Abstract:

Online learning in higher education has, until most recently, been delivered primarily through learning management systems (LMS) such as BlackBoard, Moodle, and others. However, responding to budgetary concerns and burgeoning enrollments, delivery of online learning via multiple open source (free) formats, is quickly becoming an attractive and inexpensive option for online distance and learning programs. Multi-user virtual environments, or MUVEs, are one such option that provides an interactive and socially-rich learning experience for learners. In this chapter, the authors propose a dually-fused pedagogical framework that, when used together, have the potential to provide both asynchronous and synchronous online learning activities that elicit critical thinking skills and that also align with additional skills twenty-first century learners and instructors need to compete in today’s global society.

Keywords:

Virtual environments, Community of Inquiry, Bloom's Revised Taxonomy.