As a subset of distance education, online learning takes place primarily in learning management systems through asynchronous interaction, that can cause transactional distance between instructor and learners. This study investigated how transactional distance may be affected by the use of Second Life, a 3-D virtual world, as a learning environment for online learners. Given the similarities between Second Life and avatar-based video games, the influence of video game play on participant perceptions was also considered. To explore transactional distance theory in Second Life, suspension of disbelief and social presence were considered as supporting theories because of their effects on learner experience in virtual environments. Participants were preservice teachers who entered Second Life for two learning experiences and reported their perceptions through interviews. Research results noted the outcomes of closeness and isolation, object and task familiarity, and video game influence. Ultimately, transactional distance may be influenced by how close learners feel they are to other people inside a virtual world, how closely the virtual world accurately matches the physical world, and how challenging their access and use to the virtual world is. Video game experience appeared to positively influence learners' experience in Second Life, thus potentially narrowing transactional distance because those with video game experience were more likely to focus on learning tasks rather than technology tasks.

The third edition of this award-winning Handbook continues the mission of its predecessors: to provide a comprehensive compendium of research in all aspects of distance education, arguably the most significant development in education over the past three decades. While the book deals with education that uses technology, the focus is on teaching and learning and how its management can be facilitated through technology. Key features include: Comprehensive coverage that includes all aspects of distance education, including design, instruction, management, policy, and a section on different audiences. Chapter authors frame their topic in terms of empirical research (past and present) and discuss the nature of current practice in terms of that research. Future research needs are discussed in relation to both confirmed practice and recent changes in the field. Section one provides a unique review of the theories that support distance education pedagogy. Section six includes a unique review of distance education as a component of global culture. This book will be of interest to anyone engaged in distance education at any level. It is also appropriate for corporate and government trainers and for administrators and policy makers in all these environments. Recipient of the 2013 IAP Distance Education Book Award

The rushed development of information and communication technologies and their impact on the world of learning in the last decade have profoundly changed the paradigms, scenarios and values at all levels of education. The professionalization of tools and practices, in addition to the consolidation of academic and practical knowledge, has been a major continuing issue throughout these years. The annual conferences of the largest European professional community in distance and e-learning have been setting the landmarks in this process. The selection from this unique knowledge pool demonstrates the deepening and consolidation of knowledge and experience. This book presents the developments in the field of open, distance and e-learning, through new technologies, methodologies and tools, which have profoundly changed the paradigms, scenarios and values at all levels of education over the last decade.

Since the publication of the companion volume Researching Learning in Virtual Worlds in 2010, there has been a growth not only in the range and number of educational initiatives taking place in virtual worlds, but also in the depth of analysis of the nature of that education. Understanding Learning in Virtual Worlds reflects those changes through a collection of chapters that are extended versions of research presented at the second Researching Learning in Virtual Environments conference (ReLIVE 11), an international conference hosted by the Open University UK. Included in this book are chapters that explore the philosophical and methodological underpinnings of understanding learning in virtual worlds, identify and analyse the factors that support learning in these environments, and present case studies that demonstrate some of the various ways in which virtual worlds can be applied to facilitate learning and teaching. The links between learning in a virtual world and learning in the physical world are made apparent throughout, and the authors reveal how understanding learning in one informs the other. Understanding Learning in Virtual Worlds is an important book not only to those who teach in virtual worlds, but to anyone for whom understanding learning, in all its forms, is of interest.

This journal subline serves as a forum for stimulating and disseminating innovative research ideas, theories, emerging technologies, empirical investigations, state-of-the-art methods, and tools in all different genres of edutainment, such as game-based learning and serious games, interactive storytelling, virtual learning environments, VR-based education, and related fields. It covers aspects from educational and game theories, human-computer interaction, computer graphics, artificial intelligence, and systems design. This issue contains a special section on serious games with 8 outstanding contributions from the VS-Games 2011 conference; furthermore, there are 13 regular papers. These contributions clearly demonstrate the use of serious games and virtual worlds for edutainment applications and form a basis for further exploration and new ideas.

This book uncovers an ancient Irish perspective of learning and reconfigures it to offer a vitality-restoring vision for education in our digital age. Its aim is to help re-engage learners of the Net generation meaningfully and with enjoyment in the learning process. The proliferation of new technologies in the classroom has generally not been accompanied by new pedagogical thinking and the discourse is still framed almost exclusively in terms of the utilitarian mindset of the Western world. Consequently, education is too often delivered within a context that is unfit for purpose. The author argues that we need to bring the wisdom of different cultural perspectives to bear on our understanding of the nature and purpose of learning, and on the role of technology in the learning process. She shares an energising vision of education based on the ancient Irish understanding of learning as nourishment for the human spirit, expressed as learning by wandering. Illustrating the universal and timeless relevance of this understanding, she demonstrates from personal experience how a synthesis of ancient wisdom and new technologies can transform the learning process. This book offers a new dimension to the ongoing debate on the future of education in the Western world.

The 18th issue of the Transactions on Computational Science journal, edited by Arjan Kuijper, is devoted to the topic of cyberworlds. The 14 papers in the volume constitute revised and extended versions of a selection of contributions presented at CW 2012, the International Conference on Cyberworlds, held in Darmstadt, Germany in September 2012. The selected papers span the areas of human path prediction, gesture-based interaction, rendering, valence-levels recognition, virtual collaborative spaces, virtual environment, emotional attention, virtual palpation, sketch-book design, animation, and avatar-face recognition.