The purpose of this study was to analyze the potential of Virtual Reality (VR) employment in airline pilot training. Specifically, this study conducted an experiment that introduced VR equipment into the Multi-Crew Cooperation (MCC) course in the United Kingdom (UK). Increasing pilot throughput in airline pilot training is critical as demands for…

Research has shown that the use of communication media in distance education can reduce feelings of distance and isolation from peers and tutors and provide opportunities for collaborative learning (Bates, 2005). The use of virtual worlds (VW) in education has increased in recent years, with Second Life (SL) being the most commonly used VW in…

Finance is a popular programme of study in UK higher education despite it being a challenging subject that requires students to understand and apply complex and abstract mathematical models and academic theories. Educational simulation is an active learning method found to be useful in enhancing students' learning experience, but there has been…

The purpose of this study was to bridge a gap in our understanding of the role business simulation games can play in the development of entrepreneurial capabilities in undergraduate students. While entrepreneurship education has come a long way from being a branch of business and management studies, to its current status as a core discipline in…

This paper will present a study that explored the perceived impact of spatial practice in "Second Life" (SL) on teaching and learning from the point of view of participants in higher education (lecturers, developers and researchers). Narrative inquiry was used to access stories and experiences of space and spatial practice from staff…

This paper explores how Augmented Reality using mobile phones can enhance teaching and learning in education. It specifically examines its application in two cases, where it is identified that the agility of mobile devices and the ability to overlay context specific resources offers opportunities to enhance learning that would not otherwise exist.…

Virtual worlds are an important tool in modern education practices as well as providing socialisation, entertainment and a laboratory for collaborative work. This paper focuses on the uses of virtual worlds for education and synthesises over 100 published academic papers, reports and educational websites from around the world. A taxonomy is then…

This study explored the potential of digital games as learning environments to develop mindsets capable of dealing with complexity in the domain of sustainability. Building sustainable futures requires the ability to deal with the complex dynamics that characterize the world in which we live. As central elements in this system, we must develop the…

The "Immersed in Learning" project began in 2007 to evaluate the use of 3D virtual worlds as a teaching and learning tool in undergraduate programmes in digital media at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. A question that the research set out to explore was what were the benefits of integrating 3D immersive learning with face-to-face…

A major strand of science and technology studies in recent decades has related to the social construction of technology (SCOT) movement, whose adherents maintain that technological systems are determined just as much by social forces as by technological ones. Taking this SCOT notion as a starting point, and putting a focus on the user, this paper…

Background: Immersive virtual worlds are one of a range of different platforms that can be grouped under the concept of mediated environments, i.e. environments that create a metaphorical space in which participants can position themselves and be embodied. Synthesising the literatures concerning the various mediated environment technologies…

Based on a categorization of simulation and gaming barriers developed in a previous study, this work seeks to explore in greater depth the composition and nature of these obstacles. It examines the interrelationships between the barriers and the impact of other contextual factors in the pedagogic environment. A series of in-depth interviews were…

This article considers some of the ways in which the transformative power of Web 2.0 digital technology is reconfiguring learning, knowledge and academic identities in the contemporary university. Through a focus on five specific examples, we consider the impact of virtualization processes on spatiality, materiality and embodiment, and pedagogic…

Background: Numerous surveys, articles, ephemera and online information sources indicate that "Second Life" has been the predominant virtual world, for educational purposes, in UK universities for the latter half of the 2000s. However, the infrastructure required to operate "Second Life" presents a number of technical concerns…

This paper describes and reflects on the development of the Schome Park Programme (SPP), which was established with the specific aim of extending our thinking about schome, which aims to be the optimal educational system for the 21st century. In an earlier stage of the Schome Initiative, it became clear that people find it almost impossible to…