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The Play2Train FrameworkLowering barriers for access
to virtual training environments
Rameshsharma (Ramesh) [email protected]
Virtual Worlds & Health Day @ Games for Health
May 7 2008
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What stakeholders care about
Dev
elop
ers
Use
rsCommunication
PlasticityInteroperability
Ease of use
Culture
What will users prefer to do if they have ‘free’ time available?1. Use their disposable time to develop virtual content they ‘need’2. Use their disposable time to ‘do’ what they have always wantedto do in their own domain of expertise
Reuse
CommunityBut to claim that such a line does not exist or will disappear is disingenuous
Cost
Caution: The line between developers and users is neither bright nor well-defined …
Features
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Once upon a time … 3D APIs – Java 3D (circa 2000)
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Old habits die hard… 3D Game APIs (circa 2002)
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‘Plastic’ virtual environments Second Life-Play2Train (circa 2007)
In-world/In-situ editing in External tools / ‘level editing’ possibly
out Collaborative building
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Local context- Idaho State Target audience
Emergency responders Healthcare providers
Orientation, training the trainer Challenges
Culture Infrastructure
Hardware limitation Bandwidth limitation? Accessing SL through tight ‘hospital’ fire walls
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Play2Train stakeholders
Play2Train
Custom virtual content developers Subject matter
experts
StudentsTechnicalassistants
Administration
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P2T knowledge networking
(early 2008)
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Example P2T interested parties
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Conference demonstrations
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Resource costs Infrastructure
Current cost: Island 1000 USD per 16 acres (65,536 square meters); non-profit/educational=295 USD/2
Play2Train costs (3 years) = 3*1000 + (295/2)*36 = 8310 USD Custom content (70%)=20 000 USD In-world content (30%)=500 USD Total = 28810 USD
Volunteer subject matter experts Tangible benefits: ability to develop pilots that can generate
small grants, publications Play2Train staff
15 000 USD (3 years) Donation of off working hours to participate in content
development, manage content development, produce machinima, establish relationships with potential collaborators etc…
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Why users choose Play2Train? Enable participants to experience table top
exercises they can customize without having to develop virtual content on their own
Short path to evaluations, hence, publications (Traditional e.g. Journal and Conference Proceedings and web 2.0 type of pubs) when looking at innovative learning practices in virtual environments
Many have used Play2Train to showcase Second Life educational opportunities to ‘powers that be’ via virtual tours
Significant online interest (blogs, mainstream media)
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Play2Train services Training the trainer Virtual content maintenance Technical assistance Virtual tours Outreach and knowledge networking Pilot study support Evaluation services: Experiment design
and data analysis
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Funding and monetization ASPR (ex BTCDP) funding ends
August 2008 Monetization for sustainability
Educational conference services In-world advertising Membership/access fees Sponsors (federal and commercial)
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Cost saving strategies? In house sim hosting
OpenlifeTM grid (Second Life’s open source competitor)
Keep an eye on viable alternatives Project Wonderland (Sun Microsystems)
Downside: Maintenance costs goes up- Hosted services vs. In-house services
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Panel Session Q1: There has been many projects
implementing virtual training environments that were funded over the years. Many share the same set of training goals. Why is it that significant federal funding get spent to develop a training environment for one group, then a similar one for another group etc…?
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Panel session Q2: Answer by a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’.
Will we be using World of Warcraft in the future (I presume for the kind of applications we have been talking about.)?
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Panel Session We have seen a lot of presentations
today where it seems designers are ‘just throwing in objects in 3d worlds’. Why reinvent the wheel? We have been involved in ‘high end VR’ since a very long time? Why not go for those ‘high end solutions’? This morning somebody showed the ‘space navigator’, what’s the big deal? We’ve been doing these stuff for a very long time. Educators should ask us what they need and we will provide. They should ‘talk to us’.
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Panel session General question on what a virtual
medium is, whether 2D or 3D matters, the importance or non-importance of fidelity, on the need to understand the target audience, on usage metrics.
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