Using consumer satisfaction as an example of complex communication and a virtual world as a mediating platform, a novel framework for eliciting consumer satisfaction has been developed. Consumer satisfaction is a key element for business success, while the elicitation of satisfaction perceptions from consumers can help vendors to assess and to improve their business performance. The objectives here are: how consumer satisfaction is defined, understood and measured; how virtual worlds function, both as a platform and a product; how users typically perceive their experiences in virtual worlds; and how consumer satisfaction metrics can be translated into a virtual environment. Second Life is used as an enabling technology for gathering requirements as well as for the construction, refinement and validation of the framework. Second Life is a virtual world, a multi-user, 3D, immersive environment, which has its own internal economy. The choice of using this social virtual world was due to Second Life being a resilient and widely used platform. The main contribution of this thesis is a framework that can be used to identify and categorise the complex and inter-related factors that affect the use of Second Life in terms of consumer satisfaction perceptions. Another contribution here is a novel approach to Search Engine trend analysis, which focuses on the number or search results returned as opposed to the number of queries for a given search phrase. Based on the research conducted by the author and knowledge gained from the literature, a framework has been developed which identifies interrelated components that provide a wider context to perceive the user experience of Second Life. The approach taken by the framework enables it to be used as a means to comprehend Second Life both as a product and as a platform. A Straussian Grounded Theory approach was taken to data gathering, analysis and interpretation in the context of the framework; further refinements are made to the framework as a consequence of emergent themes revealed through the process of analysing the gathered data. Guidance is given in brief as to how the framework can be adapted to reveal consumer satisfaction perceptions from other internet based services.

With the improvement of computer technology and the prevalence of the Internet, learning activities taking place in cyberspace by means of computer-mediated communication have become more common and accessible than even a decade ago. Being interested in how politeness phenomena as universal principles in human interaction played a role in the process of online collaborative learning in a graduate-level course, I conducted a naturalistic inquiry to explore students’ interaction through the lens of Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory (1987). I analyzed the exchanges of 18 students divided into four teams with a consideration for such contextual factors as concerns about netiquette, time, modes of online communication, discourse functions, and sense of community. Influenced by the tradition of interpretivist/constructivist research paradigm, I adopted diverse data collection methods and discourse analytical techniques. Data are reported as a case study of a purposefully selected focal team of five students with supporting evidence interweaving multiple data sources (online discussion, self-reflective blog entries, self-report portfolios, peer/self assessments, field notes, videotapes of voice chat sessions, audiotapes of interviews, and online survey responses). Given the context of students being required to work collaboratively as a team throughout the semester, the findings of this study suggested that the focal team used a variety of politeness strategies to establish cohesion among members and to moderate the force imposed by presupposing too much underlying solidarity. Five contextual factors also emerged as influencing the focal team’s use of politeness strategies: norms/convention, online communication medium, topics and content of discussion, social distance, and personal differences. Instructional technology is subject to innovation and is meant to facilitate learning. Incorporating new technology (e.g., Second Life) into instructional settings can create new opportunities for learning on which learners’ use of politeness strategies depends. Thus, this study about politeness in an online collaborative learning context not only contributes to enriching views of politeness theory, but also in being able to help prepare learners to collaborate effectively in new immersive learning environments with comfort in the ways of fostering awareness of face-saving concerns to avoid or redress face threat situations that may damage team collaboration and lead to a negative learning experience. / text

Bachelor thesis within Business Administration Title: Second Life – New opportunity for higher educational institutions Authors: Axel Andersen, Emil Hristov & Hamid Karimi Tutor: Olga Sasinovskaya Date: May, 2008 Subject terms: Second Life, virtual worlds, distance learning, marketing, universities, stu-dents, interactions Executive summary Background: Virtual worlds such as Second Life have been used in the corporate world for a few years now. However, it is only recently that higher educational institutions have seen the marketing and educational potential inside this world. Several hundred universities around the world are currently involved in Second Life and a majority of them give fully accredited academic courses inside SL. As traditional distance learning can sometimes be interpreted as low on interactions, SL represents a new means for interactive distance learn-ing. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore if, why and to what extent Second Life can be used as a marketing and pedagogical tool within higher educational institutions. Method: A mixed qualitative and quantitative method was utilized in this study. For the qualitative side: in-depth interviews with SL teachers from five universities around the world were held and these were complemented by observations at educational institutions inside SL. For the quantitative side: a questionnaire was designed and sent out to 50 SL-students. This primary data have been combined with appropriate secondary data concern-ing distance learning and education within SL. Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework can be divided into two main sec-tions: a marketing section with primarily service management theories and a pedagogical section where cognitive apprenticeship theory is applied. Conclusion: Higher educational institutions can use SL to promote their schools to pro-spective students and to other stakeholders such as new teacher recruits. All of the univer-sities that were under our scrutiny felt SL had strengthened their university’s brand. Fur-thermore, SL represents an opportunity for universities that are looking to increase col-laborations with other international universities and who are interested in enhancing the public image of themselves as pioneering and global universities. Therefore, it is highly ad-visable that a university such as JIBS enters SL, if not on pedagogical reasons then on stra-tegic and marketing reasons. In general, a majority of the students interviewed were satis-fied or very satisfied with the quality of the SL-courses they had taken and an overwhelm-ing majority would recommend SL-courses to other students. The empirical findings showed that the most frequent courses taken within SL are design courses, although no limits were perceived to exist of which courses that can be held within SL. A majority of the students also felt SL aided their learning experience. However, due to some of the cur-rent flaws of SL – such as the slow graphics and the high demands of computer hardware – SL should be viewed mainly as a learning tool that complements, rather than substitutes other current educational forms.

