NEXT GENERATION OF E-LEARNING - Asia Pacific Region

THE 6 TH SEAAIR ANNUAL CONFERENCE; Langkawi, September 5 – 7 2006
NEXT GENERATION OF E-LEARNING: BUILDING A VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY
Suryadiputra Liawatimena; Gerardus Polla; Hendy Wijaya; Herru Darmadi
Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia
ABSTRACT
The objectives of the research were: 1) to shape up e-learning presentation to a more attractive
and interactive one; 2) to gain a depth and effectiveness of e-Learning implementation,
especially to answer the issue of collaboration without neglecting the issue of education. Data
were compiled by library research and field research. Field research was done by giving
questionnaires to 35 students as respondents. The research consisted of two main phases;
those are to create a new learning environment and to study the response of students to the
new presentation. It can be concluded that 1) Students who are fond of computer games have
better response to the e-Learning system. They were curious about the entire idea of having an
entire virtual realm as an e-Learning environment, and they were also more curious in exploring
the virtual realm finding content and information; 2) Students who are already feel comfortable
which the currently used learning method (conventional or e-Learning) thinks that such e-
Learning system could not be effective enough in delivering a difficult lecture materials.
INTRODUCTION
Research Background
As one university implements e-learning method, it usually deals with some challenging issues related
to its implementation, such as performance, effectiveness, reliability, and internal response from both
lecturers and students. Generally, the main issue concern is how far e-learning is able to improve or
decrease learning condition of a university. Some misperceptions sometimes are implied to e-learning
application. One may think that e-learning is not more than online resources where information of a
subject is gathered by lecturers and used by the students. Actually, e-learning is deeper than just online
resources. It has ability to facilitate discussion and collaboration among users. In reality, some
implementations might have not touched e-learning to that depth.
In order to overcome problems related to e-learning implementation, the research attempts to shape up
e-learning presentation to a more attractive and interactive one. In this way, we expect to gain a depth
and effectiveness of e-learning implementation, primarily to answer the issue of collaboration, without
neglecting the issue of education quality itself.
Realm builder has been used for creating virtual environments whereas many of them are used for
games or simulation. Today's entertainment trend leads to an online gaming where users meet in one
virtual world to do a specific theme. Starting from this online gaming point, our research will derive the
theme of entertainment into educational purpose. By doing so, we also expect to get more user
interested in e-learning since the virtual also offers a great room for discussion and interaction. Thus,
we can rely on the collaboration effectiveness on this virtual world feature. In other world, our research
will build a virtual university in which the educational activity will be cyber-conducted. Therefore, e-
Learning will be developed from just and online resource and collaboration, into a realm world of
education and collaboration.
Research Outcome
The research primary advantage is to have better student participation to e-learning by changing its
representation. The implementation of this new e-learning method is also expected to accelerate e-
learning capability of collaboration, which is an important part of it. Eventually, this research will provide a
brand new e-learning system with more features to have, and more interaction to build.

