Go With the Flow: Engagement and Learning in Second Life

Abstract

The military recognizes digital technology's powerful potential to enhance training and desires to proactively explore emerging technology capabilities in order to remain on the forefront of serving our warfighter. Several branches of military service are currently developing virtual world technologies. One popular world is Second Life (SL) in which the Air Force is building a recruit environment; the Navy is developing training; and several Commands in Central Florida are developing a portal for training exploration. Because of SL's global presence and popularity, it is perceived as a potentially powerful learning environment for serving our geographically dispersed military. In particular, it is professed to be a highly effective learning environment for younger generations that targets interactivity and engagement. However military training in these worlds has not been empirically tested. This paper presents results from a study investigating the relationship between engagement, achievement, and performance in SL. The study was conducted on an Air Force SL island, developed for collaboration, teaming, and innovative research. One hundred participants completed the activity. A self-directed, inquiry-based activity, tagged a VWQuest, was taken from the web-based WebQuest instructional framework and adapted for virtual worlds. Data were collected including demographics, a multiple-choice quiz, performance measures, and engagement level using Csikszentmihalyi's Flow Theory. Although no statistically significant relationship was found between engagement and recall ability, a relationship was found between engagement and overall performance, meaning that for this study's activity, an individual's overall level of engagement was able to statistically predict an individual's ability to perform. This finding suggests that having an engaging experience while learning in Second Life may in fact contribute to an individuals' ability to perform better.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA514681

Entities

People

  • Karen Cooper

Organizations

  • Naval Air Warfare Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Aerial Warfare
  • Air Force
  • Computers
  • Distance Learning
  • Education
  • Emerging Technology
  • Environment
  • Information Assurance
  • Learning
  • Military Training
  • National Security
  • Students
  • Three Dimensional
  • Training
  • Two Dimensional
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Agent-Based Social Robotics and Mobile-Assisted Learning in Virtual Environments.
  • East Asian Political and Security Studies within the Soviet Union
  • STEM Education