Web Based Authoring for Virtual Worlds using PIVOTE

The “Traditional” Approach to MUVE Exercise Design

Virtual worlds have led to a huge increase in the use of MUVEs for education and learning, since they make the building and scripting readily accessible to the eLearning enthusiasts and professionals within education. Often educators needed little more skill than that required to write and script a web page.

The result has been an explosion in in-world built and scripted learning experiences. These typically have one or more of the following features:

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  Custom scripts in each object causing the object to perform the desired action(s) (e.g. give a note card, say some text etc.)

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  Custom communications (e.g. text messages, IM, in-world email) were used to pass information/action between objects in the exercise

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  Large amounts of text displayed via note cards or as images created using out-of-world tools such as Photoshop, MS Paint or PowerPoint.