2019-04, Nussli, Natalie, Oh, Kevin, Cuadro, Nicole Michele, Kaye, Melisa, Yang, Kenneth C. C.

This chapter describes a study that was conducted in a semi-immersive desktop virtual reality environment. The study investigated teacher trainees' perceptions of their mental effort in Second Life, their satisfaction with the communication modalities, and their perceived social behavioral changes. In the first event, only the instructor (host) used voice to communicate while all participants as well as the in-text facilitator (co-host) used text chat only. In the second event, not only did both hosts use voice, but the participants also had the option to use voice rather than text. The majority of teacher trainees appreciated the freedom to choose either modality. The integration of voice was perceived as humanizing the discussion, increasing the flow, and making the conversation more engaging. However, the addition of multiple voices was believed to increase their mental effort. While some teacher trainees felt more relaxed and more open in a virtual discussion, others reported a lack of attention and honesty as well as a tendency to ignore social conventions.

2019-04, Nussli, Natalie, Guan, Yu, Oh, Kevin, Kyei-Blankson, Lydia, Blankson, Joseph, Ntuli, Esther

The purpose of this theoretical chapter is to identify strategies that help educators develop online learning curricula to meet the needs of culturally diverse students. The first part of this chapter offers insights into culturally responsive teaching (CRT) from multiple perspectives. Specifically, the authors explore the importance of CRT in teacher education programs, how to evaluate teachers' cultural competencies, how to initiate the transformation process into culturally responsive educators, how teachers perceive the value of CRT programs, what pre-service and novice teachers typically struggle with in their attempts to teach diverse student populations, and how students perceive cultural diversity. The second part of the chapter is dedicated to an in-depth discussion of practical approaches to developing culturally responsive online curricula for both 2D and 3D learning environments, how to prepare faculty to meet the needs of diverse students in online courses, and how to stimulate pre-service teachers' reflections on CRT.

2018-07, Nussli, Natalie, Oh, Kevin

This article focuses on developing guidelines for the effective facilitation of avatar-based group discussions. This qualitative inquiry is guided by an investigation of (1) social affordances of avatar-based discussions, with an emphasis on social and physical presence, (2) strategies to help establish rapport with other avatars, and (3) the complexities of communication modalities (voice vs. text) in avatar-based discussions. Guidelines for the effective moderation of avatar-based discussion groups are presented throughout the chapter, such as, creating a feeling of acceptance and non-judgment, communicating synchronously to support immediacy, demonstrating virtual sharing acts, using voice for humanized communication, showing social emotionality, and observing real-life social norms.