USALSIM: Learning and Professional Practicing in a 3D Virtual World - 2nd International Workshop on Evidence-Based Technology Enhanced Learning - page 77

virtual learning platform used by USAL. This platform is used as a distance learn-
ing tool and as a support tool for in-class learning. It has been adapted to the spe-
cific needs of this university. The professors use the platform to make educational
materials and complementary references available to the students, in addition to
monitoring and evaluating their performance through tests and questionnaires, or
offering consulting and tutorial mechanisms (forums, chatrooms, videoconfe-
rences…). Given that USALSIM is an education tool, there are several advantages
to integrating these complementary platforms. The Sloodle [9][10][11] project
was used to integrate the two platforms. It is an open code project that permits the
integration of multi-user virtual environments such as OpenSim and the Moodle
system.
The integration of Moodle with USALSIM makes it possible to create within a
virtual many things, including: presentations housed in the university's e-learning
platform, link user profiles from both platforms to share the data of registered us-
ers, the possibility of administering tests to users, engage in chats, etc. With regard
to the tests or questionnaires, the user may request to perform them in a virtual en-
vironment. In this case, the test is downloaded from the server and visualized
through a series of text boxes, and the user selects the correct option by pushing a
button; once the test is completed, the user is informed of the result and the
Moodle platform saves all data related to the text (duration, score, etc.) just as if
the test had been taken on the e-learning platform.

4 Tests and Evaluation

In order to validate the system, we proposed several professional situations, distri-
buted in the different jobs corresponding to the knowledge areas discussed above.
In this stage of our testing, we established a group of 139 users (students and
teachers or professionals) to perform the different tasks. At the end, 86 of these
people filled in diverse questionnaires where they explained their views and opi-
nions about the system, its design, use, utility and possible application in their
field of study.

Fig. 3 Students Evaluation