Open Competition 3 - Information Technology (September 2002)

Peer-to-Peer Virtual Reality Learning Environments

Sponsor: Whoola Inc.

• Project duration: 5/1/2004 - 4/30/2007
• Total project (est.): $2,149,300.00
• Requested ATP funds: $2,000,000.00

Computers and Internet connectivity are becoming common features in the nation's schools, driven by a firm belief in the educational potential of both, but there is widespread consensus that neither computers nor the Internet are being used as effectively as they could be in teaching. Much of the content remains simply paper textbooks converted to an electronic format. Some innovation has occurred in creating games with educational content, but the underlying learning models suffer from the same key failing - they tend to be single-user applications that isolate learners from their classmates and peers. Experience teaches that peer collaboration and interaction is not only an effective mechanism for helping students learn but also a valuable preparation for a working world that increasingly emphasizes collaboration. Whoola sees an answer to this problem in the peer-to-peer collaborative social software - Instant Messaging, for example - that has become overwhelmingly popular with today's technologically savvy schoolchildren. The company proposes to develop the core architecture for a broad range of educational software on the same model - largely decentralized peer-to-peer networks that support groups of students sharing a rich, immersive virtual reality (VR) through peer-to-peer communications, the VR environment changing and reacting to the actions of each individual. At a higher level, several of these peer-to-peer groups could interact with other groups on large projects so that the network could simulate, for example, a space station crew supported by a ground control station and a space shuttle crew, each crew made up of a group of students cooperatively making the decisions and taking the actions appropriate to their roles. Each student would interact with a VR environment tailored to their viewpoint and consistent with all the other viewpoints. Each student also would get guidance from additional computer-generated characters in the scenario that act as subject-matter experts, interact with the students, and tailor their help to each student's skill level. Such an architecture would create a rich and engaging learning environment that capitalizes on the peer group relationships that students naturally enjoy. This ambitious project faces significant technical challenges: the design of a scalable, secure P2P network capable of smoothly handling the large data rates associated with VR applications; developing the "bot" infrastructure, including the difficult task of assessing the student's need for bot assistance and providing the appropriate level of support; and developing a methodology to evaluate each student's level of performance in a collaborative and interactive environment. In addition to enabling a whole new class of educational materials, the new technology could lead to significant cost savings through more effective use of existing computer resources, reduction in content authoring costs, elimination of the need for multiple versions of the same content to meet different learning styles, and other efficiencies. Because of the huge size of the educational sector, even a modest increase in savings translates to tens of billions of dollars annually. The architecture also would be extremely well suited for industrial training programs, a $109 billion annual market. Prior well-known failures in the educational software market and the technical risks in developing this P2P architecture have made it impossible for Whoola, a small company, to secure funding without ATP support.

For project information:

Mr. Sidney M. Cole, (214) 202-8380
mc@whoola.com

ATP Project Manager

Omid Omidvar, (301) 975-4401
omid.omidvar@nist.gov