Salience and Selection: Using Growth Modeling to Explore Student Causal Data Collection in a Multi-User Virtual Environment

• In Event: Roundtable Session 17
  In Roundtable Session: Situated Learning and Science Research in Immersive Learning Environments

Abstract

The EcoMUVE is an ecosystem-science based multi-user virtual environment (MUVE) that allows students to collect various types of data in a high-fidelity virtual world (authors, 2011). Prior research has shown that students show statistically different patterns of data collection via specific tools in the EcoMUVE based on prior knowledge (authors, 2013). In this study, we will explore the relationship between data salience and data collection in the EcoMUVE. Outcomes will be used to guide future experimental research and the development of similar MUVEs, and the analytic methods will serve as examples for researchers wishing to analyze similar data.

Authors

• Michael Shane Tutwiler, Harvard University

• Tina A. Grotzer, Harvard University