second life: an engaging learning platform

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Really Engaging Accounting: Second Life™ as a Learning

PlatformDr. Steven Hornik / Robins Hermano

Kenneth Dixon School of Accounting

University of Central Florida

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Accounting and Second Life?

• 1st Year accounting course requires mastery of:– Language

• What the heck is a debit or credit or for goodness sake discount on bonds payable?

• Often times what little understanding exists is wrong– Credit / Debit Cards– Your credit balance in the bank

– Application of language while you learn• Imagine being shipped to Spain with just an English to

Spanish Dictionary• And told you would be starting your new customer service

job as soon as you arrived

– It’s hard, and well its....

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The Problem

• Shhh, Accounting can be Boring

• Accounting can be Difficult

• Boring + Difficult = Lack of Motivation

• Lack of Motivation– High student withdrawal– Low student grades

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A Solution

• Create Student Engagement!

• Engagement Can Lead To:– Increased time on task– The development of deep learning

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But What is Engagement

• We all Say, Isn’t Second Life™ Engaging?– Are we talking about the whole virtual world– The sim or sims our students work on– The content we’ve built for them– The course we’ve designed

• These can all be engaging

• We need to define what it is that may Engage our students

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Some definitions

• Engage the Student– “the amount of physical and psychological energy that

the student devotes to the academic experience” (Astin, 1984)

– the degree to which students value their learning activity (McInnis, James, & Hartley, 2000)

• Study Definition– Concentration– Interest– Enjoyment

Antecedents to Flow (Csikszentmihalyi , 1990)

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Social Presence• “the degree of salience of the other person

in the interaction and the consequent salience of the interpersonal relationships’’ (Short, Williams and Christie, 1976)

– Telecommunications

• In Virtual Worlds– Feelings of Immersion– Connection with students and content– Shared Social Learning Space– “Being There”

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A Model

EnvironmentalBelievability

Sense of BeingThere

Connections with Students and

Content

Social Presence StudentEngagement

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One More Factor

• Student Epistemological Beliefs– How students think they learn

• Technology is sometimes incongruent

• Technology can have adverse consequences

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Prior Accounting Studies

• Few studies have examined Accounting students and Engagement

• Hall, Ramsay, and Raven (2004)– found that changes in the course environment can

lead to changes in the learning approaches taken by students

• Carnaghan and Webb (2007)– found that by using group response systems

(classroom clickers) students felt more engaged and actively participated more in class

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Encouraging Engagement Changing Course Environment

• Traditional Course (Student perspective):– Learn Accounting Equation

• Intangible– Can’t touch it, Can’t

manipulate it, Can’t play with it ...

• Text based, Repetitive exercises, Similar to Math Class, Little Context

– Learn Vocabulary (Debits / Credits)

– Apply Vocabulary to Equation

• T-Accounts

• Second Life™ Course:– Interactive Accounting Equation

• Tangible– Can touch it, talk to it, receive

feedback from it, PLAY with it• Repetition can be fun?• Context found within Virtual World

Economy– Business real and simulated

– Learn Vocabulary• Game based quizzes, virtual

prizes– Apply Vocabulary

• Interactive T-Account• You can become a debit or credit!

• ALL in a Collaborative SOCIAL Environment

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Engagement

• Social Learning and Play– Playing with an Equation might lead to more time on

task• Traditional time on task is as little as possible

– Objects can “talk back” providing feedback throughout the process

• Traditional feedback is after the fact or right vs. wrong

– You can become a transaction!– You can run a business– You can...

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Hypotheses• H1: Engaged students performance outcomes

(Exam Scores) will exceed those of disengaged students.

• H2: Engagement will lead to increased time on task.

• H3: Spatial presence and environmental validity are necessary conditions for student engagement in 3-D virtual environments.

• H4: Students who feel adverse effects from the use of Second Life™ will have lower performance outcomes (Exam Scores) then students who do not experience these reactions.

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Research Setting

• 1st Year Financial Accounting• Required Course• Spring 2008• 194 students• Hybrid Course

– Reduced Seat Time– Lectures were online (via Camtasia Studio)– Class time (once a week) devoted to working problems

• Four Exams and One Cumulative Final• Four Second Life homework assignments

– Three Accounting Equation– One T-Account

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Research Treatment

• Really Engaging Accounting– University of Central Florida plot in Second Life– Leased from New Media Consortium

• Learning Tools– 3-D Accounting Equation

• 3 Required HW assignments

– 3-D T-account• 1 Required HW assignment

– 3 Lecture Viewing Areas– Group Accessible White Board– Various Communication Tools

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3-D Accounting Equation

• The model allowed students to visualize– how a debit or credit would increase or decrease the

different account types– the impact that increase or decrease would have on the

accounting equation

• As students interacted with the model– they received feedback from the model (in the form of

text chat)– what a particular debit or credit transaction was doing– whether or not a particular transaction was balanced.

