NEWS RELEASE 391LP0308
A Birmingham City University project is researching the use of a three-dimensional, virtual environment for learning and assessment. The Learning in Virtual Environments (LiVE) project will see students undertake film production exercises, using the internet-based virtual world, ‘Second Life’.
The study is led by Birmingham City University’s Technology Innovation Centre (TIC), together with the University’s Learning Technology Development Unit and technology partner, Daden Ltd, a leading specialist in virtual environments. The project is funded by the regional development agency, Advantage West Midlands, through its Interactive Digital Media initiative, which promotes the use of new digital technology.
As part of their BSc (Hons) Film Production and Technology degree course, students are required to ‘scout’ a filming location. This exercise determines the resources and risks involved in shooting a particular scene on location. A virtual environment enables camera angles, scenery alignment, actor positions and other items to be planned and experimented in advance. Similarly, the crucial health and safety considerations of location filming can also be tested and assessed without risk, before the task is undertaken in the real world.
LiVE Project Co-ordinator, TIC’s Jerry Foss, has over 30 years experience through research roles in the telecommunications industry, where he was instrumental in the development of virtual reality projects. Jerry says: “The location scout exercise enables us to assess problems and opportunities that we believe could benefit from a three-dimensional environment for collaborative working”.
As well as supporting the existing exercise, it is hoped that the virtual environment will enrich and enhance the overall learning experience. Students could potentially collaborate on virtual location scouting exercises, via the internet, irrespective of their own physical location. Course tutors could also set exercises that may otherwise be impractical, such as different terrains, or highly complex film sets that would otherwise require the budget of a major Hollywood production.
A key aim of the LiVE project is to explore how assessments in a virtual environment can be integrated into the University’s learning management system, which provides students with on-line access to learning materials and assessment information. Relevant tasks and appropriate assessment parameters will need to be developed for the virtual environment, using criteria ranging from simple pass or fail responses for some actions, through to variable degrees of success for other more complex parts of the task. The project team will then assess the means to record and transfer assessment details automatically between the virtual environment and the learning management system.
The virtual environment in the trial re-creates TIC’s Millennium Point campus, where students will also undertake a real-world location scout. This has been constructed in the internet-based Second Life environment, by LiVE project technology partner, Daden Ltd.
Completed in two months, the virtual campus contains approximately 17,000 of the Second Life building blocks known as ‘prims’, spread over two ‘sims’, the Second Life plots of virtual land. The Daden team recreated all the textures of the actual materials used at Millennium Point, by meticulously taking and studying numerous photographs. Daden were then able to recreate the actual structure, including the angles, vertical and ceiling components, by carefully reviewing the floor plans against these photographs.
The reflective surfaces throughout Millennium Point required special texture creation and lighting effects, with placement, colour and intensity all taken into account. The elevators, which cover five floors, are programmed to handle multiple riders and queue calls, in a similar manner to their real world equivalents. Daden’s attention to detail has resulted in a virtual campus that is equally as impressive as the real £114 million Millennium Point complex.
Commenting on the virtual campus construction, Daden’s Managing Director, David Burden said: "To supplement the building we also had to create the camera equipment that the students would use. Signs and cones were created from scratch, but the cameras and lights are based on real world equipment. To make the virtual equipment interactive, we made the lights go on and off and added a recording icon to the camera, so that the tutor knew he was getting ‘through the lens’ shots from the camera itself when students submitted their work."
The LiVE project has attracted interest from Digital Birmingham, the initiative established by Birmingham City Council and BT to encourage businesses and the public in the City to exploit the benefits of digital technologies. Digital Birmingham is now working with the LiVE team to carry out preliminary research on further applications that could benefit from virtual environment technology.
ENDS
EDITOR’S NOTES
* LiVE Project Images Are Available Upon Request
For further editorial information contact:
Andrew Hemmings (t) 0121 331 755, (m) 0772 409 1653, e-mail: andrew.hemmings@tic.ac.uk
or Soulla Stylianou (t) 0121 698 8520, (m) 07814 145167, email: soulla.stylianou@daden.co.uk
ABOUT TIC:
Birmingham City University’s Technology Innovation Centre (TIC) is a national centre of excellence for technology-based Lifelong Learning and Business Solutions, with Specialist Technologies, for individuals and for businesses. TIC provides cutting-edge resources and specialised knowledge structures to meet the needs of a rapidly developing technology-based society. Its activities come under four main categories:
- Interactive Media
- Design Technology
- Information & Communications Technology
- Advanced Engineering
It is also a prominent education centre in the fields of logistics, the environment and quality. tic is a significant initiative in the UK through which business development services and advanced technologies are made both accessible and affordable to companies of every size and type, whilst benefiting from and being rooted in a lifelong learning organisation - Birmingham City University.
The tic is a member of the Birmingham City University group.
www.tic.ac.uk
ABOUT DADEN LTD:
Daden Limited is a virtual worlds agency working in Second Life and other virtual worlds. Our aim is to help you engage with your audience using some of the most interesting technologies around today. We offer 4 main services:
- Inform - help you understand virtual worlds
- Involve - build your presence
- Integrate - connect SL to/from web services & real world devices
- Interact - create virtual characters & chatbots
Daden's virtual world clients include the University of Coventry, Birmingham City University (and 2 other UK universities), Birmingham City Council, several marketing agencies and consultancies, consumer brands such as Vauxhall, and B2B brands such as CIBA. Daden are based in Birmingham, UK, and are also virtual tenants at the Serious Games Institute in Coventry.
