Improving Learning and Creating Community in OnlineCourses via MMOG Technology

Jon A Preston

Clayton College & State University5900 North Lee StreetMorrow, GA 302601-770-960-4354 jonpreston@mail.clayton.edu

Larry Booth

Clayton College & State University5900 North Lee StreetMorrow, GA 302601-770-960-4281larrybooth@mail.clayton.edu

Jeff Chastine

Clayton College & State University5900 North Lee StreetMorrow, GA 302601-770-960-4309 jeffchastine@mail.clayton.edu

ABSTRACT

Enrollment for online learning and virtual campuses is increasingas universities cope with an increasing demand for highereducation. Current online learning endeavors have focused ondelivering content with emphasis on courses. We proposeenhancing the interface of existing online learning systems,augmenting course content with virtual spaces in whichcommunity and peer-learning can take place; on-campus learningoften happens outside the classroom, and we believe that onlinelearning will benefit from the creation of comparable virtualsocial spaces. We propose adopting the compelling, engaginginterface of Massively-Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) tofoster similar community-centered interactions for onlineuniversities. Such as system has the potential to enhancelearning, scale to accommodate any number of students, andreach non-traditional and underrepresented populations of learners.

Categories and Subject Descriptors

K.3.1 [

Computers and Education

]: Computer Uses inEducation –

Collaborative learning, Computer-assisted instruction, Distance Learning.

General Terms

Management, Performance, Design, Human Factors

Keywords

Community, Online Learning, Massively-Multiplayer OnlineGaming (MMOG)

INTRODUCTION

Online education has grown considerably in the recent past asuniversities try new techniques of managing increasedenrollment. Course management systems like WebCT,Blackboard, and TopClass offer frameworks in which to placelearning units and courses. Digital library initiatives likeMERLOT and MIT’s OpenCourseWare offer reusable content foreducators. But campus life and learning transcendsinfrastructure and textbooks. The campus space and student-to-student and student-to-professor interactions are paramount tothe higher education experience.Gaming is a very large business; according to the Entertainmentand Leisure Software Publishers Association, the demand forhome 3D entertainment is likely to reach nearly $18.5 billionworldwide in 2003. Immersive 3D environments are engagingand compelling because they focus on the user’s experience andare entertaining [15]. Worldwide, online gamers number in themillions [1].Thus we ask: how can online education benefit from theinterfaces and interactions that game engines provide? Withoutlosing focus on the pedagogy, how can we as educatorsincorporate the “best practices” of game technology (often on thecutting-edge of computing in many respects) into the learningexperience of our students?We notice that many of our students play games (sometimesduring lecture!) and invest many hours in creating virtualcharacters in virtual worlds, and we posit that educators cancapitalize on students’ devotion to these virtual environments; if online learning environments could be augmented withimmersive, community-oriented online interfaces, studentlearning may be enhanced. Despite “kill the monster, grab thegold” plot-lines of many commercial game titles, many gamesoffer highly complex problem solving exercises in task decomposition, teamwork, and planning [15].We propose creating a virtual environment in which onlinelearners can congregate; we believe such an environment willcreate opportunities for community, afford impromptu peerlearning outside the structure of formal online courses, and helpfoster a more committed, engaged attitude among onlinestudents.

THE PEDAGOGY OF VIRTUALWORLDS AND GAMING

Learning, at its best, should be fun; when students are engagedand enjoying the experience, they are more apt to be open to newideas, remember concepts that were situated in an enjoyable,memorable event, and return to learn more. Games afford anopportunity to achieve this “fun” and engaging atmosphere of learning, and Computer Science is a field that benefits greatlyfrom gaming; note the “Nifty Assignments” sessions led by

Parlante et al. at recent SIGCSE conferences (and publications)and other recent work by [8] and others. But not only canlearning be enhanced by material-specific games (asdemonstrated by Parlante, Giguette, and others), but learningpatterns and problem solving processes can also be enhanced viagaming.

The power [of these games] is being able to extend your mind and body into this virtual space, and inthat virtual space being able to take on an identitythat you can think about in comparison to the realworld.

- James GeeGee has received considerable press recently surrounding hisassertion that game technology can improve learning and literacy[3, 6, 7], but the concept of capitalizing on the game interface toimprove learning is not new. Moser proposed at ITiCSE’97 thata fantasy adventure game could be a useful metaphor to teachintroduction to programming, overcoming such issues asboredom, intimidation, and the absence of contextual learning[12]; Gee’s above reference to mapping virtual space to the realworld supports Moser’s argument that students will learnmaterial better if they are able to refer to existing cognitivemodels and schema, and virtual learning environments affordsstudents the opportunity to situate their learning.Moser argues that the conflict between instructional and gamedesign may be overcome via a tiered structure wherein studentsexplore more complex material after proving mastery of morebasic concepts; the same idea appears in game interfaces where aplayer must demonstrate competency within a “safe” area of thegame world before being allowed to advance to more“dangerous” areas. Just as players explore the virtual world of agame, students explore the subject material over time andbecome more adept with the subject matter, engaging in a “cycleof expertise” wherein they are presented with simple problems;obtain routine mastery required to overcome these problems;solve similar, more complex problems introducing new elementsof the domain; expand their level of mastery; and repeat the cycleat various levels of complexity. Overall, this process results inthe “expanding” of learning and skills [3].Many learners and software programmers describe the state of deepest concentration as “being in the zone” – a state similar tothe suspension of disbelief of engaging entertainment and games.The idea of an immersive, virtual world to explore has thepowerful potential to improve learning by suspending thedisbelief of the user to help them feel a part of a learningenvironment. Swartout and van Lent, describing “experience-based systems,” assert this hold true even for complex subjects:

Immersion is a powerful shortcut into users’ mindswith potential non-game uses. In educationalapplications, studies have shown that an immersivelearning experience “creates a profound sense of motivation and concentration conducive tomastering complex, abstract material.”