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Assignments

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Interactive T-Account

• Students become game pieces• Enables students to practice their

understanding of the concept of normal account balances

• Feedback is provided– Correct responses– Incorrect responses

• Wrong side Correct type• Wrong type, Correct side• Wrong side, Wrong type

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T-Account Data

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Participants• 110 Students

– 60 Male– 50 Female– Age 23.9– 95% had Second Life™ installed– > 70% expert or advanced computer and

Internet skills– 43% expert or advanced gaming– 15% gaming novices

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ITC-Sense of Presence• Platform agnostic• 40 question, 5 point Likert scale• Four Factors

– Spatial Presence• Chronbach alpha = .944

– Engagement• Chronbach alpha = .935

– Ecological Validity• Chronbach alpha = .867

– Adverse Effects• Chronbach alpha = .852

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ITC-SOPI Factors• Spatial Presence (Social presence)

– I had a sense of being in the scenes displayed– I felt I was visiting the places displayed in the environment– I felt that the characters and/or objects could almost touch me

• Engagement– I felt involved in Second Life™– I enjoyed myself– My experience was intense

• Ecological Validity– The content seemed believable to me– The displayed environment seemed natural– I had a strong sense that the characters and objects were solid

• Adverse Effects– I felt dizzy– I felt nauseous– I had a headache– I had eyestrain

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Results

Descriptive Statistics

111 1.00 4.06 2.8233 .77301

111 1.00 4.38 2.7859 .82949

111 1.00 4.50 2.8093 .85335

111 1.00 3.83 2.0916 .68709

111

SpatialSOPI

EngagementSOPI

NaturalSOPI

NegEffectsSOPI

Valid N (listwise)

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation

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Hypothesis 1• Mean of exam scores of Engaged vs.

DisengagedGroup Statistics

51 79.8039 12.25075 1.71545

59 76.6441 12.23726 1.59316

49 72.0000 15.37856 2.19694

56 70.8214 15.21137 2.03270

49 75.1096 16.47315 2.35331

56 70.0913 15.48021 2.06863

48 73.4583 14.68384 2.11943

52 69.1923 15.63435 2.16809

47 104.4574 20.12504 2.93554

51 101.3186 19.12231 2.67766

EngagementSOPI>= 3.00

< 3.00

>= 3.00

< 3.00

>= 3.00

< 3.00

>= 3.00

< 3.00

>= 3.00

< 3.00

Exam1

Exam2

Exam3

Exam4

Final

N Mean Std. DeviationStd. Error

Mean

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Hypothesis 1 – Partially Supported

t df Sig. (1 tailed) Mean Difference

Exam 1 1.35 108 .09* 3.160

Exam 2 .394 103 .347 1.179

Exam 3 1.608 103 .055** 5.018

Exam 4 1.403 98 .082* 3.040

Final Exam .525 96 .215 3.138

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Hypothesis 2

• T-Account Assignment– Work with the t-account model until you get 15

correct answers in 5 minutes

• Descriptive Statistics

Descriptive Statistics

49 0:00:46 1:44:50 0:30:52 0:24:45

49

Time On Task

Valid N (listwise)

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation

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Hypothesis 2 - SupportedOne-Sample Test

8.706 48 .000 0:30:47 0:23:40 0:37:53Time On Taskt df Sig. (2-tailed)

MeanDifference Lower Upper

95% ConfidenceInterval of the

Difference

Test Value = 5

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Second Life™ Tools can enableStudent Engagement

• Not all students were Engaged

• How does Social Presence and Ecological Validity influence Student Engagement?

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Regression ModelH3 Partially Supported

Source Type III df Mean Square F Sig.

Corrected Model 73.185* 96 .762 4.239 .003

Intercept 70.821 1 70.821 393.797 .000

Spatial Presence 10.711 28 .383 2.127 .076

Ecological Validity 3.501 15 .233 1.298 .322

Adverse Effects 3.141 16 .196 1.091 .443

Gender .190 1 .190 1.058 .322

Spatial x Gender 3.470 18 .193 1.072 .458

Error 2.338 13 .180

Total 931.473 110

Corrected Total 75.523 109

* R squared = .969, (Adjusted R squared = .740)

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Hypothesis 4• Mean of Exam scores for Adversely

reactions vs. Favorable ReactionsAdverse Effect N Mean Std. Deviation

Exam 1: Adverse Reaction 18 72.2 3.04

Exam 1: Favorable Reaction 92 79.2 1.24







Final: Adverse Reaction 15 90.8 4.27

Final: Favorable Reaction 83 105.0 2.13

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Hypothesis 4 - Supported

t df Sig. (1 tailed) Mean Difference

Exam 1 -2.286 108 .012*** -7.11

Exam 2 -3.159 103 .001*** -12.53

Exam 3 -2.029 103 .023*** -8.96

Exam 4 -2.219 98 .015*** -9.30

Final Exam -2.666 96 .005*** -14.20

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Summary

• Second Life™ is a tool that can create Engaging Environments

• Engaging Environments can lead to more time on task and greater student performance

• Social Presence may predict Student Engagement

• Adverse Effects nullify benefits and result in lower student performance

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Conclusion

• Many have begun to explore this new learning platform and I believe many can see how different it is from other technological innovations that have preceded it. But in the end, while learning delivery may change, we as learners have not.

• We still require a social environment where we can meet and discuss and learn with others. We still require a level of engagement with the content in order to perform well. It seems that Second Life™ has the capability to deliver these fundamental components to learning.

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Questions?http://www.slideshare.net/shornik/second-life-a-learning-platform