Getting started in virtual worlds with the

EUROVERSITY Network

The EUROVERSITY network is funded under the grant agreement

number 518944-LLP-1-2011-1-UK-KA3-KA3NW with the Education,

Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, European Union.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission

cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the

information contained therein.

SLANGUAGES

2014

• Exploitation network of the AVALON project

• Builds on existing synergies (Avalon, AVATAR, Niflar, etc.)

• 3 year multilateral and transversal network LLP EACEA, KA3 (ICT)

• Start date: December 2011

• 19 partners

• Austria, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Cyprus, Portugal, UK, Netherlands, Italy, Israel..

The EUROVERSITY network is funded under the grant agreement

number 518944-LLP-1-2011-1-UK-KA3-KA3NW with the Education,

Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, European Union.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the

Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be

made of the information contained therein.

Christel Schneider

christel.schneider@icc-languages.eu

3

Different Classroom Settings

Aims of the Project

• Collect examples of good practice in teaching

and learning in virtual worlds from different

subjects and national and local contexts

• Facilitate the transfer of core knowledge to new

contexts

• Provide a framework for the creation of a pan-

European virtual-world university

The EUROVERSITY network is funded under the grant agreement

number 518944-LLP-1-2011-1-UK-KA3-KA3NW with the Education,

Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, European Union.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the

Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be

made of the information contained therein.

Opportunities and advantages

• Reduce costs of education for all stakeholders

• Increase virtual mobility of learners and teachers

• Facilitate international collaboration and research

• Reduce barriers to education

• Transform our understanding of the delivery of education

The EUROVERSITY network is funded under the grant agreement

number 518944-LLP-1-2011-1-UK-KA3-KA3NW with the Education,

Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, European Union.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the

Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be

made of the information contained therein.

EUROVERSITY challenges

• General teacher/learner acceptance

• Access and technical barriers

• Institutional barriers

• Community misconceptions (i.e. virtual worlds are

for gaming only, avatars are dangerous, it is not

real, etc.)

• Quality

The EUROVERSITY network is funded under the grant agreement

number 518944-LLP-1-2011-1-UK-KA3-KA3NW with the Education,

Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, European Union.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the

Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be

made of the information contained therein.

Expected Outcomes

• Increase the number of experts in virtual world education

• Create a policy of long-term sustainability of the network and its outcomes

• Design a model for the transfer of knowledge

• Host and promote dissemination events

The EUROVERSITY network is funded under the grant agreement

number 518944-LLP-1-2011-1-UK-KA3-KA3NW with the Education,

Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, European Union.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the

Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be

made of the information contained therein.

The EUROVERSITY network is funded under the grant agreement

number 518944-LLP-1-2011-1-UK-KA3-KA3NW with the Education,

Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, European Union.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the

Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be

made of the information contained therein.

Gary Motteram (UK) :

Sharing Knowledge & Experiences: Methods

applied.

Gerhilde Meissl-Egghart (AT):

Activities in SecondLife for teaching German culture

and history

David Richardson (SE)

Using the Framework to create new courses

The EUROVERSITY network is funded under the grant agreement

number 518944-LLP-1-2011-1-UK-KA3-KA3NW with the Education,

Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, European Union.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the

Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be

made of the information contained therein.

Christel Schneider (DE):

Experiences in using Framework.

Producing machinima

Stella Hadjistassou (CY)

Evaluation methods / instruments. Challenges +

interim data

Ton Koenraad (NL)

What’s next? Sustainability, Exploitation

Case studies: http://euroversity.pbworks.com/

One of the central ideas of the Euroversity

network was that it built on other projects

Initial task was that people in the network who

had been involved in other projects created

case studies

These were used to build the Framework that

will be talked about later

Why case studies? They provide a rich and detailed insight into people’s

practices. If we have enough of them, we can begin to see useful patterns that help us to understand more fundamental questions about a particular practice, in this case in Virtual worlds

A small group brainstormed a series of topics/questions that would be used to frame the case studies: initial decision making process about why you chose to create the course/ aims/ funding/ environment/ learners/ syllabus/ resources etc.

