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An Integrated VLE to Enhance Social Interaction for User-centred Active Learning

Authors:
Li Jin
Zhigang Wen

Keywords: Social interaction; e-Learning; Virtual Learning Environments

Abstract:
With the advent of social networking on the Internet, the great impacts of social interaction have rapidly migrated into the online world in order to enable multiple users to share opinions, insights, expertise, experiences, and interests with each other and further reduce the barriers to collaboration, skill-development, and discovery. Social networking facilitates social interaction and share of user-generated content in a collaborative environment. It has transferred the Internet into a dynamic platform for the development of innovative e-commerce and e-learning applications. Social networking has already begun to foster an intuitive and immersive virtual environment by converging Web 3D technology for enhancing user motivation and active engagement. This paper presents an integrated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) which is designed to incorporate social networking services into conventional VLEs in order to support both informal and formal learning practices required in Higher Education. A Social Virtual World (SVW) is adopted as a visual interface to access the integrated VLE since it enhance social interaction for user-centred active learning by supporting visual communication, mutual awareness and accountability. This paper further discusses and experiments some actual educational practices prototyped in the proposed integrated VLE to evaluate the valued learning experience achievement.

Pages: 35 to 40

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2010

Publication date: November 21, 2010

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-3735

ISBN: 978-1-61208-107-6

Location: Lisbon, Portugal

Dates: from November 21, 2010 to November 26, 2010