The traditional language laboratory consists of computer-based exercises in which students practice the language individually, working on language form drills and listening comprehension activities. In addition to the traditional approach to the laboratory requirement, students in the study participated in a weekly conversation hour focusing on improving oral proficiency. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to determine the effect of two different types of conversation hours, face-to-face and virtual, on the oral proficiency levels of students enrolled in intermediate Spanish classes at the college level. Oral proficiency was measured using the Simulated Oral Proficiency Interview (SOPI), before and after treatment. The face-to-face conversation hours took place at the language laboratory in a classroom and the virtual conversation hours took place in the online multi-user virtual environment known as Second Life. The research question was: What is the effect of attending virtual conversation hours or face-to-face conversation hours on students' oral proficiency? The statistical data analysis was conducted using the conversation hours as the independent variable (face-to-face or virtual), the SOPI posttest scores as the dependent variable, and the SOPI pretest scores as the covariate. A total sample of 52 students was involved. Posttest data were collected following 14 weeks of treatment during which students in each group attended the weekly conversation hours. Data analysis showed there was significant difference in oral proficiency gain between the face-to-face group and the virtual group. The results of the ANCOVA test allowed the rejection of the null hypothesis, as there was a significant difference in effect on the adjusted SOPI posttest scores of the participants in the virtual conversation group versus those in the face-to-face conversation group. The virtual group improved their oral proficiency significantly better than the face-to-face group. In addition, the SOPI scores of both groups increased significantly. The SOPI posttest scores were significantly higher than the SOPI pretest scores for both groups. Therefore, both face-to-face and virtual conversation hours could yield a supplemental method to the traditional approach of the language laboratory to improve communicative competence.

The Army needs a distributed training environment that can be accessed whenever and wherever required for training and mission rehearsal. This paper describes an exploratory experiment designed to investigate the effectiveness of a prototype of such a system in training a navigation task. A wearable computer, acoustic tracking system, and see-through head mounted display (HMD) were used to wirelessly track users' head position and orientation while presenting a graphic representation of their virtual surroundings, through which the user walked using natural movement. As previous studies have shown that virtual environments can be used to train navigation, the ability to add natural movement to a type of virtual environment may enhance that training, based on the proprioceptive feedback gained by walking through the environment. Sixty participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: route drawing on printed floor plan, rehearsal in the actual facility, and rehearsal in a mixed reality (MR) environment. Participants, divided equally between male and female in each group, studied verbal directions of route, then performed three rehearsals of the route, with those in the map condition drawing it onto three separate printed floor plans, those in the practice condition walking through the actual facility, and participants in the MR condition walking through a three dimensional virtual environment, with landmarks, waypoints and virtual footprints. A scaling factor was used, with each step in the MR environment equal to three steps in the real environment, with the MR environment also broken into "tiles", like pages in an atlas, through which participant progressed, entering each tile in succession until they completed the entire route. Transfer of training testing that consisted of a timed traversal of the route through the actual facility showed a significant difference in route knowledge based on the total time to complete the route, and the number of errors committed while doing so, with "walkers" performing better than participants in the paper map or MR condition, although the effect was weak. Survey knowledge showed little difference among the three rehearsal conditions. Three standardized tests of spatial abilities did not correlate with route traversal time, or errors, or with 3 of the 4 orientation localization tasks. Within the MR rehearsal condition there was a clear performance improvement over the three rehearsal trials as measured by the time required to complete the route in the MR environment which was accepted as an indication that learning occurred. As measured using the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire, there were no incidents of simulator sickness in the MR environment. Rehearsal in the actual facility was the most effective training condition; however, it is often not an acceptable form of rehearsal given an inaccessible or hostile environment. Performance between participants in the other two conditions were indistinguishable, pointing toward continued experimentation that should include the combined effect of paper map rehearsal with mixed reality, especially as it is likely to be the more realistic case for mission rehearsal, since there is no indication that maps should be eliminated. To walk through the environment beforehand can enhance the Soldiers' understanding of their surroundings, as was evident through the comments from participants as they moved from MR to the actual space: "This looks like I was just here", and "There's that pole I kept having trouble with". Such comments lead one to believe that this is a tool to continue to explore and apply. While additional research on the scaling and tiling factors is likely warranted, to determine if the effect can be applied to other environments or tasks, it should be pointed out that this is not a new task for most adults who have interacted with maps, where a scaling factor of 1 to 15,000 is common in orienteering maps, and 1 to 25,000 in military maps. Rehearsal time spent in the MR condition varied widely, some of which could be blamed on an issue referred to as "avatar excursions", a system anomaly that should be addressed in future research. The proprioceptive feedback in MR was expected to positively impact performance scores. It is very likely that proprioceptive feedback is what led to the lack of simulator sickness among these participants. The design of the HMD may have aided in the minimal reported symptoms as it allowed participants some peripheral vision that provided orientation cues as to their body position and movement. Future research might include a direct comparison between this MR, and a virtual environment system through which users move by manipulating an input device such as a mouse or joystick, while physically remaining stationary. The exploration and confirmation of the training capabilities of MR as is an important step in the development and application of the system to the U.S. Army training mission. This experiment was designed to examine one potential training area in a small controlled environment, which can be used as the foundation for experimentation with more complex tasks such as wayfinding through an urban environment, and or in direct comparison to more established virtual environments to determine strengths, as well as areas for improvement, to make MR as an effective addition to the Army training mission.

