Uno Fors, Rolf Bergin (Karolinska Institutet),
Uli Plank (Braunschweig Institute of Fine Arts), Frands Herschend, Stefan
Seipel (Uppsala University), Stephan Olbrich (University of Hannover) and Christian
Floto (TU Braunschweig)
This proposal
describes a project directed towards the use of simulation and visualization
techniques for education and training purposes within three different fields –
medicine, archeology and computer graphics - but will focus on generalizable
results. To enable the study a variety of pedagogical and educational issues,
an educational research framework is proposed that will test a number of
hypotheses in three well-defined cross-disciplinary test beds. Two of these
experiments will be performed independent from the others and also divided into
different time lines, the third experiment will link the two other experimental
fields (Medicine and Archeology) together with a third (Virtual Reality)
enabling an interesting cross-disciplinary experimental framework.
The experiments within
this framework will use a pedagogical strategy, which is based on student
activation and student responsibility. They can thus be used as a lever to
accomplish changes in the educational process and in pedagogical strategies at
the universities
Simulation and
visualization techniques have been used in various areas for education and
training purposes over the years. This is especially true when practice in
real world is hindered due to ethical, economical, social and cultural reasons.
Examples of this can be found in a variety of areas and settings like medicine,
archeology, geology, aviation and engineering.
The learner can be
trained in life-like situations without any risk and also do this repeatedly. A
well-known application is the use in the training of pilots - in their initial
training as well as in a continuing training of different types of airplanes.
This is an example of training of concrete skills, patterns and maneuvers.
There are other examples of when simulations are used in training and
understanding of more abstract skills like in management and economy. The use
of simulations in areas like the improvement of professionalism, interpersonal
communication skills including increase of empathy are scarcer.
Simulation and
visualization techniques are currently used with good methodological and
educational results in WGLN and adjacent projects. Examples within WGLN are two
projects covering learning to deal with medical problem solving in diagnosis
and therapy (the ISP-VL [http://isp.his.ki.se] and PharmaPac
[http://www.pharmapac.org] projects), other examples within the medical field
are training of for example critical situations in anesthesiology and emergency
care. But also in other educational areas like geological problem solving have
simulation techniques been used with good results (the SvalSim project
[http://www.his.ki.se/informatik_media/utv_datorstod/svalsim/index.htm] at
KI/Statoil is an example of this). The latter project also served as a pilot
test of generalizability, as it used both pedagogical methods and program code
from the medical ISP project.
To our knowledge no
thorough attempts have been made for a more overall development, research and
evaluation of simulation and visualization techniques. With such an approach
cross-disciplinary spin-offs and mutual benefits could deliberately be searched
for utilized techniques, program code and evaluation techniques. Such common
techniques and code could then be shared between the projects. An overall
strategy is of special value in the WGLN research areas as the use of
simulation and visualization techniques can be applied to most of the areas
like cross-disciplinary learning, distributed teams learning and personalized
learning.
Further more, even if
most visualization/simulation projects have been methodologically successful
and also proven to be applicable in real student courses, a number of important
research issues have been formulated. These includes: how real a simulation
must be to motivate and engage the student, how much user freedom an optimal
system should allow, and in which pedagogical settings a
visualization/simulation system is best used. Also questions regarding the
generalizability of both the pedagogy and the systems as such have been asked.
The experiments within
this framework will use a pedagogical strategy, which is based on student
activation and student responsibility. They can thus be used as a lever to
accomplish changes in the educational process and in pedagogical strategies at
the universities.
To study some of the
above-mentioned issues, we propose to create an educational research framework in
the field of visualization and simulation. This research framework will test a
number of hypotheses in four well-defined cross-disciplinary test beds, or
experiments. All four experiments will more or less use pedagogy and system
from the existing WGLN ISP-VL project. Two of these experiments will be
performed independent from the others and also divided into different time
lines, the third experiment will link the two other experimental fields
(Medicine and Archeology) together with a third (Virtual Reality) enabling an
interesting cross-disciplinary experimental framework. A fourth experiment will
evaluate the effects of different audiovisual components of multimedia based
learning systems.
- Use of
three different techniques to simulate medical patient history learning, to
evaluate the possibility to activate, motivate and emotionally attach students
to simulated learning systems.