THE 6 TH SEAAIR ANNUAL CONFERENCE; Langkawi, September 5 – 7 2006
Methodology
The methodology for each phase is separated from the implementation since the phases will be
sequential. The first phase was building a virtual world of e-learning. It covers the jobs of defining
scope of e-learning, analyzing its requirements, designing the basic solution for building the virtual
world, composing learning events and scenarios, designing complete world model and architecture,
building complete realm, building complete avatars with events and scenario, Alpha and Beta testing
the entire system, reviewing and debugging. The second phase was studying students' responses,
those are conducting a pre-test questionnaire on how students' interest in e-learning, conducting a
respondents test on the new e-learning system, conducting a post-test questionnaire on the students'
interest in the new e-learning method, compiling questionnaire data to a meaningful information about
students' response to the new e- learning system.
RESEARCH METHODS
Analysis Method
According to Henderson (2003) a virtual classroom is defined as internet space that provides online or
real-time interactivity among students and lecturer participating in e-learning system. In this research,
the term virtual classroom is expanded by changing its both physical and logical representation. The
classroom will be built as a realm world. The participant will meet virtually as avatars representation.
Based on researcher’s observation to the present conventional e-learning method, some problems are
found in which e-learning participants, especially students who feel that e-learning presentation is
unattractive. They are reluctant to study in e-learning system effectively since most of e-learning
subjects they viewed as online resource or online reading, while the objective of e-learning is far
beyond that. In the other side, students are so excited of spending most their time playing computer
games and especially the currently popular genre of online multiplayer game such as Ragnarok Online
and Xian Online where the participants can play and interact by such mean like chatting to the other
participant.
Stepping from this two points, the researcher comes up with an idea of combining these two different
aspects of learning (in e-learning way) and playing (in online context), blending them into one system of
e-learning. The main idea is to capture students’ interest of playing and interacting in the online game
and put their interest to an e-learning system that adopts the concept of online game in term of
interface, interaction, and lecture content delivery.
To realize the idea of combining e-learning and online game, firstly we must build a virtual realm
commonly used in computer games (online or not) and also provide avatar models as virtual
representation for each user (students and lecturers), thus the interaction can be build more lively. The
virtual world should be designed in such a way and as similar as possible with the virtual world used in
computer games in order to attract student in participating the new e-learning system. The avatar
models representing each user will help them interact each other. The completed virtual world will be
used as the main container for the e-learning events and content delivery as well as student interaction
by synchronized messaging or chatting (in gaming term).
To build such virtual world and design avatar models like in computer games, there are some software
requirements to be met; those are a game engine to build the virtual realm and character modeling
tools that are widely provided in the marketplace. Preference of using a game engine package is
suggested because it can enable us building the virtual world rapidly since the engine itself is intended
to be used in game development. The character modeling tools used must be capable in exporting
compatible model of file types to the game engine. Beside the requirement for the main core of the e-
learning system (virtual world and avatars), there are also some other requirements to be fulfilled. The
other requirements are the back-office of the e-learning system, like user and content management
systems.

THE 6 TH SEAAIR ANNUAL CONFERENCE; Langkawi, September 5 – 7 2006
Software Tools Analysis
a. Game Engine. According to Finney (2004) in computing, a game engine is the core software
component of a video game. It typically handles rendering and other necessary technology, but
might also handle additional tasks such as game AI, collision detection between game objects, etc.
The most common element that a game engine provides is graphics rendering facilities (2D or 3D).
The game engine is used for designing, building, and manipulating the virtual world. Game engine
selected to be used in this research is the Torque Game Engine Version 1.3, stable release. The
reason of using this game engine instead other alternative is because the core engine itself can be
expanded/ rebuilt to suit our requirements, it has a supportive community and it enables us to build
and manipulate the virtual realm, using its world editor, directly and rapidly.
b. Character Modeling. The character modeling tools that can be used to design the avatar models
differ in various selections such as 3D Studio Max, Light wave, Softimage, etc. But in order to
maintain a good system response time and reduce system lag, the 3D avatars models used in the
virtual realm should be in the form of low polygonal shape. So, the application that considered to be
enough handling character modeling in this research is Milk Shape 3D.
c. Building and Structure Modeling. Additionally, virtual building and structure are needed to be
included in the virtual world to make it more attractive and more similar to the game environment.
However, the other purpose of including the building and the structure in the virtual world is to
provide lecture content hot-spot and help us categorizing different groups of content. The delivery
point of the lecture content will take place in the representation of buildings and structures. This will
help students to easily and clearly access the content. Virtual building and structure can be
designed using various design tools. One tool that is sufficient in designing and producing building
and structure compatible with the Torque Game Engine is Quark and this tool is the one used
during the process of designing building and structure for the virtual realm in this research.
d. Database Server. In order to handle entire data management of the e-learning system, we need a
database server capable enough in servicing basic data requirement such as user login, user
information, and content management system. The researcher considers that using MySQL DBMS
is sufficient to meet e-learning system requirement of data management.
e. Content Management System Development. In computing, a content management system (CMS) is
a document centric collaborative application for managing documents and other content. A CMS is
often a web application and often it is used as a method of managing web sites and web content. At
the back-end side of the e-learning system, a Content Management System (CMS) is needed to
administrate user information as well as managing the lecture content delivered in the e-learning
system. The CMS used in this research will be a web-based application managing e-learning
system by manipulating data in the database which is accessed by e-learning system.
Design Method
During the design, testing, and debugging process, the researcher uses a lecture material, T0016 –
Algorithm and Programming, as the sample lecture in order to help researcher develops e-learning
system to be more applicable. The T0016 lecture materials used during this research starts from lecture
meeting 01 (Introduction to Algorithm) until lecture meeting 06 (Iteration in C), according to the T0016
Module Plan made by Budiharto (2005). The entire lecture materials are maintained through a back-end
web based application as the Content Management System (CMS) enabling the lecturer to update his/
her lecture material at anytime.
Application Design
f. Login Screen. The login screen is the main screen before user access the virtual realm. It also
provides information on the researchers involved in the research and development process. User
authorization is made through username and password validation, where username can be student
ID or lecturer ID
g. Class Login Screen. The class login screen will display available e-learning classes (conceptually)
or virtual realm server (physically). The user may select from various class(es) if available.
h. Loading Screen. According to Suciati (2001) general or outline knowledge, skill, attitude model
which are the result expected for the student to master after the lecture process need to be shown.
After the user is accepted or authorized to log in to specified class, he / she will download the virtual

