Multi-User Virtual Environments - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 294

Example (1)
Participant 16: I guess it was kind of fun to just
like go around and explore and find people...my
favorite part [so far]...I really, really, really, like
all the pictures, the scenery, and the professor
looks very funny. (Interview 1)

shared some common behaviors of the Explorer
group, overall, the experience of these learners
was linear and tended to follow a set pattern of
behavior based on the order of quest placement
in the quest log. The amount of time spent in the
SIE was also less than that of the Explorer group.
The majority of the participants in the Student
group (N=23) spent between 85-158 minutes
( M =112; SD =32.46) in the space (and a smaller
subgroup (N=7) spent between 62-77 minutes
( M =69; SD =5.73) in the SIE during the treatment
period. In addition, this group logged into the
space for two or three primary sessions and typi-
cally completed the majority of one module (i.e.,
apologies or requests) at each sitting. As opposed
to the exploration and experimentation behavior
found in the Explorer group, the experience of
the Student group was primarily categorized by
their quest completion behavior. As can be seen
from the interview excerpt in Example (3), quest
completion was an important part of the experi-
ence for this group of participants.

For Participant 16, as well as the other learn-
ers who experienced the space as Explorers, the
aesthetic, virtual, interactive aspect of the space
was an important component of their experi-
ence in the SIE for L2 pragmatic development.
Furthermore, as can be seen in Example 2, while
quest completion appeared to be an important part
of their in-game learning experience, it was not
necessarily the most enjoyable aspect.

Example (2)
Participant 13: Anyway, that would be a lot more
enjoyable I think if more people were interacting
because...really I guess I felt like this was more
of a chore to do. I didn't enjoy like having to do a
specific mission and then I could only talk to the
people that were part of the mission...but I think
it would be cool if you could actually interact
with people [NPCs] even if they are not part of
your mission you are trying to do. (Interview 1)

Example (3)
Participant 31: Another best aspect [of the proj-
ect], I guess, is when you complete the quest, it
feels like you completed something. The people's
expressions or like what they say kind of gives you
that gratification of like completing something.
(Interview 2)

A laundry list of tasks to complete (e.g., the
quest log) was not considered a central piece of
the learning experience for these learners. As a
result, the learning patterns of this group of par-
ticipants, demonstrates an analytical approach to
the content being taught with a higher tolerance
for ambiguity and risk-taking than the other three
groups. In their presentations, this group of learners
tied their in-game experiences to other language
learning processes and gave in-depth explanations
for their assertions.
In the case of the second type of experience
(i.e., as a Student), a different picture emerged. This
group represented the experience of the majority
of participants (N=30, 57%). While this group

For each participant in the Student group,
enough time was spent in the space to complete
the necessary quests successfully. Once a green
checkmark (i.e., indicating successful quest
completion) was given, the learners in this group
tended to move on to the next task. The quests
that were reset by members of this group were
typically those that had been failed and needed to
be repeated in order to finish the tasks. Learning
for this group consisted of successfully complet-
ing quests and “getting the right answer.” In their
presentations and learning discussions, this group