A Workflow for Designing Virtual Worlds for Collaborative Learning

It has been shown that collaborative learning can be fostered by computer support, especially in distance learning situations, where students meet online with their peers to work collaboratively on exercises or projects and discuss in groups. We share the belief that particularly virtual worlds (3D Collaborative Virtual Environments) are suitable for collaborative learning, and present a refined workflow for the design of virtual worlds and the collaboration experiences users acquire in them. Our experiences from applying it in a first use case show that this presented interdisciplinary approach is a way to exploit the distinct features the novel medium offers. We further show how our workflow facilitates the promotion of virtual worlds following a two-fold approach: it implements ´design for research´ as well as ´research for design´.