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Collaborative virtual environment (CVE)-based teamwork training offers a promising avenue for inclusive teamwork training. The incorporation of a feedback mechanism within virtual training environments can enhance the training experience by scaffolding learning and promoting active collaboration. However, an effective feedback mechanism requires a robust prediction model of collaborative behaviors. This paper presents a novel approach using hidden Markov models (HMMs) to predict human behavior in collaborative interactions based on multimodal signals collected from a CVE-based teamwork training simulator. The HMM was trained using k-fold cross-validation, achieving an accuracy of 97.77%. The HMM was evaluated against expert-labeled data and compared against a rule-based prediction model, demonstrating the superior predictive capabilities of the HMM, with the HMM achieving 90.59% accuracy compared to 76.53% for the rule-based model. These results highlight the potential of HMMs to predict collaborative behaviors that could be used in a feedback mechanism to enhance teamwork training experiences despite the complexity of these behaviors. This research contributes to advancing inclusive and supportive virtual learning environments, bridging gaps in cross-neurotype collaborations.

Synchronous collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) allow distributed teams to interact and work. CVEs afford a sense of presence, or "being there" in the workspace, as well as the opportunity to "do there" via interactions within the environment. However, there has been limited empirical evidence to support the link of presence and team performance, especially for CVE work. We identified multiple dimensions of presence that reflect relationships known to be essential to collaborative work and conducted a CVE experiment with 80 teams. Our results suggest certain aspects of presence are more important than others in driving virtual team performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thesis supervision is a crucial teaching activity in higher education that plays a vital role in assisting students in completing their studies. The outbreak of COVID-19 has necessitated the transitionto remote, synchronous interactions for supervising academic papers. However, existing tools for conducting these remote sessions often fall short of meeting the requirements of both teachers and students. This paper focuses on an investigation into the utilization of virtual reality (VR) technology for conducting remote thesis supervision meetings at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), a Sino-British institution located in Suzhou, China. Through a year-long qualitative inquiry involving two teachers and five students who participated in the project both in Liverpool and Suzhou, this research examines how actual collaborative work is conducted during remote supervision via a research-developed tool. The results of this study emphasize the need for improvements in the current design to better align with the practical requirements of teachers and students during such meetings. Furthermore, this research provides insights into the design considerations for VR applications tailored to specific use cases and offers a set of implementation details to guide the development of VR-based remote collaboration tools for thesis supervision meetings.

Virtual simulation environments are widely used to test autonomous driving software by creating highly complex driving scenarios that are non-trivial to set up in a physical environment. However, the current practice of using the virtual test still does not fully utilize its potential to build a much larger scale test. We propose a perspective and research vision to build a large-scale test architecture in which participants collaboratively construct, execute and analyze complex test scenarios at scale in the virtual world. In particular, the architectural concept is built on the existing concept of the Collaborative Virtual Environment (CVE) that has been successfully applied in other domains, such as entertainment or military training applications. The proposed domain-specific architectural requirements extend the CVE to include the following necessary properties - selective sharing and collaboration - to test autonomous driving software. In addition, the test architectural concept is explained as to how a large number of participants interact with each other collaboratively to build and execute diverse test scenarios at scale. Finally, we explain the new research directions to make this test architectural concept realized for testing autonomous driving software.

Autistic adults possess many skills sought by employers, but may be at a disadvantage in the workplace if social-communication differences negatively impact teamwork. We present a novel collaborative virtual reality (VR)-based activities simulator, called ViRCAS, that allows autistic and neurotypical adults to work together in a shared virtual space, offering the chance to practice teamwork and assess progress. ViRCAS has three main contributions: 1) a new collaborative teamwork skills practice platform; 2) a stakeholder-driven collaborative task set with embedded collaboration strategies; and 3) a framework for multimodal data analysis to assess skills. Our feasibility study with 12 participant pairs showed preliminary acceptance of ViRCAS, a positive impact of the collaborative tasks on supported teamwork skills practice for autistic and neurotypical individuals, and promising potential to quantitatively assess collaboration through multimodal data analysis. The current work paves the way for longitudinal studies that will assess whether the collaborative teamwork skill practice that ViRCAS provides also contributes towards improved task performance.

Background: While research on Virtual Reality’s potential for education continues to advance, research on its support for Collaborative Learning is small in scope. With remote collaboration and distance learning becoming increasingly relevant for education (especially since the COVID-19 pandemic), an understanding of Virtual Reality’s potential for Collaborative Learning is of importance. To establish how this immersive technology can support and enhance collaboration between learners, this systematic literature review analyses scientific research on Virtual Reality for Collaborative Learning with the intention to identify 1) skills and competences trained, 2) domains and disciplines addressed, 3) systems used and 4) empirical knowledge established.Method: Two scientific databases—Scopus and Web of Science—were used for this review. Following the PRISMA method, a total of 139 articles were analyzed. Reliability of this selection process was assessed using five additional coders. A taxonomy was used to classify these articles. Another coder was used to assess the reliability of the primary coder before this taxonomy was applied to the selected articlesResults: Based on the literature reviewed, skills and competences developed are divided into five categories. Educational fields and domains seem interested in Virtual Reality for Collaborative Learning because of a need for innovation, communities and remote socialization and collaboration between learners. Systems primarily use monitor-based Virtual Reality and mouse-and-keyboard controls. A general optimism is visible regarding the use of Virtual Reality to support and enhance Collaborative LearningConclusion: Five distinct affordances of Virtual Reality for Collaborative Learning are identified: it 1) is an efficient tool to engage and motivate learners, 2) supports distance learning and remote collaboration, 3) provides multi- and interdisciplinary spaces for both learning and collaborating, 4) helps develop social skills and 5) suits Collaborative Learning-related paradigms and approaches. Overall, the reviewed literature suggests Virtual Reality to be an effective tool for the support and enhancement of Collaborative Learning, though further research is necessary to establish pedagogies.

Motivated by the unique experience of creating three-dimensional artworks in virtual reality (VR) and the need for teletherapy due to the global pandemic, we conducted this pilot case study to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of using a custom-designed collaborative virtual environment (CVE) to enable remote arts therapy. Three participants (two females and one male) experiencing moderate to high stress as measured by the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) joined this study. Each participant had eight 45-minute one-on-one sessions with the therapist for eight consecutive weeks. These eight sessions covered eight art creation themes and were delivered following pre-designed protocols. The CVE was the only medium to facilitate the sessions, during which the therapist and the participants were physically separated into two rooms. The quantitative and qualitative results suggested that the CVE-enabled approach was generally feasible and was welcomed by both the participants and the therapist. However, more evidence of the approach’s effectiveness in enhancing the participants’ mental wellbeing is needed because the results of the pilot case study were affected by the pandemic. The advantages and disadvantages of this approach and the CVE were investigated from practicality and technological affordance perspectives. Potential improvements to the CVE are also proposed to better facilitate the practice of remote arts therapy in CVE. We encourage future studies to cautiously investigate CVE-enabled remote arts therapy in clinical settings and collect more evidence regarding its effectiveness in addressing clinically diagnosed mental disorders and other complications.