Addiction, research, health in a virtual world
Over at Terra Nova, Robert Bloomfield has written a very interesting post on research methods and virtual worlds. You can read it in full here.
The quantitative vs qualitative debate is nothing new in research, but Bloomfield posits that the current momentum toward quantitative research poses some challenges for the other side of the coin.
The latest issue of the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research has been released, and as usual it’s full of peer-reviewed research papers, plus some discussion pieces and other features. Pedagogy is a key consideration for any educator, and this issue goes some way to establishing a pedagological framework for virtual worlds. Major kudos to the editorial team for the production of such a high quality publication.
Read on for the contents of the issue with links to abstracts and full versions:
Peer-Reviewed Research Papers
In the past week, the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research released its second issue, and one article that caught my eye from a health viewpoint is a research paper titled:
Ugly Duckling by Day, Super Model by Night: The Influence of Body Image on the Use of Virtual Worlds
The intent of the study was to determine the relationship of body image perception and the decision to use virtual worlds. 252 individuals were surveyed on some key measures: telepresence, physical attractiveness, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms. The inidividual variables alone make for interesting reading, particularly telepresence, but the interrelationship is the focus of the research. The results? In a nutshell:
The results indicate that telepresence attitude, subjective norms, and the desire to become someone else are directly related to the use of virtual worlds and the influence of body image on the use of virtual worlds is mediated by the desire to become someone else
What this means is that the primary driver for people using virtual worlds is the ability to feel close to others and to be able to transmit emotions. The issue of becoming someone else and body image were found to be only the third biggest influence.
The authors make the firm point of what may determine success for business or individuals in virtual worlds:
These results highlight the relational aspect of virtual worlds which suggest that if individuals and firms want to be successful in virtual worlds, they should concentrate on providing relational experiences.
Who would have thought – people want to socialise with other people.
Margaret Hansen from the School of Nursing at the University of San Francisco has written a review for the Journal of Medical Internet Research entitled: “Versatile, Immersive, Creative and Dynamic Virtual 3-D Healthcare Learning Environments: A Review of the Literature”.
It’s a comprehensive overview of health research and education in virtual worlds. Current players are covered as well as discussion of the challenges and opportunities virtual worlds present for healthcare professionals.
Roger’s Diffusion of Innovations Theory is an interesting basis for part of the discussion and it encapsulates the challenges in arguing for virtual worlds as an education tool – complexity and compatability are two barriers to adoption cited by the theory and they are two critical challenges for virtual worlds as well.
As Hansen argues, until there’s significant empirical support for the tool it will be difficult to garner widespread acceptance of it. What’s encouraging though is the growing body of work looking at the issue and Hansen gives a hat-tip to the University of Technology Sydney for their support – collaboration is gaining momentum and it can only assist the quest for an empirical basis for virtual worlds healthcare education.
Thanks to Maged Boulos for the heads-up on this.
It’s coming up to a year since we interviewed DeeAnna Nagel and Kate Anthony and discussed counselling in online environments broadly and in virtual environments more specifically. Over that time, the Online Therapy Institute has continued to grow. One example of this is the announcement of a five-hour course on online supervision. Anyone who works [...]
One MMO player’s perspective on addiction. A worthwhile read – nothing new or groundbreaking but it at least engenders some self-examination. On key piece of social research in the future will be work days lost to MMO game playing. I’m aware of a few people who’ve called in sick to play World of Warcraft or [...]
Over the past few days, there’s been quite a bit of buzz around the latest piece created by the talented Draxtor Despres. It reports on discussions held on US Healthcare reform in Second Life that will be looked at by the incoming Obama administration as part of much wider community consultations going on at present. [...]
Here’s a great video showing the use of the Kinect to play World of Warcraft using a software framework called FAAST. After the initial demo there’s some useful discussion by the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies on its potential applications. Those applications are something discussed here regularly: rehabilitation and physical activity. Imagine [...]
One of the advantages of being a regular (daily) observer of virtual worlds news, is you get a fair idea of trends. One growth trend over recent months has been the interest in the health applications of virtual environments. One of the better pieces of media coverage is one by the Wall Street Journal. It’s [...]
Thanks to New World Notes, I’ve found out about a great resource for those interested in science and virtual environments. This list has a solid cohort of health-related sites – some I’ve covered previously and some others I’m now keen to investigate further. Obviously Second Life isn’t the only environment where interesting science is going [...]
Margaret Hansen from the School of Nursing at the University of San Francisco has written a review for the Journal of Medical Internet Research entitled: “Versatile, Immersive, Creative and Dynamic Virtual 3-D Healthcare Learning Environments: A Review of the Literature”. It’s a comprehensive overview of health research and education in virtual worlds. Current players are [...]
We’ve covered Karuna previously for their work with World AIDS Day 2008. They’ve now made an open invitation to “HIV/AIDS groups, activists, health professionals, organizations, and educators” to get further involved in collaboration. If you’re interested: Place: Karuna campfire Date: March 6, 2009 Time: 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Second Life Time (Pacific Time) Thanks [...]
In the past week I received a note from Kerri McCusker (SL: Kerri Macchi) about a project completed for the Serious Games and Virtual Worlds Team, University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. Second Lives sets out to demonstrate a more recent approach to dealing with Crohn’s disease: autologous stem cell transplant. You can view the [...]
This story appeared earlier in the week over at The Metaverse Journal under the title ‘Why Second Life is already second-best for education’. The announcement by Linden Lab in the past 24 hours that their discounting of pricing for educators and non-profits would cease in January 2011, has engendered the expected level of outrage. And [...]
Virtual Ability is an island in Second Life devoted to individuals with disabilities or chronic health conditions. Initially funded by the USA’s National Library of Medicine, it now relies on individual contributions. It contains a number of discrete areas including training facilities for people with chronic health conditions. They even have their own orientation section [...]
In the past week, the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research released its second issue, and one article that caught my eye from a health viewpoint is a research paper titled: Ugly Duckling by Day, Super Model by Night: The Influence of Body Image on the Use of Virtual Worlds The intent of the study was [...]