This phenomenological study examined the social interactions during online game play in a virtual environment for five young adults with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who attended a large metropolitan university, enrolled in the first 60 credits of a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) field of study. Given the evolution of technology and opportunities to socialize in virtual communities, it is becoming increasingly important to understand how young adults with ASD assimilate into new social opportunities that provide supports for extraneous variables such as face-to-face situations. As research begins to emerge on virtual environments there is little research addressed specific to socialization and the development of interpersonal relationships. Further, there is a distinct lack of research specific to young adults with ASD who engage socially in virtual environments. A phenomenological research method was used to explain the social activities as they occurred for this specific group of individuals. Structured and unstructured interviews, observations, document analysis, and a self-reporting survey were conducted and collected. Analysis used emergent coding following Moustakas* modified Van Kaam method (1994). Common themes were identified and reported through lists and tables. In summary, this study described how young adults with ASD socialized within a virtual community. This study provided findings that individuals with ASD actively seek friendships, recognize emotions, understand roles within the game and real life use skills necessary for success in postsecondary education and STEM related careers, and lays the foundation for continuing research using virtual environments to support interpersonal relationships that may support greater postsecondary outcomes.

This thesis explores the educational potential of virtual environments, which are computer-generated spaces that allow users to have a sense of presence and interaction with simulated worlds. In this thesis, I argue that virtual environments are not merely tools for learning specific skills or knowledge, but can also enable formative experiences that contribute to the purpose of education as understood by contemporary educational theorists. Using Masschelein & Simons’ concept of Scholè, which is a touchstone for the reinvention of school education, this thesis compares and contrasts different aspects of virtual environments with those of the scholastic. In order to do that, I propose a fictional virtual environment exclusively designed for formal education, called the Virtual Educational Environment (VEE), and discuss its possibilities and challenges. In doing so, I also suggest that virtual environments can be a global form of gathering that can augment physical classes, and call for more attention to their theoretical and practical implications for education.

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<p> Many manual tasks such as those in surgical applications require a high degree of motor skills that can only be gained through extensive training. This thesis is concerned with the design and control of collaborative training virtual environments with haptic feedback for skills training. The term "collaborative training" refers to a scheme in which the trainee and the trainer operate in a shared virtual environment. They collaboratively carry out the intended tasks using a shared "virtual tool". In order to enhance the trainee's motor skills, the conventional visual feedback will be augmented by force feedback providing the feel of the task environment as well as active guidance by the expert trainer.</p> <p> First, a set of psychophysics experiments are designed to investigate the usefulness of haptic-enabled collaborative virtual environments for motor skills training. Eighteen volunteers randomly divided between two training and control groups have participated in the experiments. The training group would undergo a number of collaborative training sessions with active help from the trainer whereas the control group would try the task on their own to achieve a set of stated goals. Each of the experiments is designed with specific performance objectives in mind, including trajectory tracking and task completion time. The results of the psychophysics experiments confirm that, when visual feedback is partially impaired, haptic-enabled collaborative training improves learning of a trajectory tracking task. In all the experimental scenarios tested, the results showed improvements in temporal response after receiving training.</p> <p> The second part of the thesis is devoted to the development of a general control framework for the coordination of the users in haptic-enabled collaborative virtual environments. The haptic interface control design is separated from the virtual environment simulation in order to provide more versatility in control strategies for both impedance and admittance-type virtual environments. Adaptive nonlinear controllers are proposed that establish desired linear-time-invariant and/or nonlinear static mappings amongst the users and the virtual task environment positions and forces. These controllers account for the nonlinear model of haptic devices and can handle uncertainties in the haptic devices, the users, and the virtual environment dynamics. First, the tracking behavior of the system is shown via a Lyapunov analysis. Then using a priori known bounds on user and environment parameters, the robust stability of the system is analyzed by employing the Nyquist envelops of interval plants and an off-axis circle criterion. The robust stability analysis provides bounds on the parameter of the linear and nonlinear mappings within which the stability of the system is guaranteed, for all possible system parameters with their a priori given bounds. Experiments carried out with two similar Quanser twin-pantograph haptic devices confirm the effectiveness of the proposed controllers in achieving the performance and stability objectives.</p> / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Virtual environments are visually dominant systems. It seems that individuals" visual perception abilities would have an effect on their performance in a virtual environment. One such visual perception ability that seems a logical fit for study in virtual environments is that of disembedding ability. Disembedding ability is one part of a greater psychological construct known as field dependence. This research investigates how the learner characteristic of field dependence affects learning outcomes in virtual environments In order to examine the effect of virtual environments on recall among learners of differing levels of field dependence, the following specific questions and hypotheses were formed: 1) Does the use of virtual environments affect participants" performance in a task of recall? 2) Do participants of different levels of field dependence perform differently on a task of recall when presented with virtual environments versus static images? 3) Do field-dependent participants score higher on a test of recall when presented with a virtual environment? An experimental design using a sample of Virginia Tech students was employed in this study. The analysis consisted of a 2 X 2 factorial design with main effects for two levels of field dependence (field dependent and field independent), two levels of image representation (virtual environment versus static images), and interaction effects between the two factors. The factorial analysis showed no significant difference in recall test scores for the two treatments. Likewise, there was no significant difference in test scores for field dependent participants who received the virtual-environment treatment versus the static-image treatment. However, a significant interaction existed between field dependence and treatment type, favoring the field-independent participants who received the virtual-environment treatment. It can be concluded from this study that virtual environments have no effect on the recall ability of field-dependent learners. Further research might focus on other individual differences, such as spatial ability, that may have an effect on field-dependent learners" strategies for working in a virtual environment. / Ph. D.

Extended Reality (XR) is an upcoming field of technology that has garnered interest from researchers in the last few decades. This increased interest is largely due to the development of powerful hardware like the Microsoft HoloLens, Oculus Quest and the Magic Leap. Several companies like Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Apple and Nvidia are touting the rise of a new "metaverse'' - the next generation of the internet, that will blur the lines between physical and virtual presence. This thesis explores the use of web-based XR platforms in Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) as an alternative to contemporary video conferencing tools. We conducted a user study with 15 subjects to evaluate web-based XR platforms (Mozilla Hubs) with video conferencing (Zoom) and examined subject attention and success in remote collaborative tasks. We also proposed a new system design to support embodied interactions in XR. This system was tested by measuring the communication latency between two collaborators separated by varying distances. Our system performance evaluation suggests the feasibility of support embodied interactions, with a minimal latency of 120ms across a distance of 4700 miles. / Master of Science / Extended Reality (XR) is changing the way we interact with digital content. In 2021, several companies like Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Apple and Nvidia are developing devices that allow users to physically interact with virtual content in 3-dimensional space. These technologies bring with them the promise of better remote communication and collaboration. Users will be able to enter these 3d virtual spaces as avatars and will be able to interact with digital media just like they would with real world objects. This thesis explores the use of web-based XR platforms in supporting remote collaboration as an alternative to contemporary video conferencing tools. We conducted a user study with 15 subjects to compare differences in web-based XR platforms (Mozilla Hubs) with video conferencing (Zoom). We proposed and evaluated a new system design to support more natural and intuitive interactions in XR. This system was tested by measuring the communication latency between two collaborators separated by varying distances. Our system performance evaluation suggests the feasibility of support embodied interactions, with a minimal latency of 120ms across a distance of 4700 miles.

Despite intense and wide-spread research in both virtual environments (VEs) and usability, the exciting new technology of VEs has not yet been closely coupled with the important characteristic of usability --- a necessary coupling if VEs are to reach their full potential. Although numerous methods exist for usability evaluation of interactive computer applications, these methods have well-known limitations, especially for evaluating VEs. Thus, there is a great need to develop usability evaluation methods and criteria <i>specifically</i> for VEs. Our goal is to increase awareness of the need for usability engineering of VEs and to lay a scientific foundation for developing high-impact methods for usability engineering of VEs. The first step in our multi-year research plan has been accomplished, yielding a comprehensive multi-dimensional taxonomy of usability characteristics specifically for VEs. This taxonomy was developed by collecting and synthesizing information from literature, conferences, World Wide Web (WWW) searches, investigative research visits to top VE facilities, and interviews of VE researchers and developers. The taxonomy consists of four main areas of usability issues: <i> Users and User Tasks in VEs</i>, <i>The Virtual Model</i>, <i>VE User Interface Input Mechanisms</i>, and <i>VE User Interface Presentation Components</i>. Each of these issues is progressively disclosed and presented at various levels of detail, including specific usability suggestions and context-driven discussion that include a number of references. The taxonomy is a thorough classification, enumeration, and discussion of usability issues in VEs that can be used by VE researchers and developers for usability assessment or simply design. The author can be reached through <a href=http://csgrad.cs.vt.edu/~jgabbard/>http://csgrad.cs.vt.edu/~jgabbard/</a> / Master of Science

Virtual environment (VE) systems have been touted as exciting new technologies with many varied applications. Today VEs are used in telerobotics, training, simulation, medicine, architecture, and entertainment. The future use of VEs seems limited only by the creativity of its designers. However, as with any developing technology, some difficulties need to be overcome. Certain users of VEs experience negative side effects from being immersed into the graphically rendered virtual worlds. Some side effects that have been observed include: disorientation, headaches, and difficulties with vision. These negative side effects threaten the safety and effectiveness of VE systems. Negative side effects have been found to develop in a variety of environments. The research focus on VE side effects thus far has been on the symptoms and not the causes. The main goals of this research is fourfold: 1) to compare a new measure for side effects with established ones; 2) begin analyzing the causes of side effects with an analysis of head-tracking; 3) to examine any adaptation that may occur within a session and between days of a session; and, 4) to examine possible predictors for users who may experience side effects. An experiment was conducted using two different VEs with either head-tracking on or head-tracking off over four days. A questionnaire, a balance test, a vision test, and magnitude estimations of side effects were used to assess the incidence and severity of sickness experienced in the VEs. Other assessments, including a mental rotation test, perceptual style, and a questionnaire on pre-existing susceptibility to motion sickness were administered. All factors were analyzed to determine what their relationships were with the incidence and severity of negative side effects that result from immersion into the VEs. Results showed that head-tracking induces more negative side effects than no head-tracking. The maze task environment induces more negative side effects than the office task environment. Adaptation did not occur from day to day throughout the four testing sessions. The incidence and severity of negative side effects increased at a constant rate throughout the 30 minute immersive VE sessions, but did not show any significant changes from day to day. No evidence was found for a predictor that would foretell who might be susceptible to motion sickness in VEs. / Master of Science