Paper Info
Title
Exploring embodied social presence of youth with Autism in 3D collaborative virtual learning environment: A case study.
Abstract
This case study explores the experience of embodied social presence while learning social competence of 11 youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The learning takes place in a series of 13 Naturalistic Practice (NP) learning activities which are part of a 3D Collaborative Virtual Learning Environment (CVLE)-iSocial. iSocial is a translation of a face-to-face clinic based curriculum, Social Competence Intervention-Adolescents (SCI-A), into a 3D CVLE for delivery over the Internet,. This study developed a direct-observation instrument that built upon the Embodied Social Presence (ESP) theory framework to describe youth with ASDs' embodied presence, embodied copresence and embodied social presence. The findings show that youth with ASD achieved embodied presence and embodied copresence in almost all of the NP activities. However, they achieved embodied social presence in only a handful of NP activities. From comparisons between the learning activities that had high or low percentages of achieving ESP, the results indicate associations of design features (narratives, choosing roles, fantasy settings and ease of use of learning tools) with having a higher percentage of youth achieve embodied social presence. Furthermore, the work of this study provides a method for researchers interested in studying ESP and the results can inform future design decisions in the development 3D CVLE and the structure of learning activities within the 3D CVLE.
Year
DOI
Venue
2016
10.1016/j.chb.2015.09.006
Computers in Human Behavior
Keywords
DocType
Volume
3D collaborative virtual learning environment,Autism,Design,Collaboration learning,Social presence
Journal
55
ISSN
Citations 
PageRank 
0747-5632
2
0.39
References 
Authors
24
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Xianhui Wang120.39
James M. Laffey216119.89
Wanli Xing3648.28
Yanfei Ma451.10
Janine Stichter5183.57