Led by
Uli Plank, L3S/Braunschweig and Rolf Bergin, SweLL/KI
- Assessing
the generalizability and resource need of creating subject independent
simulation systems for learning. This will be performed by means of creating
archeological simulated excavation (ASE) based upon the existing medical ISP
architecture
Led by
Frands Herschend, SweLL/UU and Uno Fors, SweLL/KI
- Exploration
of how interactive, 3D visualization techniques can be applied to different
scenarios where complex, dynamic, multi-dimensional data have to be analyzed,
understood, and communicated.
Led by
Stefan Seipel, SweLL/UU and Stephan Olbrich, L3S/University of Hannover
- Assess the effects of
audiovisuals in multimedia 2D/3D learning systems. This will be performed by
means of creating different versions of a given multimedia CD-Rom series (The
Cell) and studying the effects on learning processes.
A general goal of the
framework is to create common research agendas, technical solutions and
assessment strategies that will fit all these seemingly disparate experiments,
enabling an effective and streamlined research organization to save money, time
and gain knowledge that will fit most disciplines. All experiments will deal
with a number of general hypotheses but focus on two specific hypotheses per
experiment. The project will to some extent include faculty persons at all
three WGLN Learning Labs.
The proposed research
framework will cover both general and specific hypotheses:
A, Well
designed simulation systems motivate and engage students
B, Visualization
and simulation systems allow learning situations that otherwise might be
limited due to among others, ethical, economical, social and cultural reasons.
C, A
well designed visualization and simulation system will allow the student to
learn more and better
D, The
degree of simulation realism is reflected in the level of student involvement
and student motivation
E, Well-designed
simulation systems do improve personal communication skills between non-equal
individuals and also result in emotions important for learning
F, A
simulation system can be designed so that it is generalizable between very
different areas and settings
G, The
resources needed for such a conversion are acceptable and smaller than creating
new systems and pedagogical settings
H, 3D
visualization techniques might be used to analyze and communicate complex, dynamic
and/or multi-dimensional models or data
I, Educational
use of 3D/VR is nowadays possible in many new learning situations, since
available multimedia-enhanced lecture halls, and desktop workstations often
can be extended to support low-cost stereoscopic, 3D presentation techniques
Since all of the
experiments included in the VASE project deals with visualization and
simulation environments, it is essential to develop a common framework for the
assessment issues.
At the outset, the
evaluation team members from the involved labs will facilitate the
participating researchers in clearly articulating the learning goals of the
various facets of the three test beds/experiments of the project. Developing a
program logic map for each experiment will assist in focusing and prioritizing
the goals. All experiments will follow a formative evaluation framework, where
at each step of data collection, a process is put in place for disseminating
the information back to the participating researchers.
The specific
evaluation needs and goals for all three experiments will then be used to set
up the common assessment framework of the VASE project. In this way, the
evaluation team will oversee that both the specific experimental hypotheses and
the general research goals will be assessed.
Additionally, the
evaluation team will oversee the research design and assessment needs for
conducting the evaluation for each experiment. During the course of the
experiment, the evaluation team will draw on its multidisciplinary expertise in
collecting various types of quantitative and qualitative assessments. The evaluation will be based upon the common
WGLN evaluation criteria and particularly focus on the WGLN-objectives as
described below. The evaluation will also represent various stakeholder
perspectives, including, for example from Experiment 1, medical student,
medical faculty, designer of simulated patient, cinematographer, students of
cinematography, and real patients.
