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ASU and Clemson team up — in 3-D
By Caroline Monday
Appalachian State University and Clemson University formally agreed
on Friday to form the Carolinas Virtual
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J. Bruce Rafert, vice provost and
dean of the graduate school at Clemson University, and
Stan Aeschleman, provost and executive vice chancellor
at Appalachian State University, signed an agreement to
form the Carolinas Virtual World Consortium. The partnership
will allow ASU and Clemson to work together in using technology
to offer educational opportunities for more students.
Photo submitted
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World Consortium, a partnership that will allow educators at the
two schools to take their online offerings to a whole new dimension.
That dimension is the third dimension, and with new developments
in technology, 3-D virtual worlds like Second Life are not just
for gamers anymore. Through developing virtual word technologies,
the schools will be able to offer distance education students
with a learning experience that is more similar to that of a traditional
student.
While online educational courses are nothing new, the consortium
will work to develop opportunities for students to pursue an education
online in a way that is more engaging than what has been offered
in the past. Students will be able to create avatars, or three-dimensional
representations of themselves, and move around a virtual campus
in a way similar to how they would move around an actual campus.
The online campuses can even be designed to look like the campus
of the school they represent.
John Tashner, a professor in ASU’s department of leadership
and education studies, said pursuing this kind of online offering
has many advantages. Though it will never replace the traditional
college experience, education using virtual worlds will allow
off-campus students to receive a college experience similar to
that of on-campus students, he said.
The use of virtual worlds allows educators to cater to more learning
styles than previous online applications had allowed and is more
conducive to class discussions and small group work. Dick Riedl,
also a professor in the department of leadership and education
studies, said students can experience a sense of presence in a
3-D environment that is lacking when courses are conducted via
email and on Web pages.
Tashner said the technology also opens up opportunities for instructors
to arrange guest speakers from all over the world. He said that
the technology has already sparked the interest of both students
and educators in other countries.
While the development of the programs does require a high level
of technical skill, use of these programs does not require that
students and faculty members have an especially high level of
technical expertise. This fact is especially true considering
how familiar students and future students are becoming with virtual
worlds through online gaming.
Tashner and Riedl, along with ASU professor Stephen Bronack, created
a program called Appalachian Education Technology Zone to serve
master’s degree students enrolled in online courses through
the university’s instructional technology, library science,
educational leadership and curriculum and instruction programs.
From Clemson comes a team representing a variety of disciplines,
ranging from computer science to rhetoric.
“People are really working well together,” Tashner said.
“[This project] will be very highly collaborative.”
Three-dimensional virtual worlds are growing in popularity as
stages for entertainment, but representatives from both universities
said they foresee this technology becoming more widespread in
education and in the business world. The interest in developing
this technology will mean many opportunities for the universities
to receive outside funding, as well as offer more opportunities
for their students.
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