In virtual worlds such as Second Life, participants can engage in a variety of activities with other online residents. The personality type of the resident inherently guides the activities in which he or she chooses to participate. Choices, such as communication method (i.e., group communication versus one-to-one) and in-world community participation (i.e., exploring new worlds versus building their own), can be directly linked to the personality preferences of the virtual world user. Carl Jung’s work entitled “Personality Types” (1921) is regarded as one of the foundational works in understanding the personality preferences of oneself and others. Jung’s work is the foundation for extrapolated personality theories and the basis for personality assessments on personality type. Understanding the personality types of virtual world users may help educators when designing online experiential learning activities. This understanding may also help educators understand why some students thrive with online experiential learning activities while others struggle. Utilizing a demographic survey and the Majors Personality Type Inventory, a quantitative analysis of Second Life users was conducted. An examination of a resident sample size (n=91) in relation to population norms will be outlined. Statistically significant differences between the Second LifeTM population and population norms will be discussed. The implications of this study for educators who choose to employ Second LifeTM as an experiential learning tool will also be examined. / 2013-08

Several researchers have successfully developed realistic models of real world objects/ phenomena and then have simulated them in the virtual world. In this thesis, we propose the opposite: instantiating virtual world events in the real world. The interactive 3D virtual environment provides a useful, realistic 3D world that resembles objects/phenomena of a real world, but it has limited capability to communicate with the physical environment. We argue that new and intuitive 3D user interfaces, such as 3D virtual environment interfaces, may provide an alternative form of media for communicating with the real environment. We propose a 3D virtual world-based add-on architecture that achieves a synchronized virtual-real communication. In this framework, we explored the possibilities of integrating haptic and real world object interactions with Linden Lab's multiuser online 3D virtual world, Second Life. We enhanced the open source Second Life viewer client in order to facilitate communications between the real and virtual world. Moreover, we analyzed the suitability of such an approach in terms of user perception, intuition and other common parameters. Our experiments suggest that the proposed approach not only demonstrates a more intuitive mode of communication system, but also is appealing and useful to the user. Some of the potential applications of the proposed approach include remote child-care, communication between distant lovers, stress recovery, and home automation.

Thesis (MFA)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2009. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Theo Lipfert. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 27-30).

Thesis--Auburn University, 2009. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 35-37).

Σκοπός της παρούσας εργασίας είναι η αξιοποίηση ενός σοβαρού ηλεκτρονικού παιχνιδιού στη διδακτική πράξη και η διερεύνηση των επιδράσεών του στις επιδόσεις των φοιτητών. Για την αξιολόγηση των παραπάνω σχεδιάστηκε μια online εκπαιδευτική δραστηριότητα, διάρκειας 3 εβδομάδων, σε ειδικά διαμορφωμένο εκπαιδευτικό χώρο, στον εικονικό κόσμο του Second Life. Στην έρευνα συμμετείχαν 222 φοιτητές του Τ.Ε.Ε.Α.Π.Η. Πατρών, που παρακολουθούσαν το υποχρεωτικό μάθημα πρώτου εξαμήνου: ‘Εισαγωγή στις ΤΠΕ’. Αν και όλοι οι φοιτητές συμμετείχαν στις δραστηριότητές, το τελικό δείγμα είναι 174 άτομα, καθώς οι υπόλοιποι δεν ολοκλήρωσαν τη διαδικασία Τα αποτελέσματα της έρευνας δείχνουν πως η χρήση του εικονικού περιβάλλοντος Second Life μπορεί να επιφέρει θετικά αποτελέσματα στη μαθησιακή διαδικασία και μπορεί να ανταποκριθεί τόσο στις απαιτήσεις των εκπαιδευτικών, όσο και τον εκπαιδευομένων. Με την ολοκλήρωση και αξιολόγηση της εκπαιδευτικής δραστηριότητας διαπιστώθηκε αύξηση στη μέση επίδοση των συμμετεχόντων και στις δύο θεματικές ενότητες που διερευνήθηκαν. Επιπλέον, η επίδοσή τους δε φαίνεται να επηρεάζεται από εξωτερικούς παράγοντες, όπως η κατεύθυνση που ακολούθησαν στο Λύκειο, η συχνότητα χρήσης ηλεκτρονικού υπολογιστή και διαδικτύου, ή η συχνότητα ενασχόλησης με ηλεκτρονικά παιχνίδια ή παιχνίδια εικονικής πραγματικότητας. / The aim of this study is the exploitation of a serious computer game in the instructive practice and the investigation of its effects on student performance. For this reason an educational space was designed in Second Life, a popular online virtual world. The educational space was active for a period of three weeks and available to 222 students of the University of Patras. The students attended the compulsory first semester course «Introduction to ICT» and had to use the online educational environment in order to perform activities in the frame of a compulsory/ mandatory course project. The final sample size though is 174, which is the number of the students who managed to successfully complete the activity. The results show that the utilization of the virtual environment Second Life can have a positive effect in the learning process and can address both the requirements of teachers and those of learners. After the completion and evaluation of the educational activity an increase was observed in the average performance of participants in the two topics that were investigated. Moreover, their performance does not seem to be influenced by factors such as the specific courses they chose in secondary level education, the frequency of computer and internet use, the level of engagement with computer games or virtual reality games.