New knowledge and new
products will be created to evaluate the possibility of
The project covers
many of the WGLN research thrusts like
As well as the WGLN
Research White Paper area
Principal Investigator, Point of Contact
Uno Fors, KI,
Uno.Fors@his.ki.se and Rolf Bergin, Karolinska Institutet,
Rolf.Bergin@his.ki.se
Co-PI (s)
Experiment 1: Uli
Plank, Braunschweig School of Art, Uli.Plank@hbk-bs.de
Experiment 2: Frands
Herschend, Uppsala University, Frands.Herschend@arkeologi.uu.se
Other Participating Researchers
· Karolinska Institutet
– Uno Fors, Uno.Fors@his.ki.se
· Royal University
College of Fine Arts, Stockholm
– Marie-Louise
Ekman, maraj@kkh.se
· University of
Hannover
– Stephan Olbrich,
Olbrich@rvs.uni-hannover.de
· TU
Braunschweig
– NN
· Uppsala University
– Anneli Sundkvist,
Anneli.Sundkvist@arkeologi.uu.se
Assessment
· SweLL
– Ernst Brodin,
Ernst.Brodin@fyfa.ki.se
– Hans Hindbeck,
Hans.Hindbeck@his.ki.se
– Monica
Langerth Zetterman, Monica.Langerth@learninglab.uu.se
· L3S
– NN
Project Time Frame
2 years: September
2001 – August 2003
D, E
Assess the possibility
to activate, motivate and emotionally attach students to simulated learning
systems. This will be performed by means of studying the impact of three
different techniques to simulated medical patient history learning.
Lead:
Uli Plank, L3S and
Rolf Bergin, SweLL/KI
In the existing ISP-VL
project patients are presented using traditional video techniques. The filming
has been done in professional studios with professional personnel. Modern
cinematographic techniques allow strongly increased possibilities for realism
and presence. As some of the educational goals include activation and emotional
involvement of the students, it is important to test these techniques in
educational experiments. The experiment will start from the existing WGLN
ISP-VL project and develop a second methodology using a recent
full-motion-video simulation based on editing rules from cinematography. During
year one, the ISP-VL system will be translated to German, a script for the new
cinematographic patient history system will be developed, followed by
pre-shootings in a Swedish studio using Swedish and/or German actors or
students from an actors school. This will be followed by test implementation of
the Virtual Cinema technique in Germany. Late in year one, a pilot version
using the cinematographic technique will be available for pre-testing. In year
two, the main development of the cinematographic system will take place,
possible with new professional actors, followed by tests with students for
assessing the emotional impact of the two different simulation techniques, and
finally an evaluation phase.
Comparing these two
computer based simulation techniques with real life simulation methods
utilizing standardized patients (actors) is a future goal, but might be
performed as a limited pilot test during year two, depending on available
resources.
In the existing ISP-VL
project, student groups at different levels in the medical education -
preclinical, preparatory clinical level and early clinical level - are used.
This means that different course settings are tested for problem solving
capacity, memory retention and emotional involvement etc. This type of groups
and existing assessment methods will be used in the suggested experiment.
Stage 0: Initial
workshop
The project will start
with a workshop with representatives from the participating laboratories where
a detailed analysis of the techniques in the existing simulating system as well
as the possibilities of cinematographic system. The collaboration involves
personnel from very different areas. It is thus important to establish a thorough
mutual understanding of the conditions at the different laboratories. The
workshop will also result in a detailed timetable. The different steps from a
cinematographic point of view are presented in the following (stage 1-6).
Stage 1: Didactical
concept
Human behavior during
the contact of doctor and patient are analyzed under medical aspects with the
help of video. We consider two basic dramaturgical complexes: visualization
based on physiological perception and interaction under psychological patterns.
Visuals:
The goal of
'immersion' throughout the learning process implies the representation from the
actors point-of-view. This leads to an "atomized" version of possible
framing and perspectives. Interaction: The patterns of human interaction are
controlled by several components, like language, gestures, facial expression
and the direction of the eyes (the
index vector). The complex interplay of visualization and interaction is part
of any human communication in the real world too. The result of this first
stage is a didactical matrix represented by storyboards.
Stage 2: Technical
concept
The concept from stage
1 is verified against the possibilities of the software 'Virtual Cinema' from
Hyper Bole Studios. This software has been developed to replace the
conventional linear cinematic language with a specialized syntax of narration
and is the starting point for cinematic representation of non-linear content.
The technical base is the widespread system-architecture for time-based media
called 'Quick Time' (developed by
Apple, but available for Windows machines too). We will have to test - in close
cooperation with Hyperbole - if there are further developments of the software
needed to arrive at the desired result of a learning module with a higher
'emotional impact'. Another possible approach will be a production solely
based on QuickTime's interactive features to arrive at a platform- and software
independent solution. A decision between the two possibilities can only be
taken after extensive testing. The result of this stage will be a functional
test model according to the didactical and technical concept and it's
presentation to the group of researchers.
