USALSIM: Learning and Professional Practicing in a 3D Virtual World - 2nd International Workshop on Evidence-Based Technology Enhanced Learning - page 74

From an education perspective, USALSIM will serve to both assist and com-
plement specific activities that are occasionally unfeasible to be carried out within
the University. The project can provide spaces that are not always available in real
life, making it viable for students to prepare themselves or train before engaging in
specific processes or activities, or provide environments that can be used for meet-
ings, work exhibits, conferences, etc.

3 Developing the USALSIM Virtual Word

USALSIM has developed a virtual world in 3D that represents the most common
work spaces of five professional areas (Pharmacy, Law, Biology, Biotechnology,
Chemistry, and Humanities). The OpenSimulator [6] application server was used
to develop the virtual environment. This platform software is used to create multi-
user and multi-platform virtual worlds in 3D. It is an open code and is supported
by a wide user community.
With OpenSimulator ( OpenSim ) the 3D virtual world is organized according to
regions, or patches of land, which could be an island, a country, or a mega-region,
etc. In the case of the USALSIM project, the organizational architecture in the ini-
tial phase opted for space in the form of islands. Five regions (islands) were
built, each one corresponding to a title or branch of knowledge, and all joined to a
sixth island representing the Professional Integration Service, Training and
Employment of the University of Salamanca, the department where the project is
managed.
For each of these regions or island, a set of training tasks, both educational and
professional, were developed with very specific objectives. These trainings were
designed with the cooperation of educators and professionals currently working in
the respective fields. The content of the training, once it was designed, was
adapted to the technical and functional requirements of the simulator. Three types
of training were identified:

• Informative training, which provides students with the theoretical base needed

to perform other tasks at a later date.

• Procedural training, which prepares or trains the student to deal with proce-

dures or activities during the training period.

• Immersion training, which accurately imitates the reality the student may face

in a working environment, and prepares the student to deal with life-like situa-
tions in the simulator.
For the development of the USALSIM virtual world, a functional architecture was
defined over which the different trainings for each “island of knowledge” were
created. This architecture is based on three standard practice models, defined by a
set of entries, exits, objects and connections among objects. Each training model
defines the effect derived from the user's action with one or more of the objects
that populate the space, bearing in mind a series of preconditions and post condi-
tions. On that basis, the training models are distinguished as follows: