Collaborative network-based virtual reality: the past, the present, and the future of the virtual solar system project

This paper and presentation describe theoretical and empirical foundations of an ongoing research and development effort to create a virtual reality environment in which students cohabitate, collaborate, and co-construct shared meanings of astronomical phenomena in an undergraduate introductory astronomy course. Initial versions of this environment addressed face-to-face and asynchronous methods of collaboration. The most recent iteration of our work, and the central focus of this paper, incorporates the use of advanced networking technologies to enable synchronous collaboration between students in two primary collaborative learning activities: co-construction and cohabitation of virtual models of the solar system. Co-construction refers to multiple students working together to construct a common virtual model. Co-habitation refers to the ability to simultaneously experience the same virtual model from either common or multiple perspectives. In the presentation, we hope to demonstrate this new software and share preliminary research findings with the conference attendees.