Stage 3:
Scripting/Storyboarding
The script is
developed according to the didactical matrix and will re-translate the
situation of medical practitioner and patient in different situations into the
linear structure of a film sequence. In this script the realization of the
concept is defined by linear cinematic language. The script is needed to communicate
the intended situation to film professionals (actors, crew) from the
professional side. It's necessary as well to organize and co-ordinate
production management.
Stage 4:
Pre-production
Planning of production
and crew, organization of the technical resources based on focused part lists
of the script. The production management organizes time and resources, in
parallel the director and assistants do the fine-tuning of content and design.
Stage 5: Production
The quality of the
core production is essentially based on credibility and realism of the work
with actors. Working for a non-linear product will need a re-definition of
conventional practices in cinema and a new approach both by director and
actors. Other than in linear cinema the represented action will not be focused
on singular events but:
- 1. be multiplied by
several possible actions for a given scene
- 2. need multi-angle
real-time recording
- 3. need a higher
degree of abstraction for logical chaining. This implies the possible need for
re-shooting due to the risk of gaps in cinematic representation even with the
best possible planning.
Stage 6:
Post-production/Authoring
The sheer quantity of
raw footage will result in a period of logging and indexing of image and sound
higher than usual. Additional to conventional editing the pre-editing of jump
points is needed to test the chained actions. The selected sequences are then
organized into a database according to the didactical matrix from stage 1. At
this point a re-evaluation of existing soft- and hardware standards is needed
to check the decisions from stage 2 against current developments on the market.
This leads to the choice of distribution codec and hardware or streaming
concept and forms the base of mass conversion of raw footage into the final
compressed format. The functional model is adapted, filled with the high-level
material from the shooting/editing and completed with the interaction tools
developed meanwhile. Now authoring is run through two test stages as in
conventional software development (alpha and beta tests), each followed by
debugging. The final product is now ready for presentation.
Stage 7: Testing in
courses with students
After a debugging
phase of the two systems with students the systems will be used for experiments
with students in ordinary courses at different levels. The tests will be
performed with local groups in a problem-solving environment.
Stage 8: Final
evaluation
The evaluation will be
closely connected to all phases of the project, but will have a main period in
conjunction with the student tests and the following month. Procedures used in
the present ISP-VL project will be used. These procedures include written
forms, video recordings and deep interviews.
There are several
deliverables during the project. The first is a workshop report presenting up
to date descriptions of i.a. the advanced simulation and cinematographic
techniques. A second deliverable is an ISP-VL version in German, possible to
use in different courses in Germany. The main deliverable is the production of
a new computer-simulated patient history system with new cinematographic
techniques, to be tested against the traditional system. The results will
include written assessment reports and possibly also a scientific paper
published in an international journal.
Stage 1: Didactical
concept 5 months
Stage 2: Technical
concept 5 months
Stage 3:
Scripting/Storyboarding 2
months
Stage 4:
Pre-production 2
months
Stage 5: Production 1 month
Stage 6:
Post-production/Authoring 6
months
Stage 7: Testing in
courses 2 months
Stage 8: Final
evaluation 1 month
Specific hypotheses under study:
F, G
Assessing the
generalizability and resource need of well-designed simulation systems for
learning. This will be performed by means of creating archeological simulated
excavation (ASE) based upon the existing ISP architecture
Lead:
Frands Herschend,
SweLL/UU and Uno Fors, SweLL/KI
This experiment is
based on existing ISP-VL pedagogy and systems, but also with the knowledge
derived from earlier transitions between medicine and geology. The aim is to
construct an ASE that will enable students at different locations to use the
same training tool, i.e. to bridge different archaeological learning
environments by means of similar approaches to source material, in order to
explore the possibilities for creating a larger learning network. The setting
will be an excavation of an Iron Age settlement (a farm) in the middle of
Sweden. Such an excavation site, depending on its state of preservation,
usually consists of about 100 and 1500 contexts, such as postholes, hearths or
floor layer, and a number of artefacts. In Scandinavia and Northwest Europe 5 -
10% of the arable land can be expected to contain remains of Iron Age farms. A
large number of university departments could therefore be expected to benefit
from the simulation in their education of students. From a didactic point of
view, students can test their ability to recover facts and judge the relevance
of a methodic approach, but also put their excavation results into a larger
cultural perspective. This will enable them to combine science and humanity in
archeology.
