Ecological inquiry in a virtual world

Background/Question/Methods

A virtual learning environment called Virtual Ecological Inquiry (VEI) was developed in Second Life based on Wolong Nature Reserve to enable inquiry-based learning and assessment of student learning.  In VEI, students can explore the ecology of Wolong Nature Reserve and related ecological concepts in a museum and formulate a testable hypothesis on the pattern of vegetation and influencing factors.  They are then transported to a series of field sites to conduct field sampling and collect data for testing the hypothesis.  After completing the sampling, they can use a lab in the museum to analyze the data and develop their report.  VEI was tested in Fall 2011 in an introductory ecology course with over 400 students from 45 majors. Students were divided into groups of 30, due to the limited capacity of Second Life, and given 48 hours to complete their individual virtual ecological inquiry project and participate in group discussions of the inquiry process. Main activities and spatial locations of individual students in VEI are recorded for analysis of learning process and behavior.  A student survey was conducted after completion of the VEI project with questions on self reported efforts and learning as well as evaluation of the VEI.

Results/Conclusions

Making appropriate graphical settings in various computers turned out to be challenging for some students and caused considerable frustration.  With appropriate graphical settings, students improved their efficiency in navigation and performing sampling tasks in VEI quickly. The average time students took to sample their first plot was close to 30 minutes and it was reduced to about 20 minutes for their second plot. Many students reflected in their feedback that they liked the virtual world experiences, being able to interact with others in VEI, and learning about the ecology in the museum and sampling in virtual plots of Wolong Nature Reserve.  Many perceived learning gain through the VEI project. Proportion of students rated their ability to formulate a testable hypothesis as High or Very High increased from 52% before to 60% after the VEI project.  Proportion of students rated their understanding of how ecologists conduct their research as High or Very High increased from 30% before to 55% after the VEI project.  Despite the challenges, this initial experience showed promising potential of VEI for improving student learning through virtual ecological inquiry and understanding of learning process through examination of student learning behavior and reflection.