Vojtěch Kessler Military monuments and Historical Memory Toward the reception of sepulchral-military monuments of Wars between 1757 and 1914 in the Czech Lands Abstract Topic of the thesis is reception of war monuments on territory of Czech Republic with relation to events between Seven Years' War and Prussian-Austrian war. In thesis war monuments are perceived as specific places of memory. Their so called second life modifies historical awareness about mentioned war events of Czech - or more precisely German- Czech-society in watched period. Changes of relationships to historical monuments are usually dynamic. Distinctive discontinuities - such as changes of government, social systems or departures of whole ethnic groups - influence also reception changes of places, objects and historical memory that are formed woth such places.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:35:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2013-08-28Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:46:36Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 zanetti_mc_dr_rcla.pdf: 1225577 bytes, checksum: 879914c6b1cfa3e1d4a3b2636d48ea8f (MD5) / Atualmente, não há como negar a entrada maciça das tecnologias em nossas vidas. Tecnologias essas, que muitas vezes acabam por alterar e redefinir nossas vidas e relações para com o mundo e/ou com outras pessoas. Pensando nisso, realizamos uma pesquisa que teve como objetivos centrais: identificar os principais motivos apontados por usuários do jogo Second Life® (SL) para participar do mesmo e compreender as possíveis influências da utilização desse jogo sobre a vida real (RL) desses participantes. Para que pudéssemos atender aos objetivos propostos, optamos pelo emprego de um estudo etnográfico, de cunho qualitativo no mundo virtual através da observação participante. O estudo foi realizado entre os meses de julho e agosto de 2012 e contou com a investigação de 10 (dez) avatares, sendo 5 (cinco) representados por corpos femininos e 5 (cinco) masculinos, residentes no jogo SL. Como instrumentos, utilizamos uma entrevista semi estruturada por meio do chatbox do jogo, além do registro fotográfico de todos os participantes, obtidos por meio de um recurso disponível dentro do próprio ambiente. A pesquisa também foi aprovada pelo Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa em Seres Humanos do Instituto de Biociências da UNESP, campus de Rio Claro e obedeceu todos os padrões éticos exigidos pela Resolução 196/96 do Conselho Nacional de Saúde. Na análise e interpretação dos dados empregamos 2 (duas) diferentes técnicas: (1) Análise de conteúdo, que foi utilizada na interpretação das falas consideradas importantes das entrevistas semi estruturadas e também na compilação dos dados das entrevistas na forma de quadros. Esta técnica também nos permitiu melhor compreensão e posterior categorização dos dados pelo sistema de ―milha‖, ou seja, durante a trajetória de análise, que resultou no encontro de 3 (três) diferentes... / There is currently no way to deny the massive influx of technology in our lives. These technologies often end up changing and redefining our lives and relationships with the world and/or with other people. Considering this, we conducted a study with the aim to identify the principal motives cited by Second Life® (SL) users about why they participate in the game and to understand how playing this game influences their real life (RL). In order to meet the proposed objectives, we chose to conduct a qualitative ethnographic study carried out in the virtual world through participant observation. The study was carried out in July and August 2012 and investigated 10 (ten) resident avatars of SL, 5 (five) represented by female bodies and 5 (five) represented by male bodies. Research instruments included a semi-structured interview conducted in the SL chatbox and a photographic record of all study participants obtained through a resource available within the environment itself. The research was also approved by the Ethics Committee on Human Research of the Institute of Biosciences of UNESP, Rio Claro and obeyed all ethical standards required by Resolution 196/96 of the National Health Council. We employed 2 (two) different techniques to analyze and interpret data: (1) Content analysis, used to interpret important speech samples drawn from the semi-structured interviews and to compile interview data in tables. This technique also allowed us to better understand and subsequently categorize data by mile system, i.e., during the course of analysis, resulting in the identification of the following 3 (three) different categories: Category I: Principal motives for participating in the game of SL; Category II: Dynamics adopted by SL users; and Category III: Influences of game use on the RL of these users; (2) Image analysis, used to interpret collected... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)