Virtual Education

VIRTUAL EDUCATION: ACTUAL STATE AND TRENDS FOR THE FUTURE Nuri ELEZI, Arben SAITI Department of Software Engineering, Faculty of Computer Sciences and Technologies, University of SEE, Tetovo-Macedonia [email protected], [email protected]

ABSTRACT. Paradigm "Virtual Education" has been developed as a form of distance education to provide education across the borders of a nation and / or country. Virtual Education is enabled through information and communication technologies. The main objective in this paper is to address the current situation and its future. First is an introduction explaining the technologies that enable the virtual world and education separately, and their importance in the development of the world if interact amongst themselves. Emergence of opportunities that provides virtual world in education describing its characteristics. Given the present achievements of science in this virtual world technology often called as Second Life in education, at the international level; be listing the ways and tools that are in use, their success and failure based on various surveys and reports; listing of some advantages and disadvantages. By comparing the achievements made so far and the opportunities that ICT offer, showing trends for the future of virtual education provided by scientists and researchers in this field worldwide. Keywords: Virtual World, Second Life, Virtual Education, Virtual Learning Environments.

1. INTRODUCTION Information and Communication Technology (ICT) nowadays is very advanced and has affected all spheres of life. Possibilities offered with its use are unrestricted to do something, but should be defined, selected routes, the best methods and effective for reaching the goal. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Education as the primary branches and essential in the development of a country, also is involved in the development of today's dynamic technology. All educational institutions are equipped with computers, have Internet network, web applications for information etc . All that is in education, mediator have equipment and electronic communication, ie. can not imagine something without them.------------------------------------------------------------Nowadays development is focused on web applications. Learning management systems that enable access online, services from internal and external resources, courses and online education programs, various forms of communication etc. Presence of these devices, tools, applications, etc.. enables virtual world in education. Virtual world is an artificial environment created with computer hardware and software [1]. Virtual technologies make possible to be in more imaginative locations at the same time, for example the professor through the Internet and relevant application can teach more classes in different locations. Often called as Second Life because we are dealing with

something that does not like our lives reale [2]. Sphere of education vs. ICT is a very wide area and vital to the development of the todays world. In this direction are become more research, research on international level by scientifists of this technology and work done, new ideas are presented in international conferences. Therefore I found reasonable to do a research in this direction, as there are information, books, and various publications online. My research will be based on the present achievements of science and technological education in the virtual world focusing on teaching and discourse online. First, appearance of the opportunities that provides virtual world in education through its characteristics: persistence, multi-user, avatars and wide are networks. Then the presentation of actual state and virtual learning environments, also and the advantages and disadvantages of this type of learning and teaching. Through various reports from universities, international campuses, given the progess usage since early development. By comparing and analyzing these achievements at the international level, the trends for the future are shown throught conclusions.

1.1. WHY VIRTUAL WORLD IN EDUCATION For most of today’s educators, virtual worlds offer the most flexibility and opportunity for educational applications. The persistence, multiuser environment, avatars, and wide area network possibilities of these virtual worlds can be powerful for teaching and learning [3]. Persistence[4]. The tradicional classroom that an instructor uses to teach a course is filled with other classes at different times and is locked for the night and on holidays. By contrast, a virtual world is always open. If I log in to Second Life at a time when none of my classmates are logged in, there is still an entire world to explore, skills to hone, and other people to meet. A persistent world offers persistent learning opportunities. It is up to the instructor and the student to define and explore what kind of activities will be useful for the learning goals of a particular course. Multiuser [5]. Having more than one user in a virtual space certainly makes the space more interesting to be in, but the benefits go far beyond that. Many other technologies can put several users into a synchronous space; what virtual worlds offer in addition is the ability to have a massive number of users in the same world at the same time. Second Life often has more than 50,000 simultaneous users. This massive synchronicity not only allows for a rapidly developing culture within the world but also creates a sense of presence, of being in the same space together, that a chat room or discussion board simply cannot create. Avatars [6]. Avatar is a representation of the user in the virtual world. An avatar usually is a caricature, a full body, or just an image of a head. They can walk, run, slide, and fly in the virtual world, conclude that users transfer their social behavior, social skills and own personalities to Second Life. Also their usage of can give students a comfortable level of anonymity, for example when using virtual worlds as a tool to learn new languages and the students need to discuss using voice chat to students in other countries.……………... Wide Area Networks. Education has become far more global with the advent of the Internet. Classmates need not be in the same country, never mind in the same physical

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space. But a virtual world hosted on a wide area network offers more than just distance education. The ability to mix students from all over the world in one virtual world means that campuses can begin to blend classes from different subject areas as well as different campuses. Beyond combining classes, the wide area network of virtual worlds implies that the space is public to join and participate in, meaning that students can interact with and learn from a larger community than can be offered by their local campus [7].

2. VIRTUAL EDUCATION - ACTUAL STATE Virtual education has come to mean education via the Internet. In other words, virtual education means an online school, college or university. Students who obtain their education over the Web on a computer are said to have completed a virtual education[8]. A degree gained through this kind of education is as valuable, or more than it earned in the traditional manner. Students are able to study at their convenience and at a pace that is less severe than a traditional institution. ICT enables the realization and implementation through tools, applications and different environments. Many software applications were developed especially for this purpose based on web technology and can be accessed from anywhere and are easy to use. They offer everything that can be done in real education, and more than that. All materials, books and other things necessary are enabled in electronic form by internal and external resources. Learning and discourse may also be online, and face-to-face with virtual environments as mediator ie appropriate applications and tools.

3. VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS Virtual environments are learning management software systems and management courses and enable lecturers and students take notes on their progress through a pressure button. These systems run on server and look like internet web pages, making them easier access and navigation [9]. The VLE concept integrates the full range of electronic enhancements into the classroom setting. Under the VLE idea, the instructor is not replaced by the computer but rather uses the computer to reach more students and to reach them more effectively [10]. The classification of the virtual learning environments (VLE) is based on the functional characteristics, inherent (or not) of the respective environment [11]. Virtual environments that refer to distance or online education are classified into two groups: environments that enable online courses, conducting learning activities and surroundings that allow the whole process in virtual education. Listing of some applications and environments of the first group[12]:-------------------------Learning Management System(LMS)–Claronline, eFront, LAMS, Angel, TotalLMS, Libri etc. Course Management System (CMS) - CCNet, Coggno, Desire2Learn, Moodle etc.------------VLE – Blackboard, CyberExtension, First Class, HeritageKey, WebCT, WebTrain.-------------Environments of the second type in which everything can be done in a virtual are virtual

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campuses. The entire study program offered in virtual way in an institute of higher education, giving students opportunities to different countries a chance to get this program without having to go abroad for an entire academic year [13]. In the world there are several universities that provide such opportunities. I'll insulate the Illinois virtual campus, which represents a network of universities and private colleges that offer with thousands of online study programs.

3.1 FEATURES OF VLEs [14] • • • • • • • • •

Communication between tutors and students. Self-assessment and summative. Delivery of learning resources and materials Shared work group areas Support for students Management and tracking of students Student tools Consistent and customisable look and feel Navigation structure

Streamed Video and Archiving Video Conference

File storage and Management

Enterprise search

Student and staff surveys

Content Management

Figure 1. Virtual environment learning schemes [15]

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4. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES • •

• • • •

• • • •

Time: One advantage of these is time, you can study on your own time schedule. Even if you are at home or in school or at work online studying can be fit into your schedule. Save more money: These days people often think about how to save money for just about everything. With online education people can save time, money and effort. They can save bus fare, parking, tuition fees etc. For if you go to a university campus there are always additional fees that are being added all the time. Unlike when you are at home, they can't charge you anything because you are not using any universityl facilities. You can finish your studies within 2 years instead of 4. You will have easy access to the net especially when you have research, assignment and projects. Your computer skills will improve, you can gain more knowledge and learn new thing online. The teacher's attention will be focused on you; this is actually a good thing. When the teacher can focus on one student, that student will be taught well, you won't be ashamed to ask or be embarrassed about your opinion because you don't have classmates to laugh at you. You can live in your state and study in another. If there are advantages then there will always be disadvantages. For example discipline, if you don't know how to discipline yourself with your schedule then won't be able to study effectively. Motivation, is very important, sometimes students become motivated if they have someone they can compete with, in the case of online studies you have no one that you can compete with because you have no classmates. Lack of interaction with people, people need to interact so they can learn how to communicate and adapt to different kinds of people. Fortunately, online discussion forums can compensate for this shortcoming.

5. USAGE PROGRESS This kind of education has changed the world since the early development days until today. Used almost everywhere and by everyone who has available, as offers many possibilities for development of an individual, institution, country but also the globe in general. The usage progress I will present through the two following charts. The first represents the way of holding courses at a U.S. university, Iowa State University, and the other enrollment of students in courses online.

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Figure2. Course delivery methods – Primary delivery methods – distance education [16]

Figure 3. Enrollments in Online Courses at Ilinois Colleges and Universities Summer 2001 to Summer 2009 [17]

6. CONCLUSIONS ABOUT TRENDS FOR THE FUTURE 1. 3D Development. Virtual technology now being used in education, namely learning and discourse type is two-dimensional. All, web management systems, different

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virtual environments, technologies used are of forms two dimensional. The question is how we can have a virtual world that would replace the real world of education. Precisely trends of scientists and researchers are oriented in this direction, namely the transition from the current two dimensions in 3D. As virtual education is focused in facilitating virtual learning and teaching that is online or distance learning, the development also focuses on transforming the current web environments and building new ones in 3D in ways that are most appropriate and seem more real. Trends so far without success resulting, since the conditions required by these environments to be processed and put in function can only afford laboratories that tested these systems. 2. Virtual environment that "feels" user. Since students, professors will always be associated with the use of these surroundings that will enable to perform VE, I think that in this aspect need to work. To create environmets that will meets the needs of its users, to recognize in some way, do enjoy when will there be, in a word to feel that user. Artificial intelligence and neural networks have reached a level of development that allow this.

3. Interaction with social networks. Today's social networks days are used by almost every student, young or teachers. Because they spend a very long time and are controlling their profils continuity, benefits of interaction with virtual environments would be numerous and very effective. To create opportunities for access from this environments, informing the students in their profiles, space within the virtual environment for using social network etc. 4. Mobile Virtual Learning. The purpose of virtual environments is to be used by students and lecturers at any time, from any location where found. Solving this problem would be if these environments will also be enabled through mobile devices. Becoming application should be optimization of virtual applications and mobile communications with great bandwith.It is proposed a fourth generation mobile communication testbed system which offers high transmission rate, robust wireless QoS control, wide cover area and supply IMS technology [18]. Next generation communication technology can supply a variety of portable devices to ubiquitously access multimedia information, such as smart phones and PDAs. All student or other users can use portable devices to log-on to the virtual environment.

5. Naturality can not be achieved. From the achievements to date and future trends I conclude that virtual education can not reach natyroren way of learning. It cannot infuse a student into an environment that has all the sights, smells and feeling the real location has. In a word the human soul and mind is impossible to be copied or imitated.

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