VRprofessor

Trinity Yazimoto wrote: THIS ^^ on top i d like to say that they are not asking for any secret defense thing, just random questions that i could answer to anyone... on top too... i think we are not the survey asker's teacher to tell him/her how s/he has to do her/his survey. I start thinking this person is as respectable as i am and so s/he has well understood what was asking her/his teacher. If not, its not my problem.. If the person hasnt the good way according HER/HIS teacher, i dont mind.. s/he will fail her work and im not here for judging this. And certainly not either to judge what her/his teacher have asked her/him to do and how s/he had to do it. I dont feel like a lab rat at all... i fill some when im likely to do them, i avoid some other when im not in mood for this or i dont like the way the question are asked. But this end here.. My role is not to judge, because, IM NOT THE TEACHER WHO HAVE ASKED THE STUDENT FOR THIS SURVEY. Sounds like some think they are more teacher than the one of the person who asked the survey... I think this is a really pedantic attitude. If you dont like the way the survey is done, i suggest to these ones to contact directly the teacher and discuss with him/her about how a survey has to be done... But the student cant change the way the teacher have asked to do just because some pp in the SL forum think the teacher is a lame... Asking pp to go inworld and ask they survey there is just irrealist.... Sounds like the persons who give this advice are not inworld often... Inworld pp are here for acting, moving, dancing, exploring and tons of others things.... a forum is a place where we come with more peace, it has the advantage of the hindsight... You can write, make corrections, post, edit , repost... nothing compares with inworld chat. And usually, the one who do the survey doesnt have to experiment the subject of the survey but be an observator... The great thing, is that no one is forced to answer any survey... But jumping on evey survey asker saying his/her work is **bleep** as something to see with a big lack of education and politeness imho... and also it display intolerance... And not to mention when its about ranting on pp who answered the survey. Evans recently published two well done papers based in large part on survey's with participants recruited in world. My understanding is that it took several months for him to gather the data and I first became aware of his work when someone passed me a copy of his notecard asking for participants. I'm sure others have done similar good work as well, Evans is just the one I am aware of. As suggested in my previous post most of the surveys we see linked on the message board are not actually associated with a professor's instructions. These are the result of students making a last minute effort to salvage some sort of grade on their paper. The typical undergraduate research paper involves going to the library to find, read, and synthesize the material that is already available. If the survey is based on following the instructor's directions, criticism is still fair. If you check university recruiting materials the latest trend is "undergraduate research opportunities." Faculty are being "encouraged" to engage relatively large numbers of undergraduate students in research activities--often more students than can be properly supervised or instructed. By providing supplemental instruction you help the student.

Charolotte Caxton wrote: I wonder, if a student at a real University had to do a research paper on what the living conditions and social impact of a World Health Organization doctor practicing in Cambodia entailed, would they be told they must first get a PhD and then go live there as a doctor for two years, or would it be ok for them to ask doctors who had been doing it for two years already themselves? Good point and a fair question. The undergraduate student will certainly be asked to hit the library and gather up a reasonable fraction of the information available and base their report on that information. Only after the student has developed a reasonable understanding of the topic from previous work would the notion of a survey or ethnographic interviews even be considered. If the nature of the course were such that a survey is reasonable it would almost certainly require instructor approval and would certainly require that the student meet institutional requirements for human subjects protection. The undergraduates who post their surveys here routinely show signs of having skipped the library altogether. They are asking questions that are generally widely addressed in published sources that are easily available in their library. Someone else mentioned spelling and grammatical errors which is sloppy at best and the sign of a last minute desperation effort to pull something out of their backside before the paper is due tomorrow at worst. Basically a majority of the undergraduate surveys posted show signs of being laziness on the part of the student and people are right to call them on it. If one of my lazy students came to me and complained about the treatment they were receiving for posting a survey on a message board we would have what is often called a "teachable moment." It is sad that all the lazy students ruin it for the ones who have put in some effort.

trixp wrote: Fair enough! Just to clarify I'm not doing research funded through the university. This is for my own personal interest and to insite discussion with peers in an upper year anthropology class. Although I am writing a short "ethnography" for this class my intention isn't solely to disseminate gendered identities on SL. I mostly wanted to instigate conversation with other RPG players and to see how they felt about it. Because it is online, ethics get a little bit blurred. The internet is an anonymous space so ethical issues like age and cognisense can't really be judged unless you choose to tell me (the entire point of my research). Online does not change the ethics requirement or make them "blurry." Please see your university's research compliance page. Doesn't matter whether your research is funded or not. Doesn't matter what the purpose is (class discussion, thesis, published paper, etc) you are under the auspices of the research compliance office at your university.

