Our Virtual World Experiment Videos

If you arrived here after clicking a Tag term, note that some of the Tags refer to content found in the videos.
Enjoy watching!

Virtual Vocabulary: Technically, these videos are “machinima” – videos captured onscreen from within a virtual world or a game.

Our June 2020 research experiment

We published our virtual world research experiment machinimas on June 15, 2020. Two versions were produced. Watch them below.

The first video is a complete overview of the experiment with a virtual world walk-through showing the details of each phase in the experiment. Watch and follow as the team assistant, Professor Davis and some of the team avatars experience the highlights of each interactive step in the immersive, 3D leadership training.

The second machinima is the short, fast-paced version created for Professor Davis to present at his Ph.D. dissertation defense.

Images from the Videos

Notes About Our Experiment & COVID-19

The virtual world development for the dissertation experiment was originally designed to have five 256x256meter platforms (approx 16 acres each) with identical content stacked 750 meters apart in an OpenSim virtual region. Thirty student avatars were divided into five color-coded teams to simultaneously participating in the experiment with each team on a separate platform. During the experiment all the students would be under the supervision of Professor Davis in a Valencia College computer lab with virtual world viewer software pre-installed on each computer and configured to required virtual world specifications.

We Adapted Our Student Experience

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the experiment was modified so that each of the five-student avatar teams entered the world separately scheduled on June 9, 10 and 11, 2020. They used their home computers and were supervised by Professor Davis using his virtual world avatar to follow each team’s activities during the experiment. To optimize the performance of the virtual world server, only one platform level was developed.

We Adapted Our Student Orientation

Since students could not use lab computers to learn the virtual world viewer software or avatar skills, in a May 2020 Zoom class meeting Gwenette Writer Sinclair guided the students through installing the Firestorm virtual world viewer on their home computers. Then they completed a step-by-step exercise to fill in all the viewer preferences required to optimally experience the experiment’s 3D world. Each student created a “practice” avatar account*, then used the viewer to log their avatar into the OpenSim world where they all met with Writer Sinclair to practice basic avatar skills and inventory management. (A recording of that two hour training is available below.)

*For the actual experiment the students will login anonymously using numbered avatar team accounts.

Our Avatar & Viewer Orientation Class

Below is a recording of a live, interactive class with 20 students that were at differing levels of preparedness and computer experience.
Note: This video is not intended to be used as an actual step-by-step tutorial for installing the Firestorm viewer or creating an avatar account.*

Click on the image below to view the live, two hour Zoom class meeting.

*Step-by-step instructions are available from the viewer and software developers:
Click here to download and install the Firestorm viewer for OpenSim virtual worlds.
Click here to create an avatar account for the public OSGrid.

Important Note: Our Innovative Leadership virtual world is only open to avatars that are members of specific Innovative Leadership groups or by appointment. Please send us an EMAIL if you would like to visit!