BOONE—A three-dimensional computer environment created by Appalachian State University professors has received the 2006 Campus Technology Innovators Award from Campus Technology Magazine.

The program, called Appalachian Education Technology Zone or AET Zone, was designed to enhance online learning. It is used by hundreds of master’s degree students enrolled in Appalachian’s instructional technology, library science, educational leadership, and curriculum and instruction programs.

Offering courses online isn’t new for Appalachian, but professors Richard Riedl, John Tashner and Stephen Bronack knew the typical Web-based options lacked an important component of learning.

“We were concerned that the planned and serendipitous interactions among students and faculty weren’t there,” Riedl said. “We wanted to do more than just push content.”

Riedl, Tashner and Bronack teach in the Reich College of Education’s Department of Leadership and Educational Studies.

Through the use of animated figures, AET Zone gives a face and voice to students who are working on assignments, attending class or conferring with their professor.

The program, created with software from the Massachusetts company Activeworlds, delivers real-time, interactive 3-D content over the Web.

Students using AET Zone select a figure called an avatar from a variety of menu options. That figure becomes their online identity. By using simple commands, the figure navigates a 3-D environment that looks very much like a college campus, such as commons or plaza area, classrooms, library, coffee shop, alumni and student services center. It also has areas that don’t look like anything college, such as a wild west scene.

Students can “chat” with each other by typing messages, or if their computer is equipped with a microphone, have conversations though VOIP, or Voice-Over-Internet Protocol software. And because AET Zone uses very little bandwidth, it can operate over dial-up connections through a telephone modem.

Students from Mexico and Australia are among the international students collaborating with their peers and professors at Appalachian. Others are in North Carolina locations such as Winston-Salem, Lenoir, Marion, Shelby and Yadkinville.

The program is easy to use.

“They love it,” Riedl said of students using the virtual campus. “The students had a few trepidations when we first introduced the program, but now, they can’t imagine not learning this way. Most of the students had taken other online courses before, but AET Zone allows them to meet and make friends though the system.”

Most of the students enrolled in the master’s degree programs using AET Zone arer public school teachers. Since AET Zone is a virtual world, they aren’t bound by set schedules imposed by their job, family obligations or other activities.

“We find that a lot of people will get online during the day if they have a break in classes, but most of our activity happens in the evening and later at night as people explore or set up meetings with teammates,” Riedl said.

The students often seek help from librarians who specialize in assisting those enrolled in Appalachian’s distance education classes.

Geri Purpur is a distance education librarian in Appalachian’s Belk Library and Information Commons. She and other librarians are available during evening hours to assist students using AET Zone.

“Usually our first contact with the students is made in the virtual library,” Purpur said. She gives tours of the virtual library by using her avatar to show and explain the library’s offerings.

“We have a toll free number for the students in the distance education classes and an e-mail reference service. But it’s great when we are in the virtual library and can help them right on the spot,” Purpur said.

Since most of the students are working professionals, the virtual library is staffed from 7-9 p.m. four nights a week.

“With the virtual world, we can talk to and see each other in real time, which is a better interaction than through e-mail,” Purpur said. “I have seen students meeting in their virtual classrooms, having discussions and learning from one another as if it were their physical selves interacting,” Purpur said. “This is great for distance learning. We can use the virtual world and be miles from each other, but still have the same camaraderie as in classroom sitting face to face.”

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Photo caption: A virtual online campus created by professors at Appalachian State University has won a Campus Technology Innovators Award. The virtual campus allows master’s degree students enrolled in online education courses to interact “face to face” with students, professors, librarians and others from their computer.