The intellectual
rationale of the experiment is twofold. The first and immediate result will be
a pedagogical platform by means of which students will become aware of the
character and complexity of an archaeological site. The second result will be
the introduction of a new way of looking at the site and the excavated site as
a three-dimensional model.
An archaeological site
is the material results of a series of events. The excavation aims at
reconstructing these events and the order in which they took place. In this
respect archaeology and forensics share the same interest and similar to
autopsy the excavation destroys its object and transforms it to documents and a
small number of preserved items. Loss of information is the main disadvantage of this kind of method and the loss is
due to inexperience, bad organization and the nature of the methods. Simulating
excavations minimizes the two former ones.
Today the result of
the documentation of an excavation stands out as a mixture of notes,
photographs, drawings, sections and artefacts kept together by an
interpretative description in the form of a text which links all the disparate
bits and pieces of documentation. The reason for this is no doubt the original
archaeological excavation tradition that hailed the idea of setting out on an
expedition, making a discovery, and bringing back proof in the form of objects.
With today's
electronic techniques we can change this attitude completely and see to it that
the documentation make up a database consisting of three-dimensional virtual
objects linked in such a way that documentation itself becomes a coherent
visual model of the actual site. The ability to put together the model goes
hand in hand with the ability to dismantle it and that means that we can return
to the site and its excavation to analyze the results once again. It will
become possible to visualize different phases and distributions and to check
different strategies redoing the excavations.
The simulated
excavation equals the three-dimensional representation of a database in which
the records contain all the information that can be obtained about the site.
That is to say the complete documentation of a site contained in a set of
records. This means that by excavating the virtual site students are trained in
the reformed ideal of archaeological documentation, inasmuch as they are
required to build up the documentation as a database parallel to the one behind
the simulated site.
There are obvious
pedagogical qualities in this approach since to judge the success of the
students we can compare their database with the one that constituted the site.
Students will learn that the result of an excavation is a coherent record-based
three-dimensional model and an interpretative text summarizing relevant
contextual patterns.
Defining a simulated
site is a matter of composing a three-dimensional object, the site, consisting
of a number of three-dimensional subsets with different qualities – such as
being a posthole with a certain color, another subset being a piece of charcoal
in the posthole and so on. The point in the excavation is to apply two kinds of
tools. One kind removes a certain portion of the site – a "spoon"
takes just a little and breaks nothing, while a "spade" takes more
and breaks through some of the subsets. The removing tool brings to light new
surfaces in which one can see different subsets. That will allow description of
what we see and may also prompt us to use the second kind of tool by means of
which we can recover a subset or a part of a subset, be it a potsherd or a sample
of charcoal. By recovering we add records from the site database to the
documentation database.
Developing the
simulation technique we will be able to teach excavation and moreover to create
a new or rather reformed attitude to the excavation of the real site.
In March 2001 the Vice
Chancellor of Uppsala University granted the Department of Archaeology a new
two-year, strongly computer-aided, archaeology program. The program puts a
special emphasis on landscape analysis, fieldwork and artefact studies. The
reasons for giving the program economic support were several among others the
following: the teaching capacity of the department, its Geographical
Information System (GIS) lab, its curated museum collections, its library
resources (2nd largest archaeological library in Sweden) and
Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis (SAC), a commercial foundation engaged in
archaeological fieldwork and analysis. SAC work in close co-operation with the
department being founded by its staff members in order to introduce new
archaeological methods. As a part of the program the ASE will be fitted into
this structure in which teaching and working life interact.
The second year
curriculum for the Archaeology Program contains a six-week field course with an
additional five-week, non-compulsory, summer course. If we develop the ASE
course it will become a three-week course inserted before and taking one week
off the field course. It will be incorporated in computer training part of the
program. During the program students are divided into groups of six for all
"laborative" tasks and each such group will run an ASE under
supervision. The program accepts 30 students a year.
