Development Tools for Content Creation in Virtual Environments

Abstract

lmmersive Virtual Environments (IVEs) for education are designed and implemented to enable students to learn complicated concepts in an exploratory and inquiry based manner. The environments are constructed so that multiple users can interact with the educational simulation and learn to think like a scientist. Developing these IVEs requires a multi-disciplinary development team that consists of more than just software engineers. It requires content experts to provide the information needed to create the best and most interactive lessons possible. While some content experts have a strong interest in technology and are capable of working with the development environment directly, many are more interested in their fields of expertise and would prefer to leave the programming and technical details to others. This presents a logistical problem as the experts have to somehow transfer their knowledge to the programmers who encode it into the IVE. In order to increase productivity it is suggested that web based, content editors would alleviate this development bottleneck. These tools would need to be cross platform, accessible anywhere Internet is available and not require the installation of any special software. This paper describes the design and implementation of a principled set of tools; Bot Conversation Editors used to create agent conversations, Task Editors to create and manage player tasks, and Help Editors to manage educational content in in-game reference materials.