Monday, August 26, 2019

2019 #VWEDU: #DTA: Newcomer welcome coach for OpenSimulator. Suggested design and text for JIT instructions to beginners. A DTA content page


Newcomer welcome coach for OpenSimulator.  
Suggested design and text for JIT instructions to beginners.

Plan for providing Just-In-Time (JIT) instruction to beginners in OpenSimulator.   This article is explicitly licensed Public Domain (CC0).
The Empty Classroom
They study on the web

"What do I do now?"

What do we need to create DTA welcome coach?

  • 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.
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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 when others are present

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

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 each basic skill

  • 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. 
  • This section covers only the basic skills. Others may be covered later.

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."  

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 the camera.
  • On click: sign delivers text in local chat:
  • "Put the cursor on an interesting object.  Hold down the Alt key.
  • Note that the cursor changes to a rectangle.
  • -
  • Keep Alt down and roll the scroll wheel.  One way zooms in.  
  • Keep the Alt down, press the left mouse button, and move the mouse.
  • Note how the view changes.  Practice to get a feel for the control you have.
  • -
  • With the Alt key down, press the left-pointing arrow. The view will circle around the object.
  • -
  • Release the mouse button and put the cursor on another object.
  • With the Alt down, press the left mouse button and do the same things you just did.
  • The effects will be similar, but now focused on the new object.
  • These controls will save you a lot of walking, so practice them a bit now."

DTA articles

General

Development considerations

Possible services, education

Possible services, virtual worlds

New century education

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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.

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