The course will teach
and test the students' interpretation of the site (i.e. the written report and
its arguments), their use and choice of methods, the quality of their
documentation, recovered facts and cost efficiency. Since there will be a key
to the ASE the course will end with a comparison between the students' reports
and the key. With continued funding the three-week course will run in May 2003
with five student groups, i.e. all the second-year students in the Archaeology
Program.
The experiment will
deal with a number of milestones with related deliverables. This will include a
report from an initial workshop, where the pedagogical methods from the ISP-VL
project will be mapped into the educational needs in archaeology. In this
workshop will faculty from archeology, medicine and educational design
specialists participate. This workshop will also result in a system description
where the needed data, interaction scheme and design features will be
determined.
A systems design phase
will follow this, in parallel with gathering of needed images, texts and other
data. This phase will result in a working prototype of the ASE, including
excavation site data like maps, objects and other graphical data derived from
existing archeological artefact materiel and databases at Uppsala University.
After evaluating the prototype the development of the full-blown ASE system
will take place.
The full ASE system
will be used in student courses as described above, where both the simulation
system and the learning outcomes will be evaluated. The ASE will demonstrate
the formation of a simulated site and exemplify some of the different subsets
contained in it. It will also give examples of how to analytical methods such
as 14C analyses come to use and demonstrate how the removing and
recovering excavation tools work. Excavation and analysis will be linked to
real time and costs.
The evaluation team will work close to all experiment
phases, but will have a main effort during the last part of the experiment. The
evaluation team will in close collaboration with the developing team monitor
all steps needed to create the ASE with the ISP-VL systems as a base to study
the resources needed for this transformation process (from medicine to
archaeology), to enable the study of the ability to create generalizable
educational simulation tools. The outcome of the evaluation of the user studies
will result in a report and possibly also as parts of scientific papers.
Initial planning,
workshop and reports month
1-2
Prototyping and
initial data collection month 3-5
Development stage
incl. further data collection and digitization month
6-11
Initial course
deployment of the prototype month
11
Refinement workshop month 12
Development of the ASE
and its course settings month
13-20
Final course test of
the ASE month 21
Final evaluation and report writing month 22-24
Specific hypotheses under study:
H, I
This experiment will
explore how interactive, 3D visualization techniques can be applied to
scenarios where complex, dynamic, multi-dimensional models or data have to be
analyzed, understood, and communicated. The experiment will establish the
required infrastructure at the involved labs, which is required to develop and
investigate educational applications of VR and for reference purposes, design,
implement, and evaluate networked services and a modular authoring tool to support
creation of content and application scenarios,
and finally, create and evaluate pilot applications.
Pilot applications are
going to be developed and tested in three involved sites, Hannover, Uppsala,
and Stockholm. The teaching content will be chosen from courses in Computer
Graphics, Archeology and Medicine, where complex relationships need to be
conveyed. The Computer Graphics examples will be extended materials and
contents from the demonstrators established in the CVEL project. The Medical
examples will be part of the physical examination/medical history systems of
the ISP-VL project used in Experiment 1 above, and the Archeological examples
will be one or two of the artefacts (objects) used in Experiment 2 above,
enabling a very interesting cross-disciplinary use and evaluation of the
educational VR tools developed.
In order to use synergy
effects and to avoid overlapping labor, staff from experiment 3 will be
involved both into experiment 1 and 2 in order to support creation of the
domain specific 3D content, and to support the set-up of respective demonstrator
applications. On the other hand staff from experiment 1, and 2 will also work
on experiment 3 to contribute with user requirements such as to guarantee a
highly usable and general applicability of the outcome of experiment 3.
The VR scenarios will
comprise interactive virtual experiments and teaching sessions, which could be
shared by students and teachers in either local or remote places – thus
enabling distributed lab-sessions and tutorials.
This experiment is
based on existing CVEL experiments and systems, but also on previous research
results in complex-data visualization. Pilot tests with students from all three
areas (Computer Graphics, Archaeology and Medicine) will be performed already
in year one, to enable necessary feedback from students, teachers and the
evaluation team to form the basis for full-scale implementation in courses
during year two.
The VR system
developed and its domain-specific educational content will be tested and used
in both existing and newly developed courses in Computer Graphics, Archeology
and Medicine at Uppsala University and Karolinska Institutet.
