Annotated Bibliography

Brogan, D. C., Metoyer, R. A., & Hodgins, J. K. (1998). Dynamically simulated characters in virtual environments. IEEE computer graphics and applications, 18(5), 58-69.

This is an older article postulating the value of virtual environments once technology can simulate real life action. This will require making the characters movements intuitive to the user.

Cohen, J., Wong, V., & Krishnamachari, A. Berlin, R. (2020). Teacher coaching in a simulated environment. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 42(2), 208-331.

This article evaluates whether providing coaching between practice sessions in teacher education courses leads to more rapid development of skills and changes in teachers' beliefs about student behavior, using mixed-reality simulations as a practice space and standardized assessment platform.

Dalinger, T., Thomas, K. B., Stansberry, S., & Xiu, Y. (2020). A mixed reality simulation offers strategic practice for pre-service teachers. Computers & Education, 144, 103696.

This paper presents a case study which explored how teacher candidates experienced Mursion simulations. Overall participants rated the experience as valuable and stated that it lowered their apprehension in teaching. Most stated they were able to suspend their disbelief and were immersed in the virtual environment. One drawback was being observed by peers while participating. Participants stated it made them nervous.

“Using a mixed reality simulation such as the virtual classroom provided by Mursion® …offers a potential opportunity for meaningful experiential learning with virtual students in the form of digital avatars, providing actual teaching practice while removing the potential risk of harm to live students taught and monitored by inexperienced student teachers.”

Dieker, L. A., Hughes, C. E., Hynes, M. C., & Straub, C. (2017). Using simulated virtual environments to improve teacher performance. School-University Partnerships, 10(3), 62-81.

This article discussed research using Teach Live (pre-cursor to Mursion) with PD to increase teachers' use of descriptive explanation and specific feedback. The study found that teachers felt the avatars were real and did increase their use of these behaviors with avatar students.

Guasch, T., Alvarez, I., & Espasa, A. (2010). University teacher competencies in a virtual teaching/learning environment: Analysis of a teacher training experience. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(2), 199-206.

This article talks about the needed items by teachers in virtual learning. Quote on page 206. We would like to highlight the need to observe in an integrative manner the diverse teacher roles/functions while designing training proposals for the development of competencies.

Lucas, G. M., Gratch, J., King, A., & Morency, L. P. (2014). It’s only a computer: Virtual humans increase willingness to disclose. Computers in Human Behavior, 37, 94-100.

A study was conducted to determine the efficacy of using virtual humans (avatars) for conducting interviews. The researchers found that virtual humans can increase willingness to disclose in a clinical interview context. Additionally, VHs are able to have this impact because they allow patients to feel as though their responses are not currently being judged. The researchers conclude that not only can these VHs assist in making interviewees being more willing to disclose embarrassing information, but also they may be more cost effective once the system has been developed.

Nakamura, L. (2002). Head-hunting on the internet: Identity tourism, avatars, and racial passing. In L. Nakaura (Ed)., Cybertypes: Race, ethnicity, and identity on the internet. New York: Routledge.

This article was suggested by a focus group participant who commented on the problem of interactors roleplaying races, ethnicities, and even genders that are not their own identities. His question is about the problematic authenticity of that roleplaying and the stereotypes interactors would bring to their roleplaying. Although this article is an essay about avatar game playing on the internet, it discusses "the specific ways in which Internet users choose to represent themselves online, the masks and personae of alterity that they fashion for themselves from images taken from the media landscape, reveal a great deal about their cultural and ideological investments and their assumptions about both the other and themselves" (pp. 59-60).

Pan, X., & Hamilton, A. F. D. C. (2018). Why and how to use virtual reality to study human social interaction: The challenges of exploring a new research landscape. British Journal of Psychology, 109(3), 395-417.

The authors argue that using VR, while not the answer to all challenges, it is viable for specific outcomes, including maximizing experimental control and controlling interactive situations. VR also allows for replicability. It then talks about the different types of VR, the technology required, and its uses in psychology. They talk specifically about Cave VR, which sounds similar to Mursion, and Immersive VR. The authors list challenges using VR in Psychology. These include self-embodiment issues, "uncanniness" of the VR characters, simulation sickness, sense of presence, ethics, experimental design, and theory.

Pudane, M., & Lavendelis, E. (2015). Collaborative human-like multi agent systems: An Overview. In European Conference Data Mining 2015 and International Conferences Intelligent Systems and Agents 2015 and Theory and Practice in Modern Computing 2015. (pp. 211-215).

This article discusses the models used for creating artificial intelligence with human-like behavior. It does not relate specifically to our evaluation; however, it did speak to different affective model considerations. "Emotions are considered as short term effects which are directed towards some event, action or agent. Mood lasts longer than emotions and influences decisions and behavior." (p. 212)

Spiro, R. J. (1988). Cognitive flexibility theory: Advanced knowledge acquisition in ill-structured domains. Center for the Study of Reading Technical Report; no. 441.

The authors discuss advanced knowledge acquisition. "The learner must attain a deeper understanding of content material, reason with it, and apply it flexibly in diverse contexts" (p.1). They posit that introductory learning may be in opposition to advanced knowledge acquisition. They argue that advanced knowledge acquisition is "best attained... by the development of mental representations that support cognitive flexibility" (p. 10).

Thompson, M., Owho-Ovuakporie, K., Robinson, K., Kim, Y. J., Slama, R., & Reich, J. (2019). Teacher Moments: A digital simulation for pre-service teachers to approximate parent–teacher conversations. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 35(3), 144-164.

Authors state that simulations allow pre-service teachers opportunities to practice discrete skills in low stakes settings. It also allows teachers to develop instructional judgement that can then be transferred into the classroom at a later date. They conducted a study using a simulation that they called teacher moments. They provided digital simulations based on two scenarios working with parents of students with autism. After working in the scenario, students were given a survey. Survey results suggested that scenarios gave the students a chance to work in stressful situations with low stakes and gave students the confidence to work in these situations later in their professional careers.