On Wednesday, October 26th, IIGE professors Dr. Keiko Ikeda and Dr. Don Bysouth, and Coordinator Izumi Wada co-presented a case study of a Project-Based Learning (PBL) VE/COIL program using a metaverse platform at IVEC. Their presentation, titled "Virtual Exchange Meets the Metaverse: Ethnomethodological Analysis of Students’ Interaction in the New Space" outlined a customized fully online program undertaken in February of 2022.

 

 

 

For more details, see the presentation abstract below.

 

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When virtual exchange practice employs multiple digital media, including metaverse applications, how does the current generation of students engage in participation and performance? Kansai University has worked on digital transformation of its international education since 2021, and it enabled us to integrate metaverse as a part of virtual exchange program. Our study investigated a VE entrepreneurship camp program which took place in February 2022, with a total of 12 Japanese and American students. The analysis focuses on the participants’ social interactional behavior using ethnomethodology and conversation analysis (EMCA), focusing on their use of virtual semiotic resources (Goodwin, 2000) engaging with the Virbela platform. Virbela enables user manipulation of an avatar that can be directed to move freely in a 3D virtual world using a computer mouse. The platform also furnishes for a wide range of selections of embodiment display options (raise hand, laugh, dance, nod, etc.). Two data sets featuring interactions involving the same students (22.5 hours of the Virbela interaction and 25.5 hours of teleconferencing data) were examined. Our preliminary results show that more side talks besides the main event took place in Virbela, and most of such side talks were voluntarily initiated. We illustrate how the participants interactively engaged in the on-going project work, and that their final project sharing event (as called Final Congress) included a wider range of audience. As the technology becomes more affordable and accessible, COIL/VE practices should also seek to evolve alongside them, with the results of our study possibly bringing some new insights to bear on design practices.  

 

 

In addition, Dr. Keiko Ikeda gave a presentation titled “Envisioning Post-Covid Internationalisation in Asia: Conceptualizing a Successful Intra-ASEAN VE Infrastructure” in which she explored the understanding and practice of VE/COIL programs within Southeast Asia. Moreover, she moderated one of the special sessions held throughout the conference, titled “Cultural ‘Opportunities and Challenges’ Asia and Oceania”. The session welcomed speakers from different part of Asia and they shared their ideas on how VE/COIL is being conducted.