1. The Development of a User-Friendly Authoring Tool (OPAL) used by Teachers and Students in Schools to Create User-Generated Contexts for Learning in a Virtual World Setting. Kevin Burden (The University of Hull) David Burden (Daden Ltd) Christopher Bonfield (KTP Associate, Academy360, Sunderland)

2. 31/10/11

3. Academy360, Sunderland ‘Re-thinking the art of learning’

4. Problems associated with Immersive World Environments in School Contexts Access issues in school – LA filters Suitability of some environments for young people Difficulty in constructing environments which are bespoke Unstructured nature of activity and learning 31/10/11

5. Solutions Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with the University of Hull Partnership between Daden Ltd and Academy360 to develop an authoring tool 31/10/11

6. Research questions: Why Immersive 3-D learning in schools? What has restricted Immersive learning in schools What learning gains can we anticipate in schools?

7. OPAL Principles: Based on Daden's PIVOTE system The Goal: Make exercise development simple! For use by teachers and school children Drag-Drop-Configure from a library of props and actors

8. The Technical Bit:

9. The End Result

10. Process of creating prototype scenarios

11. Beach scenario

12. Value of OPAL in a school setting Tool Simplicity and efficiency(drag-and-drop) Low skill threshold Re-usability and transferability of scenarios and assets Scenarios Scenarios are designed to fit into International Middle Years Curriculum Social-constructivist theory of learning, with emphasis on problem-based learning(PBL) Encouragement for students to collaborate and share Scenarios enable role-playing, to explore risk and to create environments not possible in classroom-based setting Looking forward What is the teacher’s role in these scenarios? How effective will the scenarios be at engaging students and motivating them? Will the students enjoy the experience and want to be ‘inworld’? Will teachers use the tool and plan their own scenarios? Will other schools want to use tool and scenarios?

13. Summary & conclusions

14. CONTACT DETAILS KEVIN BURDEN THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL k.j.burden@hull.ac.uk CHRISTOPHER BONFIELD, KTP ASSOCIATE, ACADEMEY360 SUNDERLAND THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL c.bonfield@hull.ac.uk DAVID BURDEN MANAGING DIRECTOR DADEN LTD david.burden@daden.co.uk