A summary of the Open Habitat presentation given at the JISC Next Generation Environments conference, April 2008.
A summary of the Open Habitat presentation given at the JISC Next Generation Environments conference. David White, April 2008.
Introduction
The JISC-funded Open Habitat project is piloting the use of Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) for teaching and learning activities with art & design and philosophy students. It plans to take advantage of the sense of presence or embodiment that can occur in these environments, the persistence of objects created and the social effects of being ‘in world’ with friends/peers. The project’s first pilot is working with art & design students based at Leeds Metropolitan University. The aim of the pilot is to encourage collaborative building in Second Life, equipping the students with the skills they need to use a MUVE as an aesthetic tool which they can use to express there emerging practice as designers.
Some of the most sophisticated collaborative activity in immersive environments takes place not in MUVEs but in Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games such as World of Warcraft. These games have the persistence, presence and social elements of a MUVE, but in contrast users of MMO environments have shared motivations to progress through the game and become part of a game culture which is re-enforced by the MMO designers at every possible opportunity. In many MMO games the later stages of the game are designed to encourage collaboration by creating tasks that require multi-skilled teams of up to 25 individuals to complete. Players are nurtured from their very first contact with the environment through to the higher levels of play, learning the interface, economy, culture and narrative of the game without being made to feel like they are being trained how to use a piece of software. The players’ motivation is to progress through the game, not to learn the features and functionality of an intricate 3D platform.
Initially, users of MUVEs face similar challenges to MMO game players. They are faced with learning how to use a complex environment whilst attempting to understand the criteria for success. It is useful, when planning to use MUVEs for education, to learn from the MMO designers, drawing on the techniques they use to ensure that players do not become overwhelmed by the environment and understanding how a player is supported on their journey from novice to expert. In some ways, the MUVE can be seen as a ‘blank canvas’ version of a MMO environment. The ability to build objects and create code (functionality that is not available in most MMO systems) gives the educationalist the ability to design both ‘physical’ and pedagogical structures, which can be used to guide learning and create a focus in an otherwise disparate environment.
The Open Habitat project is running a series of initial experiments in which first-time users play/interact with the Second Life MUVE and the World of Warcraft MMO environment for 90 minutes. Whilst these experiments are in their very early stages, they have highlighted a number of issues that are relevant in an educational context. To ensure that the reasoning of the participants was captured they took part in pairs. This leads to the vocalisation of ideas and hypothesis as they face challenges within the environments. During the 90 minutes, both the computer screen and the faces of the participants have been captured in video which was later synchronised. These picture-in-picture videos of significant moments in the experiments are used to illustrate the points outlined below. This format was chosen as it is as important to understand the motivation and reaction of the participants as it is to track their activity online.
This short paper provides an overview of initial observations made of how novice users played/interacted with Second Life and World of Warcraft, focusing on the two core themes of getting started and motivation. The paper concludes with a summary of how these initial observations were used to influence the design of the art & design pilots to be carried out by the Open Habitat project.
Getting Started: Framing and structure
World of Warcraft
Having chosen a character to play with or ‘become’ the first few seconds of the game are a framing video which outlines a back story; gives your character motivation (in this case revenge); shows the environment as a place worth exploring; and situates the chosen character within that environment. When the player gains control of the character they have chosen, they are already working within the structure of the game and are immersed visually, and to a lesser extent conceptually. In this case the participants immediately attempted to move out of the dungeon were they were located to the ‘outside’ which they had seen in the introductory video.
‘Framing’ introductory video
http://openhabitat.blip.tv/file/852096/
Second Life
Having chosen a basic avatar shape or ‘look’ the user is dropped into ‘Orientation Island’. There is no sense of what they should try to achieve but it is clear from the activity of others within the environment that everyone is facing the same challenges. In this particular case, it was possible to witness a number of avatars falling out of the sky as they grappled to learn how to use the movement controls. It soon became clear to the participants that they looked ‘the same’ as many other avatars and as the minutes pass there was growing sense that they should individualise their avatar and attempt to create a unique sense of identity. The knowledge that they were making the same mistakes[1] as others was useful, although their reaction to the first two minutes of interaction was one of mild alienation and amusement, especially when their avatar appeared naked for a few seconds.
Arriving naked and falling into the sea
http://openhabitat.blip.tv/file/852505/
Initial observations
The MMO environment creates motivation and the framing for legitimate activity through narrative and genre. Initially the MUVE is simply a platform, it is not prescriptive in terms of structure or goals and the orientation process is abstract and unguided. In effect, the whole of the platform with its entire complexity is made available to the user immediately. It is akin to dropping a student in a library and asking them to ‘read something’. Unlike the MMO environment, the MUVE itself is not directive. The initial motivation for most MUVE users is socially driven; for example, the need to individualise the avatar to ‘fit-in’ or to make an impression.
Activity and Motivation
World of Warcraft
Upon reaching the ‘outside world’ the participants were given a task by a non-player computer-driven character (NPC) which was to simply take an object to another NPC within the game. This task was simple, within the game genre, and had a specific reward (game money and game clothing). Having set out upon this task the participants decided to attack a rat. A large amount of satisfaction was drawn from successfully hitting the rat with a stick. In essence, by this point (after about 20 minutes) the participants were embedded within the framework of the game. The activity of hitting a rat, whilst not officially ‘on task’, was discussed as being “part of the game”. The task itself was a situated learning activity that was actually motivating the participants to learn how to navigate around the environment and the reward for this task was within the context of the game. In effect, the participants were being taught basic skills about the platform but were motivated by the narrative of the game.
Receiving a task and hitting a rat with a stick
http://openhabitat.blip.tv/file/852164/
Second Life
After around 20 minutes, the participants came to the realisation that there was no particular goal to be achieved within the environment: “What’s the point?” was asked. Fairly soon after this, the participants decided that it would be worthwhile searching out other people and attempting to interact and communicate. They also felt that it was important to change their appearance to become more “appropriately dressed”. It was not clear to the participants what the framework was for legitimate activity.
What is the point?
http://openhabitat.blip.tv/file/852395/
Initial observations
Much of what can be learnt from this comparison between a MMO game and a MUVE highlights the traditional concerns of those involved in teaching: How can a framework be provided that guides the students but allows them an appropriate amount of latitude to think for themselves? When using a MUVE, the concept of a legitimate and situated task is important as the environment itself is too open, offering a level of freedom that can cause apathy. Tasks can provide the ‘point’ and, as demonstrated in World of Warcraft, can act as a method of subtly teaching students basic skills through situated activities. In a MUVE the design and delivery of these tasks has to be provided by the educator.
Relevance to the Open Habitat Project
The observations and principles from these early experiments have been used to design the initial Art & Design pilot for the Open Habitat project. Instead of the usual concern with explicitly teaching functionality and technical skills, the pilot will run with the ‘in at the deep end’ pedagogy that the intrinsically experimental discipline of art & design employs. The pilot will be framed not as a process of learning the functionality of a piece of software but as a series of situated tasks which include: building an unfeasibly tall tower; building a bridge with a friend; creating a simple galley space and hanging your work on the walls; creating a ‘den’ for your avatar; and playing a game of hide and seek in world. Each of these tasks requires the students to master the skills needed to use the MUVE as a tool for their work in a manner that is relevant to them. We believe that what we have learnt from the MMO game designers will keep the students motivated and engaged in the same way that millions of MMO players are from the first moment they log in.
[1] The question of how certain actions come to be understood as a ‘mistake’ is an interesting theme that the London Knowledge Lab based ‘Learning from Online Worlds; Teaching in Second Life’ project is using as a method of understanding the cultural aspects of Second Life.