WolfBaginski Bearsfoot wrote: This all looks a bit sub-standard in the area of research ethics. OK, I'm not inclined to click on any links to on-line surveys, and I'm not likely to answer this particular sort of question (clue: my AV is not human anyway), but I really don't know if you're who you claim you are, and that's a big obstacle. And "a short survey on Google" doesn't give me any confidence that this is proper academic work. Student should see: http://oor.concordia.ca/services/researchethicsandcompliance/

There is no solution to the bias inherant in an online survey, although a surprisingly large number of folks accept them as reasonable. There is an option for those who want to support the random undergraduates: Create a survey database of sorts. Even with biased data there is a lot of stuff for the undergraduate to learn from data gathered "in the wild." I often complain about students gathering data without proper IRB approval (and am glad to see I am not the only one). Others object to poorly worded questions or other issues. If a large survey database existed students could be directed to the database in order to "gather data" for their papers. I'm not explaining this very well, too close to the weekend I guess. If you are curious feel free to ask questions so I can clarify.

You might also want to contact the Second Life Educators Discussion group. Not sure exactly what you are looking to develop, but there are campuses that exist on SL already along with some research on the immersiveness of education in SL. No need to re-invent the wheel. I can probably save you some money on developing a sim...visit the campus that should be linked at the bottom of this post to see one vision of what a SL campus can look like. I've glanced at some of the research in this area--enough to know that the results are mixed. Some things work well in SL, other things--not so much.

I would start with a video card..not only are you going to get the biggest improvement, you can move the graphics card to a new computer when you get around to upgrading. the GTX 550 ti is a fine card and not overly expensive as graphics cards go--definitely the way to go if finances are constrained. If your delay in getting a new computer is non-financial, I went from the 550 to a GTX 660 a few months ago...it was an upgrade, but not nearly as much of an upgrade as I expected. Still, overall, I am am glad I spent the money and went with the 660. (Note, I have a dual monitor system--with a single monitor system I am not sure the change from 550 to 660 would have mattered enough to justify the extra expense.) I like upgrading RAM for any excuse...I'm stuck on having at least 8gb whenever I can. Not sure if it really matters, but I like it. Depending on the MB you may or may not be able to find an appropriate CPU upgrade. I wanted to upgrade the CPU in my old computer but the socket type I needed was obsolete by the time I started looking. Just taking a quick look @ newegg I think you may find yourself having the same problem.

For those who are willing to participate OP is required to provide you with some basic information before asking you to answer any questions. Basic among those is the name of the institution where the research is being conducted, the name and contact information for a person at that institution that you can contact if you have concerns about the research, and a statement that says you may with draw from the research at any time if you feel uncomfortable. Most students running off to conduct online research in support of a paper for class are unaware that they are required to obtain institutional approval for research with human subjects or risk sanctions from their institution.

ebi Loudwater wrote: Sorry for the use of an inappropriate reference to the community and sorry for not introducing myself. I'm a psychology major in University of Saint Thomas,Houston and im currently working on this research to find out how the personalities of adolescents and people in general correlates with their personalities in virtual communities. I'm not new in SL. I have been here for a while but im not always online. I have met a view young adolescents here and that's why i put the age range from 10-20. so sorry again for the inappropriate reference to the Second Life Community. thank you. plus i have changed a view things in the questionnaire. thanks. Go to your professor and tell them you got grief from some guy on the internet for not having IRB approval for research on human subjects. This is an ethical (and legal) requirement of all such research--especially since you are targeting minors with your research. For individuals ages 10 - 17 you need parental consent to administer a survey. For your campus you can find more information at: http://www.stthom.edu/Offices_Services/Offices/VPAA/For_Faculty/Human_Subject_Committee.aqf

jwenting wrote: and another "student" wants to "study" second life through an "anonymous online survey". Didn't your teachers tell you anything about being a) original, b) ensuring reliable results? a) you're certainly not. There's hundreds of you every year b) you're also not as online surveys are never reliable, the selection process is way too biassed. Correct, but.... If this is undergraduate research the focus is much more likely on learning about the process than on orginality. For such a goal a proper random sample isn't strictly speaking necessary. One poster mentioned learning about statistical processes from such data, a valuable contribution to the student's education. If this is graduate research then both your objections are spot on.