10 initial cases studies created

Examples Team-building exercise

Teacher training course for teachers using virtual worlds

Exploring the value of ICT in education

Business talking

Electrical engineering

German culture and history

Language courses: Spanish and Sami

PBL for business English

Street artists in a virtual space

Continuation

The case studies were interrogated by the

Framework team

Post the construction of the framework

new case studies are now being created

showing how the framework has been

used

Activities in SecondLife for

teaching German culture and

history

Gerhilde Meissl-Egghart

talkademy.org

gerhilde@talkademy.org

the classroom

Minigame -

Sorting cubes

Fieldtrip - Munich

1, 2 or 3 - Quizzshow

Minigame:

Call my bluff

meeting empress

Sisi

Berlin

1920

Biography -Roleplay

Student projects:

rock musician meets Beethoven

Student projects:

Kafka meets Marlene Dietrich

Student projects:

Karaoke TV-show

26

Business English

Course in SL

David Richardson:

Framework + New Courses

Christel Schneider,

christel.schneider@virtualcollege.co.uk

The EUROVERSITY network is funded under the grant agreement

number 518944-LLP-1-2011-1-UK-KA3-KA3NW with the Education,

Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, European Union.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the

Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be

made of the information contained therein.

Euroversity: Evaluation

Methods, Instruments,

and Emerging

Contradictions

Saturday,

March 1,

2014

To evaluate the impact of Euroversity, we

relied on two main areas:

(1) The Euroversity Project &

(2) The Euroversity Framework

In both categories, we relied not only on

qualitative data analysis but also on a

series of metrics to capture the impact of

both the Euroversity project and

framework.

Evaluating the Impact of the Euroversity Project and

Euroversity Framework:

(1) To measure the impact of the Euroversity

Project, we have relied on the following

critical areas:

Management Issues

Milestone Plan

Communications Plan

Dissemination Activities Promoting the

Project

Growth of the Community

Networking Activities

To measure the impact of the Euroversity framework,

we relied on the following:

Courses Linked to the Euroversity

Framework

Languages Used to Deliver the Courses

within the Euroversity Network;

2D/3D Learning Environments Used to

Deliver these Courses;

Students Enrolled in these Courses;

Instructors’ Perspective;

Transfer of Knowledge from Previous

Context to the Network;

New Contexts.

Measuring the Impact of the Euroversity

Framework:

Instructors’ & Students’ Perspectives

In an effort to invite instructors to evaluate

the good practice framework, we also

devised two sets of questionnaires, one for

the participating instructors and one for the

students;

Both set of questionnaires are directly to

the framework.

Instructors’ Perspective

The instructors’ questionnaire includes a set

of 21 questions where instructors can evaluate

the framework. For instance:

Question 11

“In what ways have the guidelines of the Good

Practice Framework on the use of the methods

of communication, e.g., text chat and voice chat

or other means of communication, facilitated

the smooth interaction between you and your

students or between students, and contributed

to creating an immersive learning experience?”

All instructors who devised and offered courses

or learning events in a virtually afforded

learning environment using the framework

were invited to participate in an interview via

Skype which was also recorded using the

screen recording software Camtasia;

All students, on the other hand, could complete

and submit a written response on a similar set

of questions.

Courses in VW environments

Game Design inworld (University of Hull)

MP3 Artifacts Learning, Media Virtual

Learning Worlds & Game-based Learning

(Kiel University)

Teaching in English & Business Talking

(Linnaeus University)

Oral Portuguese in Virtual World (University

of Coimbra)

Power System Analysis (University of

Cyprus)

Critical Issues that Emerged during the Interviews:

Most of our partners identified specific areas in which the

Good Practice Framework was helpful:

Preplanning Stage

The good practice framework helped confirm the

decision they made in terms of selecting a virtual world

environment;

One of our German partners also agreed that

the good practice framework proved to be an effective

tool in the preparation and planning process, as well

as on the suggestions for communication since as he

noted it “worked as a scaffold” for planning and

delivering the course;

Project No: 504823-LLP-1-2009-1-FI-KA2-KA2M

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Other partners have also noted that it was not

simply the good practice framework that guided

them in this process but also the network of

partners that were willing to assist with this

process; Partners stepping in to assist them

with technical and other difficulties that they’ve

encountered in the process of delivering their

instructional materials;

Emerging Contradictions: We do have a wonderful but big set of

data that need to be transcribed;

Even sharing these files is extremely

difficult due to their considerably

large size;

Taking into account our partners’

suggestions for revising the

framework but also maintaining that

flexibility in the framework;

The EUROVERSITY network is funded under the grant agreement

number 518944-LLP-1-2011-1-UK-KA3-KA3NW with the Education,

Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, European Union.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the

Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be

made of the information contained therein.

Get involved!

Register as

Associated

Partner

http://www.euroversity.eu/