C5: Virtual Research Arena framework (VRA)<br />

Virtual Research Arena at the Virtual Campus <strong>of</strong> NTNU is a meeting place<br />

for researchers, students, <strong>and</strong> the general public. It is a place for<br />

visualizing <strong>and</strong> promoting research projects. We proposed it as a<br />

framework for creating awareness about educational <strong>and</strong> research<br />

activities, promoting cross-fertilization between different environments,<br />

<strong>and</strong> engaging the general public. This framework was developed based on<br />

the results <strong>of</strong> the exploratory study conducted within this PhD work in the<br />

virtual campus <strong>of</strong> NTNU in 2009. CVW framework was also used as<br />

grounding for the VRA framework.<br />

C6: ‘Universcity’ framework<br />

Applying a holistic approach to a virtual city design, we integrate different<br />

aspects <strong>of</strong> city life, such as culture, society, education, <strong>and</strong> entertainment.<br />

‘Universcity’ is a virtual city for students, researchers, <strong>and</strong> other<br />

stakeholders with education as the main purpose, a university campus as<br />

the main feature <strong>and</strong> all other features serving for learning support. This<br />

framework is a result <strong>of</strong> a theoretical study conducted within this PhD<br />

work.<br />

1.5 Thesis Structure<br />

The thesis consists <strong>of</strong> two parts. The details <strong>of</strong> the research, results, <strong>and</strong><br />

contributions are described in a set <strong>of</strong> papers.<br />

The rest <strong>of</strong> Part I is organized as follows.<br />

Chapter 2 outlines the background on the use <strong>of</strong> 3D CVEs in educational<br />

settings.<br />

8

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