[16]

THE NEED FOR COMMUNITY INONLINE LEARNING

Buy-in and motivation are imperative to online learning. If wedefine motivation as a “learner’s willingness to make anextended commitment to engage at a personal level in a new areaof learning” [3], then we must ask how can we foster anenvironment in which students make such strong commitments.One answer is to create community and encourage students byforming peer groups to help each other learn and also to foster asense of belonging.Placing lecture content and assignments online and providing amessage board for student posts is not sufficient for onlinelearning, especially in this age of ever-increasing computationalpower and bandwidth [4]. Media alone is not sufficient;guidance and personal engagement of learners is critical [14],and students are more successful in their learning when onlinecourses develop community among the participants [13]. Inaddition, within the context of large-scale and distanceeducation, as student-instructor interaction declines (due tofaculty-student ratio), we must emphasize the student-student(peer) and student-tutor (mentor) interactions as a means of compensating [5, 9].Because geographic distance between learners can create acognitive and social distance, thus online courses run the dangerof becoming impersonal. Faculty-approved facilitators can assiststudents in their online learning, adding a personal touch to anotherwise potentially-impersonal experience [14]. As a result, itis vital that learners form communities and peer groups to helpkeep each other motivated and stimulate learning.In emerging models of online education, student participationand group discussions are vital to the success of the program. Inthese new models, student learning is measured less often bytests and quizzes and more often by intelligent, deep discussionsabout the subject matter. Palloff and Pratt suggest that suchcollaborative learning increases the “active creation of knowledge and meaning” by participants and empowers them to“become experts in their own learning.” It is also interesting tonote that their approach does not depend upon any particulartechnology [12], so long as the emphasis is on communitybuilding and peer learning. Our proposed system has at its corethe building of communities through virtual campusenvironments.Community can enhance online learning, but the need forcommunity transcends the virtual classroom experience; we mustmove from a course-centered approach of online education andtowards a more holistic model. Student interaction on real worldcampuses certainly spills over into common campus spaces suchas student centers, libraries, and local restaurants. Onlinecampuses need common virtual extra-curricular spaces to helpcreate the community essential to successful online learning. As[10] states:

Social communication is an essential component of educational activity. Just as a face-to-face schoolor campus provides places for students tocongregate socially, an online educationalenvironment should provide a space, such as avirtual café, for informal discourse.

Many students, ourselves included, learn quite a bit outside of the classroom through in-person discussions and in onlinenewsgroups and chat rooms with fellow students. Expandingcurrent online course management systems with these forms of virtual meeting places seems like a logical next progression forvirtual universities [5].Evidence also suggests that students form peer groups and socialcommunities via cell phones and instant messaging that arewider and more complex than face-to-face peer groups [11].With much content available online (MIT, MERLOT, etc.)motivated students can access a wealth of material. Why then dostudents prefer to attend classes? We believe it is because thecollege structure offers community.

A MMOG EXPERIENCE

Having established a need for increased online courses andvirtual universities, the benefits of game-based interfaces to theenjoyment of learning, and the essential nature of buildingcommunity to online learning, we formulate a model based uponMassively-Multiplayer Online Gaming (MMOG) environments.Within MMOG systems, users connect to servers that store thecharacter information and distribute world updates to connectedclients; world updates typically consist of character/avatarmovement, object manipulation (doors opening and closing, etc.),and object transfer (characters obtaining and exchanging itemswithin the world). Since the system transmits only differentialupdates of the virtual world state to clients, bandwidthconsumption is kept minimal – often requiring only a 28.8k modem connection.In addition, conversations among users are transmitted either astext and displayed in “balloons”(see figure 1) or as compressedaudio; one of the captivatingaspects of MMOG interfaces is theability to speak with online friendsusing text balloons and usingVoice-over-IP (VoIP) technology,and our proposed systemincorporates both of thesedepending upon users’ preferences.Figure 1, taken from The SimsOnline MMOG, demonstrates anisomorphic view of a virtual worldin which users can interact withobjects (aquariums, billiard tables,chairs, bookcases, etc.) and otherusers (conversations, etc.). In thisscene, users are studying todevelop their avatars’ abilitieswithin the virtual world.Such an environment could becreated to simulate (among otherspaces) a university “studentcenter,” complete with cafeteria,bookstore, computer lab, and othercommon space typically found onreal-world campuses. We envisionstudents congregating in these virtual spaces to form studygroups, chat, and learn via osmosis by viewing other students’conversations.We propose creating a low-bandwidth, MMOG-style graphicalinterface to the virtual university campus that emphasizes thefollowing key points:1.

Immersive environment to create the“suspension of disbelief” of users2.

Voice-over-IP synchronous communication3.

“Bubble” style text communication4.

Transcription recording of conversations (forasynchronous viewing)5.

Customizable worlds where users canpersonalize their virtual environment6.

Building peer learning and impromptu learningopportunitiesThe metaphor of the virtual campus space can also be useful tohelp learners navigate digital libraries of online learning material(organized by topic, specialization, etc.). Many digital librariescontain vast storehouses of useful information, but locating theseitems can prove problematic to users; as students navigate thevirtual campus, they have spatial and visual cues to helpovercome the difficulty in finding digital items that they seek.Figure 2 depicts the overall MMOG virtual campus systemmodel.

ISSUES OF SCALABILITY

Institutions must utilize pedagogically effective and fiscally

Figure 1. A community-based MMOG environment – “The Sims Online”