Integrating a Facebook Group with the Open Wonderland environment

Although broad research has been done on virtual learning environments and the role of communities in social networks, few studies exist which sufficiently support the relationship between these two domains. In this paper, the authors demonstrate the effectiveness of integrating these two environments by creating a novel prototype and conducting a preliminary pilot evaluation session. For the prototype system, a Facebook Group was utilised as a repository for learning content and the Open Wonderland platform was selected as a mixed reality intelligent environment for 3D virtual collaborative activities. Finally, this prototype was evaluated by means of a two-hour task-based assessment and user-satisfaction questionnaire.