THE 6 TH SEAAIR ANNUAL CONFERENCE; Langkawi, September 5 – 7 2006
world objects from the server and will be presented in the learning outcome.
i. Main Screen. Having finished the download process, the users enter the main screen interface of
the virtual realm which is similar to the most of game interfaces. The user will be represented by an
avatar model that allowing them to move around and interact in the virtual realm as his/ her e-
learning class along with other users (students and lecturers) currently logged in the same class.
j. Lecture Content Screen. The lecture content delivery in the virtual realm is conducted through this
lecture content screen that will pop-up and close automatically as student enters or leaves certain
area represented by booth. These contents delivered are maintained by lecturers through the backend
Content Management System. Contents are accessed from the virtual realm to the web server;
the web server will handle the delivery of each content from the database server, determine which
content to display and send it back to the virtual realm to be displayed in this screen. Details of how
the supporting servers work each other can be found in the System Architecture section.
System Architecture
The system architecture designed for the virtual realm, user management, and e-learning content
management in the server side is constructed by three supporting servers. The servers are Virtual
Realm Server, where most of the virtual realm for the e-learning class is handled; Database Server
where all data and information for the e-learning system is stored and managed; and the Web Server
where the Content Management System for e-learning is served. As the Figure 1 below describes, the
users access e-learning system through the virtual realm server, this server will then manages user
activity in involving database or content by communicating with database or web servers.
Figure 1: System architecture
IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION
System Requirement Specification
Table 1 and 2 show the minimum hardware and software specifications for system development and
implementation.
Table 1: Hardware Specification
Hardware System Development Implementation
Processor Intel® or compatible Pentium 4 1.8
GHz
Intel® or compatible Pentium 600
MHz
Memory 512 MB 128 MB
Hard disk 20 GB 5 GB
space
Graphic Card 64 MB 64 MB

