No Virtual World is Ready to Be an Educational Platform -- But Maybe We Just Need SCORM (Comments of the Week #2)

In the era of the Coronavirus, the time for a virtual world that works well for professional/enterprise use seems to be now -- but Gwenette Writer, who works in the space, argues that none as yet exist that meet all seven of the criteria I outlined last week (i.e. "serious" non-human avatars, multi/cross-platform, light client, spacial audio, cloud service integration, frictionless firewall support, regularly used for work by the company that makes it). As she puts it:

There is no product that offers what businesses needs as outlined above. As a virtual world (VW) developer, I run into these barriers all the time with university and business clients that want a multi-purpose learning space with a sense of place or a structured immersive training scenario, but also need doc support, mobile capabilities, often firewall tunneling, and encrypted communications. The fact is, the viewers for most immersive 3D VW are memory/CPU hogs, require high-graphic cards and are not web-based. I am always testing new software/platforms, but none come close to offering solutions that overcome all seven hurdles listed above. Wagner, if I am wrong and you have a hidden card up your sleeve, PLEASE let me know ASAP!

Wish I did! I do know of a few that meet some of those criteria, and could probably meet the rest of them -- in a year or two of serious development time (maybe sooner with more resources). 

Reader "Fionalein", however, argues fairly persuasively that a virtual world is not what's needed for real work -- and suggests another alternative:

The platforms are out there, they even have a common standard: SCORM. [Above.] What they don't have is virtual space as you really have no need for virtual 3D space in training softwares. So the consensus of the E-Learning community is "We don't need 3D". 3D scenarios can make sense in special occasions but you should embed them in a common learning platform, not embed a common learning platform into 3D. You don't want a game environment as top layer, you want a professional learning environment.

If you take away human avatars it is still looking like a game but a crappy game to the general public out there. Don't tell me the "But it's no game" mantra if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck...

Try to develop something like that and expect the Boards of Directors to ask themselves the question "So what is the educational benefit of that game?" once you they closed the doors behind you.

I have also seen 3D experiences integrated into standard learning formats; I've even seen 3D games incorporated into traditional educational formats. (Hello, Minecraft.) But is there really a need for a 3D world that swallows them all up?

Comments

[sirhc desantis]

SCORM - as in used by MOODLE? There is/was an SL thing regarding that (inevitably called SLOODLE - who comes up with these names anyway?) and before the 'tier is too high' crowd chimes in I guess it would have worked in OS too.
So what happened there?