2019 #VWEDU: #DTA: Newcomer welcome coach (1): Basic skills needed promptly

Newcomer welcome coach (1):   
Basic skills needed promptly 

The newcomer welcome coach teaches the skills needed to get started in OpenSimulator. This article is explicitly licensed Public Domain (CC0).

The Empty Classroom

They study on the web

"What do I do now?"

• That's usually the first reaction people have when they arrive in a virtual world.
• Educators want to get students past that point fast.
• We can give them written instructions: 
• The Secret of the Instruction Manual  If you want to keep a secret, put it in the instruction manual
• A DTA  Welcome Coach (DTAW) can give JIT training just when the student needs it.
• Create the need for the instruction.  Give the instruction.  Have the learner practice.

What do we need to create a welcome DAT?

• The Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) for MUVES (virtual worlds): Summary
• List of basic skills to be taught.
• Brief instructions for each skill.
• Selection method to let learner chose what to learn next (or revisit).
• Situations in the welcome MUVE that create a need for each skill.

• Using viewer: Firestorm for OpenSimulator set to Viewer 5 (drop-down menus) 

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Basic skills for incoming learner

Needed promptly 

• Read local chat and floating text
• Walk: turn, walk forward
• Interact with things: Sit, stand, click
• View control:  Zoom, look around without moving your avatar.

Needed to interact with others

• Communicate: Typed local chat, voice, remote IM
• Interact with people: Identify, friend, find

Needed when avatar choice is offered

• Avatar: select, wear, adjust
• (Note: educators will not want beginning students to spend much time on this.)

Needed soon

• Notecard:  get and read   
• Landmark for your current location: Take and use 
• Turn on local music/audio stream
• Find other rooms and teleport there.

Instructions for skills needed promptly

• This plan assumes a distributed coach in the form of multiple signs.
• Instructions for starting in OpenSimulator
• Instructions for using Firestorm, Viewer 5
• That viewer uses drop-down menus rather than the pie-chart form. 
• (Subsequent articles may carry instructions for other skills.)

Read local chat and floating text

• Sign: Click here to get starter information.
• Sign carries floating text: starter information.
• Sign should be clearly visible at arrival point.
• On click: sign delivers text in local chat:
• ----
• "One way you find out things is by reading local chat. 
• It scrolls up on the lower left of your screen.
• To read it again, click the Nearby Chat button (bottom left).
• You can scroll the window that opens."
• ----
• "Things may also tell a little about themselves in floating text.
• You will see floating text on this sign. 
• Other objects may have floating text--you have to get close before it will appear."

Walk: turn, walk forward

• Sign: Click here to find out how to walk
• Sign carries floating text: how to walk.
• Sign should be clearly visible at arrival point.
• On click: sign delivers text in local chat:
• ---
• "To walk forward, press the up arrow key on your keyboard.
• To turn in the direction you want to go, press a side-pointing arrow key.
• Other signs here give more instructions. Walk around to see what they say."

Interact with things: Sit, stand, click

• Sign: Click here to find out how to sit
• Sign carries floating text: how to sit.
• Sign should be at some distance from the arrival point.
• Next to the sign, put a seat with a sit script.(without optional poses).
• On click: sign delivers text in local chat:
• "To sit on something, right click it and click sit on the menu that drops down. 
• Try that on the nearby seat. 
• When you sit, a stand button will appear lower left.  Guess what that does." 

View control: Zoom,look around without moving your avatar.

• Sign: If you are sitting, click here to find out how to look around easily.
• Sign caries floating text: Zoom and roam.
• On click: sign delivers text in local chat:
• "Hold down the Alt key* and click on a nearby object.
• Keep the Alt key down and move the scroll wheel on the mouse.
• You can zoom in or out this way.
• Keep the Alt key down and press the left-pointing arrow key.
• Your view will circle around the object you clicked on.
• As your view circles, with the Alt key still down, click on another object.
• Repeat the steps above."
• *Add key name for Mac users.

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Visit me on the web

• Drop by my web offices Weekdays: 12:-12:30 pm Central time (US)
• I am available for free consulting on any topic in this blog.
• Cybalounge and 3DWebWorldz (Orientation room)
• I will be in both places, so you may need to speak to get my attention.
• Web-worlds, 3D virtual worlds running in a browser. Summary
• And we can visit the Writer's Workshop on the Web
• Don't register -- enter as guest.  

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License

• Original text in this blog is CC By: unless specified public domain.
• Use as you please with attribution: link to the original.
• All images without attribution in this blog are CC0: public domain.
• Second Life, Linden, SLurl, and SL are trademarks of Linden Research Inc.
• Annotated screenshots made with Jing
• This blog is not affiliated with anything.   Ads are from Google.
• Selby Evans in Kitely and hypergrid, Thinkerer Melville in Second Life.