Marybeth Cooperstone wrote: <snip> . However, w hen Iwas an undergraduate at a major US university I had to conduct surveys (stopping people in public with a clipboard in hand) to ask such things as if they preferred chocolate or vanilla and if they were male or female. Then I would do correlation analysis and calculate confidence, etc. This was so I would learn about statistics and analysis of data. It was very worthwhile. No one cared about flavor preference, but teaching us about data analysis, significance, confidence, etc. was important. If you were experimenting on people, with even a small risk to them, there are ethical considerations such as informed consent, are the dangers justified by the value of what is learned, etc. But not for simple, voluntary surveys. Marybeth Ethical requirements have been growing increasingly stringent over the past few decades. It was once common to do as you describe. It was highly recommended as a good teaching practice for statistics. I am sure that some folks still do send students out to conduct unapproved surveys--but the rules in the US no longer allow for such things unless they have been approved by an appropriate university official or committee. Simple voluntary surveys conducted by colleges and universities (including those conducted by students) are required to meet federal ethical guidelines for subject protection, including informed consent, even for a relatively harmless survey. Many people are surprised to learn that the rules are so strict. At many universities, mine included, students would first need to pass an research ethics course before being allowed to administer a survey or in any way have contact with research participants. They cannot even hand out someone else's survey unless they have passed the ethics class first. (Faculty take a more rigorous version of the course and must re-take it every three years to remain eligible to conduct research with human subjects.)

In the U.S. a survey that has institutional approval has some sort of a statement at the beginning of the survey indicating, among other things, that the survey has been approved by an appropriate institutional board and that completing the survey indicates the respondents consent to participate. The UK may have different requirements, but my reading of section 10.3 suggests that the researcher is obligated to tell the participant several things: "Participants should be given an information sheet which outlines in layman’s terms the purpose of the research, potential hazards, any discomfort participation may entail, emphasise the right to withdraw from the study, state their rights under the Freedom of Information and Data Protection Acts, provide researcher contact details and outline the complaints procedure"In the US this information would typically appear on the survey before any questions have been asked and it appears UK requirements are similar to the US. The signature would indeed appear to be optional, (Yes, section 10.7 clarifies that completion qualifies as consent for a survey). I love research and data analysis. I love that students are interested enough to make an effort to learn something. But being a student does not excuse one from following proper research procedures. Depending on the institution this could result in a slap on the wrist (most likely) or an expulsion from school (unlikely, but possible) "5.3 Failure to conduct research in accordance with the RECP may result in the loss of funding support, withdrawal or failure of degree awards, personal disciplinary or legal action taken against the researcher, supervisors or the University."This isn't me just being a trouble maker, if the student has failed to follow ethical procedure they are in danger of derailing their academic career. Again, most likely just a slap on the wrist for this one, but still...Better some curmudgeon on the internet than a University official pointing this out--I can't impose sanctions.

http://portal.bournemouth.ac.uk/sites/Policies%20Procedures%20and%20Regulations/Shared%20Documents/Research%20Ethics%20Code%20of%20Practice%20Sept%202009.pdf In particular see section 10 regarding informed consent.

Definitely change your sun location settings to midday--no matter what time of day you are on. Many of the newbie friendly spots (e.g., NCI, Helping Haven, virtual classroom) have changing rooms available if you are uncomfortable changing out in the open at a sandbox. You can also use the search function to look for changing rooms. There is at least one sim with a dozen or more.

So they are sending folks to random RP sims before those folks even have a clue about what they are doing? I stumbled onto an orientation island when I was new and found it mostly helpful. The landing point was populated with older avis (8 - 10 of them) that seemed to be engaged in their own conversations and largely ignored the newbs arriving. That was a bit off-putting, but not harmful. There are also a handful of private welcome areas. Caledon was mentioned, there are others--some with folks almost like anxious puppies when a real newbie shows up. That can be intimidating in its own right, but better than dropping them on a sim where someone starts screaming at them. There are people who design orientation things for a living. SL should look at sinking some $ into hiring a couple and get the initial experience designed to maximize retention. Not everyone will stay in SL. Many who stay will be transients, moving on after a few weeks or months, but if more people spend more time in SL that has to mean more money for LL. Or am I missing something?

Melita Magic wrote: . But research shouldn't that leave some room for the unexpected? Rather than trying to bend fact to support a preconceived opinion? A reasonable question, let's see if the verbal part of my brain is working well enough to answer. Any time we are challenging a prior belief we have the expectation that our research is going to show something contrary to prior belief. (The prior belief can be an existing scientific theory or someone's whimsical common sense.) In some cases the prior belief we are challenging is best thought of as ignorance or the absense of knowledge, so we may well have no prior expectation beyond a belief that there is something to find. In many cases it is the expectation that we will overturn or extend prior knowledge that justifies the research effort in the first place. Without such an expectation the research wouldn't get done. However, as you correctly point out, the researcher must work very hard to avoid biasing (bending) the research to a specific prior expectation. The practice of guarding against bias is part of the training that researchers are supposed to receive. A good researcher knows which outcomes are most likely, but they also exercise care against forcing their results to match that specific expectation. Failure to avoid such bias, and there are certainly examples of such failure, can be a very real problem. So, yes, the researcher should always leave room for the unexpected, even though most research begins with some expectation(s). Did that make any sense?