The medical and
archaeological student activities will include the courses and other practical
tests with students used in experiments 1 and 2 in this project.
In order to accomplish the
general goals outlined for experiment 3, a functional frame work must be
established which allows for high flexibility and generality such as to
accommodate user studies in a variety of different disciplines. In this process
we are going to adopt an action research driven approach, where specification
and development of communication metaphors for the 3D learning environment will
be tightly inter-connected with ad-hoc implementations and periodic cycles of
small scale user studies. This user centered development approach shall
guarantee that the final 3D learning and teaching environment to be evaluated
will not lack significant functionality. Since most of the interaction
paradigms in these virtual visualization environments will go beyond
state-of-the-art in existing 3D learning tools, an ad-hoc user driven
verification method is appropriate and desirable in order to avoid miss-leading
research efforts. In particular, the following main tasks are going to be
performed:
Functional framework definition (Task 1): In a
first step we will establish a functional specification for the 3D learning
environment. As we can observe from present 3D learning environments,
functional abilities are far too limited as to allow those tools to be used
meaningfully in the learning context. Often, navigation of conventional
documents is managed outside the 3D learning environments, which requires
mental task switches between different learning contexts. Questions to be answered:
How is textual information communicated best in virtual learning environments?
How can individualized 3D content (experiments and visualizations) be described
in a general form? How is interaction among students and teachers accomplished
most efficiently in the virtual communication environment (voice, text-chat
etc.).
Field research based refinement of
requirements (Task 2) and ad-hoc
implementation of runtime system (Task 3): Our ideas about the capabilities of a fully virtual
learning environment are based on our experiences with existing 3D learning
tools and the shortcomings we encounter there. In defining new communication
paradigms, we intend to come up with a superior way of communicating complex
data and relationships (see goals). In order to validate our paradigms,
however, we need alternate small-scale user studies with implementation cycles
to proof our concept. The knowledge we gain thereby is more related with social
and behavioral aspects rather than technical: How do we initiate social contact
in a virtual environment? How does avatar appearances alter personality? How
important is true face-to-face communication? To what extend do we have to
maintain privacy of dialogues in an environment where everyone can see and hear
anyone else?
Domain specific content authoring system
definition and implementation
(Task
4): A further step in our investigation will be to provide long-term
usability and exploitation of the results accomplished throughout the project.
Speaking in practical terms, it must be easy also for non-technical people to
use the 3D virtual learning environment to set-up, configure, and design their
individual domain specific virtual lectures. In consequence there must be an
authoring system to manage and administer virtual classes, the teaching
material, access privileges and to archive 3D content. This task will guarantee
that there will be a generalized outcome of the invested resources ready for
dissemination and evaluation across all disciplines.
Pilot build and experimental studies (Task 5) and evaluation (Task 6): These tasks are concerned with implementation
of case studies in the three selected areas Computer Graphics, Archeology, and
Medicine and with experimental studies. We will set up the goals of evaluation
to prove the hypotheses H and I, as stated above in proposed research
framework, including a continuous evaluation effort. These studies will be
carried out in the overall evaluation framework established by the WGLN
assessment team.
As for the implementation related tasks the
deliverables will be in form of usable software systems. One for the runtime
system of the virtual learning environment (Task 3, Task 5), and one for the
authoring system, which allows to create 3D teaching content and virtual meeting
places (Task 4). The results of Task 1 will implicitly be reflected and
represented in the deliverable of Task 3. Task 2 will generate general
knowledge related to visual communication in virtual learning environments and
hence result in a guideline document for teachers engaged into virtual 3D
learning scenarios. The outcome of the evaluation of the user studies will
result in a report and possibly also as parts of scientific papers.
Timeframe for the 24-month
project period listed by task order:
Task Month
Task 1 (Functional
framework definition): 1-3
Task 2 (Field research
based refinement of requirements): 3-12
Task 3 (Ad-hoc
implementation of runtime system): 6-15
Task 4 (Domain specific
content authoring system definition and implementation): 12-20
Task 5 (Pilot build and
experimental studies): 9-20
Task 6 (Evaluation): 1-24
Criteria of Evaluation of Audiovisuals in Multimedia Productions (CRIMP)
Assess
the effects of audiovisuals in multimedia 2D/3D learning systems. This will be
performed by means of creating different versions of a given multimedia CD-Rom
series (The Cell) and studying the effects on learning processes.
