Designing virtual spaces to support learning communities and e-collaboration

In this paper, we present the design principles for virtual spaces and two different tools as solutions for supporting e-collaboration and multi-user communication in Web-based learning communities. The first solution, called Virtual Conference, is designed and implemented in the framework of the VirRAD European project. It is a two-dimensional space where participants represented by their photos can use various e-collaboration tools. The second solution, called EVE Training Area, is a three-dimensional space where participants, represented by 3D humanoid avatars, can use a variety of e-collaboration tools. This paper describes the functionality provided by both tools, compares them, and proposes cases for exploiting each solution.