16 wrote: VRprofessor wrote: i think that you seeing this only from your pov as a professor. student dont see it the way you describe hardly at all ever + <snip for bandwidth> so like i say. just find/get some facts to fit the topic/argument and write it up that way. and get the mark Sadly far too many students do exactly as you describe. But it is normal human behavior to seek evidence of our pre-selected answer (and a good deal of academic training uses this fact to teach students stuff that is already known). That makes the behavior completely expected. I was just pointing out the difference between having a prior expectation for research findings and introducing those expectations into the research because someone asked about the appropriateness of prior expectations.

Melita Magic wrote: Shouldn't a good study have NO preconceived notions? Quote: " My argument questions weather successful brands from the virtual world of second life can transfer and succeed into the real world with the differences in emotional values and equity compared to a real world brand. The questions you answer here will help back it up. " Having expectations is one of the driving forces behind research so that isn't a problem unless the researcher (usually unintentionally) biases their findings in the direction they expect. This is why whenever possible folks participating in research and those dealing directly with them are kept ignorant about specific details of the study while data collection is in progress. Makes it hard to bias the results if you don't know what is expected. What is problematic is that the researcher appears to be telling those they hope to recruit as participants what the expected outcomes of the study are. This could result in people who disagree with the researcher's expectation to refuse to participate. It could also result in those who do participate choosing answers slightly in favor of the researcher's expecations.

Nemia Nuyasaka wrote: Well! I have to say. I apologise if I've offended anyone here. I came here with respect but I have to say the 'professor' did test my nerve. If I wanted advice on how to conduct fieldwork, I'm certainly not going to be coming here or any online forum for that matter. That just doesn't make any sense. I guess my original post may have lacked some detail, I was trying to keep it simple and just start a friendly discussion with anyone willing to take part. Nemia (girl!) I am delighted that you are much better prepared than most who show up here. But I am still confused as to why my comments tested your nerve. You clearly have some schooling in methodology. Presumably someone is supervising your research. You should have already heard most of what I said from your own professors. Why is hearing it again so offensive? Were you offended that someone underestimated your knowledge and the degree of progress you had already made? I certainly know how that feels.

Melita Magic wrote: . What else could explain it? Or have universities realy become that lame? There are multiple forces at work. One is that a number of well meaning folks have been pushing for more undergraduate research in univerisities. With proper resources conducting research is a tremendous educational opportunity for the student. When proper resources are not availble you get a lot of bad research. I am certainly of the opinion that a large number of universities do not provide adequate resources for quality student experiences. There are other issues as well, but the main point is that there is a noble goal, it is just not being realized in practice.

Perrie Juran wrote: The Professor stuck his nose in with out knowing all the facts and there is nothing wrong with calling him on the carpet for it.. True. But in my defense the OP presented themselves in a manner that is consistent with the facts that I inferred. And jumping to conclusions is very common on messages boards. For instance those who feel that my motives are sinister are simply wrong. My life's work is helping people improve the quality of their research. Granted that in the pursuit of that goal I can sometimes be insensitive to people's feelings. This is especially problematic on message boards where there is a certain amount of guessing about people's backgrounds and time constraints. If I was abrupt it is because I guessed that the student had only a few weeks (perhaps only days) to complete the project. A project which, based on the information iniitially provided, appeared to be in the planning stages. Under those circumstances there is no time to query the student about anything--they need to be pointed in the correct direction ASAP. It wasn't until the OP questioned my santity for lumping them with the majority that we learned that they apparently have been at this for a while. I am delighted to learn this and, had the OP not called me names, I would have been inclined, with the situation clarified, to engage in the sort of conversation they claimed to desire.

Phil Deakins wrote: Just out of interest:- The OP was extremely polite - the most polite introduction to a study that I've ever seen here. He did not merit getting picked to pieces, which the self-called professor did. And you find fault with me getting on his back about it? He deserved much worse than I gave him, but it would have been against the ToS. You are welcome to your opinions, but not your own facts. My criticisms were fairly gentle and intented to point the OP in the direction of conducting proper research. There was nothing in my post that was impolite. I still see no basis for your anger at me. Why is pointing a student in the direction of proper methodology a bad thing? Wouldn't you prefer that whatever project they are working on turn out well rather than as a piece of garbage? How does anyone learn if their errors are not pointed out. You seem to feel I made some errors. Please explain them to me. I am sure that you can do so without violating the ToS.

