1. A Few Tips During the Presentation

• Keep your mic off at all time (see Preferences)

• Feel free to type your questions and comments DURING my presentation.

• Re-type your questions again if I did not get to them (copy and paste).

• The backchannel is all yours. Its ok to reply to other peoples comments

• Do not use all CAPS when typing. I CAN HEAR YOU JUST FINE

• Avoid playing with your fun gestures and noises.

• The ppt viewer is locked. I will unlock it after prez.

2. Presence of Avatars Sabine Lawless-Reljic, Ed.D. Communication Chair, ARVEL SIG Athabasca University, Second Life Campus 9/22/2011

3.

4. Poll tool

• Click on the red button if you teach a distance class

• Click the green button if you teach face to face

• Click the yellow button if you teach both

5. Type in chat

• What differences are there in the teacher-student relationship in F2F vs Online?

6. Quick Reminders

• Educational technology: (also called learning technology) is the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technological processes and resources . (Richey, R.C. (2008). Reflections on the 2008 AECT Definitions of the Field.)

• Transactional distance: is not a physical phenomenon. It is an instructional event in a learning situation. (ref. Michael G. Moore)

• Mediated Social Presence : From a low level awareness that another being is co-present to more intense sense of the accessibility of psychological modeling of the others intentional states. (Harms & Biocca, (2004). Internal consistency and reliability of the networked minds measure of social presence.)

7. Dissertation

• The Effects of Instructor-Avatar Immediacy in Second Life, an Immersive and Interactive 3D Virtual Environment

• Examine the role of instructor-avatar behaviors and the ways these behaviors influence the degree to which avatars are perceived as real, authentic, empathetic

• Being there and being there with others

8. MultiUser Virtual Environments

• The 3 Ps

• Sense of Presence: MUVEs have the potential to significantly reduce the subjective feelings of psychological and social distance often experienced by distance education participants (McKerlich, 2007)

• Sense of Place : MUVEs are richly expressive environments that immerse the participant in a setting that includes sound and visual cues, rich textures, and realistic perspectivesand vividly create a sense of place (Johnson & Levine, 2008)

• Sense of Power/Autonomy: MUVEs allow users to move around in the virtual world and see it from different angles, to reach into it, grab it, and reshape it (Rheingold, 1991)

9. Avatar Presence

• Heeter (1992): VE responds to a persons actions (environmental presence).

• Witmer & Singer (1998): subjective experience of being in one place or environment, even as one is physically situated in another.

• Russo (2001): degree to which a person is perceived as real in a mediated environment and recognized as they are communicating with another human being.

10. Immediacy Behaviors

• Measure of the number, combination, and intensity of immediacy behaviors in relevant and appropriate learning event contexts according to modern American presentation conventions.

• Frequency + Intensity + Appropriate use of behaviors.

11. Immediacy Behaviors: Examples

• Verbal Cues (Gorham, 1988)

• Call students by name

• Use inclusive pronouns

• Use humor

• Provide feedback

• Use personal examples

• Ask questions

• Refer to class as our class

• Praise students work, actions

• Nonverbal cues (Richmond et al, 1987)

• Move in front of/away from desk

• Gesture while talking

• Use variety of expressions

• Smile at students

• Make eye contact

• Move around classroom

• Other proxemics (body lean, openness, orientation, etc.)

12. Automated Immediacy Behaviors

• http://www.slideshare.net/sreljic/presentations

• MUVE Your Avatar, pp 19 to 21

13. Conclusion

• Strong correlations between student perceptions of social presence and student perceptions of specific immediacy behaviors.

14. Observations from the field

• ARVEL SIG InWorld Discussions

• http://arvelsig.ning.com/

• Social presence and community

• Current online best practices

• Avatar nonverbal immediacy (sp. Gestures)

• Gaming background

• Activity categories in VW

15. Recommendations Paralanguage behaviors Text * Voice quality * Tone, Style * Emotion & Speaking Style * Spatial arrangement of * Prosodic Features words * Use of emoticons * Use of symbols & NonVerbal infographics *Proxemic behavior, body Avatar language/posture * Clothing, hairstyles * Facial expression & gaze direction * Physique * Gestures + Course Structure

16. Type in chat

• Rate your sense of presence:

• 0-1-2-3-4

• (0) I felt completely alone (4) I felt right in the middle of the conversation

• Rate your sense of place:

• 0-1-2-3-4

• (0) This was just too unreal (4) I felt immersed in the setting

• Rate your sense of power/autonomy:

• 0-1-2-3-4

• (0) I could not do anything with this thing (4) I could do things! I moved around, I grabbed objects!

17. Contact Info

• Email : Sabine@Reljic.com Web: Sabine Reljic (LinkedIn, Skype) SReljic (Twitter) http://sabinereljic.wordpress.com/ http://www.arvelsig.com

• Virtual Worlds:

• Willow Shenlin ( 3rd Rock Grid, 3DXplorer, ExitReality, InWorldz, Reaction Grid, Science Grid, Second Life, SmallWorlds ); Willow Virtual (Grand Central Sim); WillowWarC ( Minecraft, World Of Warcraft ); SKYlawless ( Blue Mars ); Sabine Reljic ( AET Zone, ScienceSim ); Radarr (3D GameLab)