THE 6 TH SEAAIR ANNUAL CONFERENCE; Langkawi, September 5 – 7 2006
Table 2: Software Specification in System Development
Software System Development Implementation
Operating System Window 2000, Window XP Windows 2000, Windows XP
Professional
Database Server MySQL 4.1 NT -
ODBC Driver MySQL ODBC Driver 3.51 -
Game Engine Torque Game Engine -
Character Modelling Milkshape 3D Demo version -
Building Modelling Quark -
Web Server IIS 5 -
CMS Development PHP 4 -
Graphic Library - OpenGL32 For Windows
Internet Browser - MSIE 5.5 or other compatibles
SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION USING SAMPLE LECTURE
Content Management System
a. Login Screen. The main login screen is where authorization process for the Content Management
System takes place. Valid username (lecturer ID or student ID) and password is required to access
the CMS; Username and password used here are the same one with the one used in the virtual
realm.
b. Lecture Creation. This section of VBinus CMS is where the administrator can add new lecture. This
master lectures will be the main controller for the lecture materials in the specified lecture. As
displayed in the screen, the lecture that will be used as a sample lecture in this research is T0016.
c. Adding New Content. This section of VBinus CMS is used when adding lecture material / content to
specified lecture. The required fields are the title which will be displayed in the title bar of the
content screen in the virtual realm; The trigger name which is the technical name determining the
specific hot-spot that triggers the content to pop-up in user screen when in the virtual realm, this
triggers name will be given by the administrator to the lecturer; The controller file is the physical
representation of the lectures in the VBinus e-learning system; The content is where the lecture
content filled, basic formatting is available in the above buttons.
d. Adding Quiz Question. This section of VBinus CMS is used when the lecturer wants to add
questions for the quiz conducted in the virtual realm. The quizzes are used to determine student
achievement in learning the lecture content using this virtual realm. Each question has its own level,
which describes the difficulty level of the question. In this research we have develop two model of
quiz questions, that are multiple choice and true or false.
e. Add new user. This section of VBinus CMS is used by the administrator when adding a new user to
access the virtual realm. User ID, password and user role (Lecturer, Student and Admin)
information are entered in this section.
f. Resetting User Password. When a user lost or forget his / her password, then password resetting
can be done through this section of VBinus CMS. By entering username information and email
information, the new password will be sent to the email address supplied.
Virtual Realm in Vbinus
a. Login Screen. This login screen is where user can enter his / her username and password in order
to gain access to the virtual realm. Should the user forget his / her username or password, he / she
can reset the password using the feature in the CMS.
b. Server Login Screen. This server login screen is where the user can select to log in to a specified
class (conceptually) or virtual realm server (physically). This screen provides information such
lecture name of the class, the user currently logged in the class, and the network ping in the server.

THE 6 TH SEAAIR ANNUAL CONFERENCE; Langkawi, September 5 – 7 2006
Figure 2: Server login screen
Should the login information entered by the user is incorrect, the server will reject the connect
request of the user. This rejection most probably caused by invalid log in information, but rejection
should also occur when user who is not registered to certain class / lecture tries to log in to the
virtual realm of the class. In the future development, such issues should be fixed as well as filtered
server information in the server login screen. There should be only classes in which the user
registered that shown in the list according to the current student semester.
c. Virtual Realm Screen. The virtual realm screen interface is the main part of this VBinus e-learning
system where learning activity takes place. Figure 3 below shows how the interaction between
class participants (students and lecturer) happens in ways of chat communication as well as virtual
representation of each user with the avatar model and the information of each user displayed above
them. Due to the time limitation, the avatar model used in this research is only one model since the
process of one model design, development, and deployment to the virtual world can take about one
month of working time.
Figure 3: Virtual class screen
d. Content Screen. When user entering particular area in the virtual world where it has been
previously set with content trigger, the content of the specified area is popping up to the screen.
This content can be any of lecture materials or other tips given by the lecturer.
e. Quiz Screen. One way to assess students’ study progress in this VBinus e-learning system is by
using students’ progress level that is stored along with other student information in the database. This
progress level increases when the student succeed in answering quiz question given during learning
session in the virtual realm. The questions in the quiz are managed into levels. These levels will only
keep the student with the same level as the question can access it. While questions can be more than
one or maybe a lot of in one same level and it is randomly presented to the student thus making it
dynamically changing question for the student. Questions are composed by the lecturer and the level
of the question is also determined by the lecturer. The student can access quiz questions through a
special area trigger called the quiz trigger, in the virtual realm this area is represented by quiz hall/
quiz room in form of a unique hall to attract student interest and curiosity. The current level-up rule
implied in this research is when a student answers a question correctly, then his/ her level increases
by one automatically, however this rule of increasing student study progress level can be changed

