Developing a Psychological Model of Learning in 3D Virtual Environments: Guiding Principles for Educators

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Boechler, Patricia

• SSHRC Awarded IG 2016: Incoming university students have experience with and are engaged by avatar-based virtual worlds [VEs]. Are educators ready for them? An empirically supported, psychological theory of learning in 3D Virtual Environments, with principles for educational practice, would prepare educators for the next wave of post-secondary students as well as the next wave of 3D technologies. This project very clearly aligns with two SSHRC Future Challenges; 1) New Ways of Learning in Higher Education and, 2) Leveraging Emerging Technologies for the Benefit of Canadians.

  The specific objectives are:
  a) to investigate the role of targeted elements of spatial context and spatial processing in learning in VEs,
  b) to investigate the role of targeted elements of social context and social interaction in learning in VEs,
  c) to empirically test the interaction of spatial and social elements,
  
  d) to aggregate these findings into a coherent psychological model/theory of VE learning, and
  e) to extrapolate that model into a set of practical guidelines for post-secondary educators

• Date created

  2015-10-15

• Subjects / Keywords

  • 2016
  • Learning
  • Grant Application
  • Information Technologies
  • Educational Psychology
  • 3D
  • Educational Media
  • Psychosocial Model
  • VE
  • Teaching Methods
  • Successful SSHRC
  • Educational Technology
  • Virtual Learning
  • Post-Secondary Education
  • IG
  • Virtual World
  • Virtual Environment
  • Pedagogy
  • Cognitive Processes
  • Insight Grant

• Type of Item

  Research Material

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3TS1M

• License

  © Boechler, Patricia. All rights reserved other than by permission. This document embargoed to those without UAlberta CCID until 2024.