Christian
Floto, TU Braunschweig, C.Floto@tu-bs.de
Developing and producing state of the art multimedia
teach ware means to incorporate remarkable portions of audiovisual elements. In
their every day life learner are accustomed to consumption of films and videos
of high technical quality e.g. TV programs, DVD productions or Imax cinema,
including especially 3D-technique, music and sound effects and a lot of formal
and dramaturgical means to reach a higher level of attention and motivation to
consume this special media product. The costs for using these techniques and
such productions are extremely high. Relating to multimedia productions for
teaching and learning the question is, what kind of technical and (post)
production requirements are necessary to attempt highest results in motivation,
perception, memorizing and understanding. One of the unanswered questions in
actual evaluation research is, how do learner react to audiovisuals of
different technical quality? Which parameters as e.g. resolution, depth of
color, size, motion, and sound bandwidth can be reduced without influencing the
motivation of the learner or their learning efficiency? Or – on the other side:
Which and how many effects (2D/3D, sound), what kind of textuality/segmentation
and dramaturgy is needed for the purpose of optimized learning results? These
questions correlate with some of the general and specific hypotheses described
in the VASE full application (e.g. B, Visualization and simulation systems
allow learning situations that otherwise might be limited due to among others,
ethical, economical, social and cultural reasons. C, A well designed
visualization and simulation system will allow the learner to learn more and
better. D, The degree of simulation realism is reflected in the level of learner
involvement and learner motivation.)
One
of the IWF multimedia productions (The cell, CD-Rom series) will be used as
basic material, which – in its required parts – should be optimized to state of
the art quality. In addition to the other experiments included in the VASE
project this experiment assess the field of biology. The CD-Rom series includes
different digital media as video (RealVideo and QuickTime), 3D-Objects (QVTR),
computer animations and interactive teaching modules (shockwave) and is made
for educational use in schools and universities. Then the above-mentioned
parameters in this production will stepwise be reduced or modified; thus, other
versions of learning modules in different combinations of reduced and optimized
parameters will be produced.
Next
these versions will be tested in different sites and the results will be
evaluated.
Testing
these versions requires great efforts in finding homogenous test groups and in
developing statistical measurements. Therefore they will be tested by different
samples of pupils at vocational schools in Lower Saxony (e.g. Braunschweig,
Hannover, Göttingen).
These
groups are a more homogenous than student groups and there will be lesser
communication between the groups in different cities.
The
emotional and intellectual response and effects on perception and
memorizing/understanding will be measured.
Pilot Phase:
During
year one the optimal test bed should be found within a tree month pilot phase
by contacting different schools (e.g. classes for doctor’s assistants at
vocational schools). A statistical system to measure the above mentioned
effects will be developed in the first year.
Cooperation
with ZDF (German Television, Second Public Channel) in the pilot phase will be
helpful. Participation in evaluation process as described in VASE project will
be useful to set up specific evaluation needs and goals for this experiment.
Experiment Part One:
Next
the different version of the basic material will be produced, the test bed will
be recruited and the multimedia material will be tested in courses with pupil
at vocational schools as described above (Experiment part one). Both the
multimedia productions and the learning outcomes will be evaluated.
Experiment Part Two:
Findings
of part one will be implemented in the reproduction of test material and a
second test phase (Experiment part two).
The
results will be evaluated in cooperation between TU Braunschweig, Institute for
Social Sciences and IWF Knowledge and Media.
There
are several deliverables during this experiment. It will generate general
knowledge related to multimedia learning situations and evaluation techniques
for such multimedia productions. The outcome will be published in reports and
scientific publications of methods and results.
Pilot
Phase:
Concept
planning, workshop, identification of test bed month 01 – 03
Part
One:
Development
of measuring system, production of test material month 04 – 10
Recruitment
of test bed month 11 – 12
Testing
in Courses month 13 – 14
Evaluation
month 15 – 17
Part
Two:
Reproduction
of test material month 17 – 19
Testing
in Courses month 20 – 21
Final
Evaluation month 22 – 24