THE 6 TH SEAAIR ANNUAL CONFERENCE; Langkawi, September 5 – 7 2006
into a more effective way regarding student study progress assessment.
f. User Status Screen. The user can get his / her current study status by accessing the status screen
during in the virtual realm by pressing the “tab” keyboard. This status information contains Student
ID or NIM, name, progress level, number of login to the class, last login date allowing the student to
know his / her study progress.
VBinus e-Learning Implementation
The test implementation of the VBinus e-learning system was conducted by using T0016 – Algoritma
dan Pemograman as the test / sample lecture model. The respondents were 35 Bina Nusantara
University Students in fifth year who had experienced e-learning system. The researcher leader (Dr.
Suryadiputra Liawatimena) acted as the lecturer for the lecture. This research focuses more in
assessing student behavior instead of lecturer behavior; that is why the lecturer for the test was roled
by the researcher leader himself, not other lecturer.
The respondents were given account number to log in the virtual realm according to their student ID as
the username and a dummy password (123456). Although all of the respondents had already passed
the T0016 lecture in their first year of college, nevertheless using them as the respondents were
intentionally so that they would be able to compare the T0016 which they previously had learnt using
the conventional e-learning system with the T0016 which in this research is delivered by mean of virtual
realm.
The respondents then briefed with this research purpose and the test purpose as well as the technical
detail and manual using the virtual realm as an e-learning system. Afterwards, they were given
opportunities of using the virtual realm to learn the lecture material T0016. The test took about an hour
to finish.
VBinus Evaluation
a. Pre-test Questionnaires
Before asking the respondents to test the virtual realm as an e-learning system, the respondents were
given several pre-test questionnaires in order to assess their knowledge and experience in both e-
learning and online game. These pre-test questions used 4 degree Likert Scale for the answers. The
test result values will be used to help evaluating the post-test result conducted after the respondents
finished testing the e-learning system.
Figure 4 How often do you access e-learning
content material?
Figure 5 How often do you play computer games?
Figure 6 How interested you are in studying using
e-learning system?
Figure 7 How excited you are when playing
computer games?

THE 6 TH SEAAIR ANNUAL CONFERENCE; Langkawi, September 5 – 7 2006
Figure 8 Do you always want to get more study
material through e-learning?
Figure 9 Do you always want to try different kind
of computer games?
b. Post-Test Questionnaires
After conducting testing process of the e-learning system, the same respondents were given another
questionnaire which assesses their opinion and response to the new e-learning system developed in
this research. Like the pre-test, the post test also uses 4 degree Likert Scale to assess the
questionnaire.
Figure 10 How difficult it is to use VBinus?
Figure 11 How fast is VBinus network system
response?
Figure 12 Is it boring to study using VBinus?
Figure 13 Do you interested in using VBinus as
new e-learning method?
Figure 14 Is VBinus better than other e-learning
(Binusmaya) or learning class methods?
Figure 15 Does VBinus help you understand the
lecture material better?
Figure 16 Does VBinus accommodate more
playing or chatting than learning?

THE 6 TH SEAAIR ANNUAL CONFERENCE; Langkawi, September 5 – 7 2006
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
Conclusions
After developing a new e-learning system based on the virtual realm and online gaming idea as well as
conducting evaluation using respondents to test the e-learning system, based on the pre-test and posttest
questionnaires results, the researchers concluded that:
Students who are fond to computer games have better response to the e-learning system. They were
curious about the entire idea of having an entire virtual realm as an e-learning environment, and they
were also more curious in exploring the virtual realm finding content and information.
Students who are already feel comfortable which the currently used learning method (conventional or e-
learning) considered that such e-learning system could not be effective enough in delivering difficult
lecture materials.
Intensive effort should be brought when customizing and preparing one lecture to be used in the e-
learning system virtual realm.
Suggestion
Suggestion issues after the researcher finish this research can be summarize to the following points:
• Next development for the virtual realm used in this research should be able to handle online
connection rather than local area network connection.
• Various avatar models should be developed in order to add attractively of the users.
• Integrated and solid Content Management System should be built compatible with the SCORM
2004
• Lecturer behavior towards this e-learning system should also be assessed.
REFERENCES
Budiharto, W. (2004). T0016 – Algoritma dan pemograman. MPT00165-011. Jakarta: Universitas Bina
Nusantara.
Finney, K. C. (2004). 3D game programming all in one. Boston: Thomson Learning.
Henderson, A. J. (2003). The e-learning question and answer book. American Management
Association.
Morison, Don. (2003). E-learning strategies how to get implementation and delivery right first time. New
York: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Suciati. (2001). Taksonomi tujuan instruksional. Pusat Antar Universitas Untuk Peningkatan Dan
Pengembangan Aktivitas Instruksional. Direktorat Jenderal Pendidikan Tinggi Department
Pendidikan Nasional, Jakarta.
Zhuang, Hartono. (2005). E-learning: konsep dan aplikasi. Jogyakarta: Penerbit Andi.