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Collaborative Virtual Environment for Distant and Blended Learning in the Higher Education Setting: A Systematic Review

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Blended Learning: Engaging Students in the New Normal Era (ICBL 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 13357))

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Abstract

Collaborative virtual environment (CVE) is a set of technologies that enable collaborative activities in virtual scenarios while users can participate in such activities remotely via various interfaces. The unique features of CVE make it a promising tool for distant and blended learning, especially when considering the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on conventional face-to-face learning and the much-improved accessibility of the relevant technologies nowadays. This paper reports a systematic review on this emerging area and aims to answer four research questions related to the subject areas being covered, instructional and pedagogical methods, interface technology and virtual world design, and learning outcomes and effectiveness. After applying the selection criteria, a total number of 11 studies, which were published between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2021, were included in our analysis and discussion. Our findings support the use of CVE in the higher education setting and suggest further investigating the underlying mechanism of learning in CVE, exploring the potential and unique benefits of CVE in practicing distant and blended learning, studying the roles of teachers in CVEs, and evaluating the learning effectiveness on larger samples and through longitudinal studies.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/advanced-search.

  2. 2.

    https://eric.ed.gov/.

  3. 3.

    https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/.

  4. 4.

    https://secondlife.com/.

  5. 5.

    http://opensimulator.org/.

  6. 6.

    https://www.maxwhere.com/.

  7. 7.

    https://spatial.io/.

  8. 8.

    https://unity.com/.

  9. 9.

    https://zoom.us/.

  10. 10.

    https://www.skype.com/.

  11. 11.

    https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-teams/.

  12. 12.

    https://www.oculus.com/quest-2/.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR

    Chen Li

  2. Department of Economics, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR

    Jing Liu

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  1. Chen Li
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  2. Jing Liu
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Correspondence to Chen Li .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

    Richard Chen Li

  2. Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Hong Kong, China

    Simon K. S. Cheung

  3. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

    Peter H. F. Ng

  4. Tung Wah College, Hong Kong, China

    Leung-Pun Wong

  5. Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Hong Kong, China

    Fu Lee Wang

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Li, C., Liu, J. (2022). Collaborative Virtual Environment for Distant and Blended Learning in the Higher Education Setting: A Systematic Review. In: Li, R.C., Cheung, S.K.S., Ng, P.H.F., Wong, LP., Wang, F.L. (eds) Blended Learning: Engaging Students in the New Normal Era. ICBL 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13357. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08939-8_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08939-8_12

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-08939-8

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