Debbie Richards

Debbie Richards is currently an Associate Professor in the Computing Department at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. She has been interested in expertise and knowledge from a theoretical and practical point of view since the early 80s. This was initially inspired by her work in the ICT industry with experts and explored further in her Masters and PhD theses, following completion of a Bachelor of Business. Virtual worlds provide much potential for educating and training people using safe environments with greater ecological validity than a laboratory or classroom setting. Agent-based systems provide the intelligence needed to achieve this experience. Currently she is working, with Meredith, on developing a Multi-User Virtual Environment for science inquiry in Australian secondary schools. Our key challenge is creating intelligent animals and avatars to allow students to observe and interact with advanced behaviours such as predator-prey and flocking. The world is being built using Unity3D, chosen as a result of the study conducted by Arda.

Publications

Collaborative Knowledge Management in the Call Center
Collaborative Knowledge Management in the Call Center
Debbie Richards. © 2012. 15 pages.
Multi-Agent Systems for Education and Interactive Entertainment: Design, Use and Experience
Multi-Agent Systems for Education and Interactive Entertainment: Design, Use and Experience
Martin Beer, Maria Fasli, Debbie Richards. © 2011. 330 pages.
The increased sophistication of the multi-agent software now becoming available is allowing much more sophisticated learning scenarios to be attempted. This has caused interest...
Survey of Educational Multi-User Virtual Environments and Agents
Survey of Educational Multi-User Virtual Environments and Agents
Arda Tezcan, Debbie Richards. © 2011. 21 pages.
The potential value of Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) is increasing amongst educationalists. A key issue with MUVE for education is the need to provide system...
A Comparative Study of Platforms for Multi-User Virtual Environments
A Comparative Study of Platforms for Multi-User Virtual Environments
Arda Tezcan, Debbie Richards. © 2011. 34 pages.
Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) have been found to be engaging and provide an environment in which the elements of discovery, exploration and concept testing, fundamental...
Scenario Authoring by Domain Trainers
Scenario Authoring by Domain Trainers
Debbie Richards, Meredith Taylor. © 2011. 27 pages.
Authoring is a bottleneck in the widespread uptake of technology for training and education as the time and skill needed for domain experts such as trainers and teachers to...
The Role of Creativity (and Creative behaviour) in Identifying Entrepreneurs
The Role of Creativity (and Creative behaviour) in Identifying Entrepreneurs
Debbie Richards, Peter Busch, Ayse Bilgin. © 2010. 19 pages.
As the importance of creativity and in turn innovation for individuals, organizations, nations and the global community as a whole becomes recognized, so too does the value of...