Investigating the Possible Adaptation Techniques for Audio and Video in the Context of Adaptive 3D Virtual Learning Environments رسالة ماجستير

Abstract

The use of Three dimensional (3D) Virtual Environments is gaining interest in the context of academic discussions on e-learning technologies, as it provides several advantages over classical learning material. However, the use of multimedia resources such as videos and audio inside 3D Virtual Learning Environments (3D VLE) also has drawbacks, especially usability and effectiveness issues. One way to overcome such drawbacks is by providing an adaptive 3D VLE, i.e., an environment that dynamically adapts to the learner‘s characteristics and activities inside the environment. In general, providing different adaptation techniques inside 3D VLE is a straightforward task. Accordingly, this research is conducted to investigate the different adaptation techniques that can be applied to the audio and video learning resources which are considered as one of the essential components of 3D VLE. The proposed adaptation techniques can be used to improve the learning outcomes from a 3D VLE. This research describes an approach to support adaptation not only for 3D conventional models inside the 3D VLE but also multimedia resources such as video and audio. Our proposed approach differs from existing approaches from several aspects. First, it is learner-oriented approach so that the learner will be led to view specified part of video and audio files. Second, the learner will be able to view corresponding 3D models visualizing the content of the running part of the video or audio. Third, some possible adaptation techniques for multimedia resources have been used by the proposed research approach. A prototype has been built, and an example of adaptive course has been elaborated. We have evaluated the proposed approach using qualitative and quantitative evaluating methods. To evaluate the proposed approach, we have considered aspects such as easy to use, usefulness, leaner‘s attitudes and easy to learn about adaptation techniques, synchronization between 3D models and multimedia resources. The produced promising results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.