Phil Deakins wrote: I don't get the need to jump on people who post a research. When you think about it, how else would a person get people's opinions in a reasonably short space of time? They have to ask the questions somewhere, and where is better than a place where users congregate? When they post, they don't know that, to appease some people here, they have to include the magic words, "I've spent the last 2 weeks solid in SL, learning how it works etc." or something like that. When research is properly presented I do ignore it. There have been several posts that link to surveys with proper informed consent indicating that the questionnaires are part of an approved project and I am typically silent on those projects. Quite simply I am a big fan of research. I love research. Research is the most fun you can legally have with your clothes on. But research is a process and many of the students who show up on this message board are trying to by-pass the process and jump to the end of the line. This is especially problematic in an era where there is a growing emphasis on undergraduate research without a corresponding emphasis on how to properly conduct research. Another poster pointed out that SL folks in general, and this message board specifically, are heavily studied populations. Generally overstudied populations have a tendency to become hostile toward unaffiliated researchers. This was true before the internet was invented and continues to be true, and highly visible, in the internet era.

Phil Deakins wrote: I'm especially amazed at the person who calls himself a professor. He may be one but he doesn't behave like one. He should be ashamed of himself as he gives the teaching profession a bad name. Why do you and OP feel that I have misbehaved? What did I do that was inappropriate? A person claiming to be a graduate student appears on the message board claiming to be doing graduate work and wants to ask some questions that appear to be intended to accomplish the work. Such an approach is clearly well below professional standards and fails to meet professional ethics (research participants should be provided with informed consent). I called the individual on those shortcomings. That same person comes back provides additional information to which I responded by providing specific advice on how to go about conducting their research. A very helpful suggestion and I hope OP gets a second opinion on the exchage from one of their professors if they feel it was patronizing. Given the information provided the advice was accurate. Their response is to call me names and question my sanity for assuming that they had not read anything or completed any prior research. Yet the nature of their posts gives no indication that they have done prior research. If I am guilty of anything it is of being unable to read the mind of someone on another continent. The OP now, finally, clarifies that they have basically completed their research and are just hoping to have some sort of personally enriching discussion. Such a discussion is fine with me, but the OP should have been clear that that was what they were seeking. They didn't. So, other than failing to read OP's mind and infer all sorts of information that was not so much as hinted at in any of their posts, what did I do wrong?

Nemia Nuyasaka wrote: Ok people. I'm just saying if people who want to contribute, they can. I'm interested in your opinions and yes, like most anthropology students I haven't been to the hundreds of places we write about, I haven't experienced the issues first-hand. Sadly there is just not the time, money or resources to do this. Most students will have the luxury of picking just one topic to do proper some fieldwork on, which I will during the summer. This will entail some limited participant-observation (seeing that we have 3 months and this requires a least a year). Thanks for your comments professor. I am fully aware of everything you have stated, I am writing a simple piece of coursework not a fully blown piece of published research. We ae encouraged (unlike a lot of institutions) to go out, ask, questions and investigate. We are of course all aware that this cannot and does not in anyway constitute participant-observation and I never claimed it does. Hmmm, how interesting. Why would you think that being encouraged to "...go out, ask, questions and investigate." would be unique to your institution? This is very much what I encourage my students to do and expect that it is fairly common among college faculty world wide. I want very much for my students to explore the world, ask questions about the world, and learn how to investigate those questions in order to arrive at some sort of an answer. None of that involves asking people anything on a message board. It involves reading and thinking about what is already out there. This message board has thousands of words already written by residents who have strong opinions (and counter-opinions) about Linden Lab (or whatever it is called these days). Go and read, investigate what people are already saying--you don't need to ask anyone to go read archieves. As you read you can ask yourself questions about, and formulate tentative answers to, any number of topics that may come into your head as you read. Some of those questions will be answered as you continue reading, some will not. Once you are done with this message board there is another, as well as a dozen or so blogs and the consumer information stuff that is posted by Linden Lab itself. There are certainly papers on the economics of SL which may inform your general topic area. From your comments it sounds as if perhaps you are being encouraged to begin defining a research area. If so, my instructions are spot on. You do that by learning what has been done and what needs to be done, or by noticing something interesting that no one in your field has gotten around to looking at yet. You don't need to spend even one second in SL to find this material. And your expenses are minimal. Nemia Nuyasaka wrote: Maybe I should research message board communities instead? Now that would be interesting... Anyway, thank you all for your contributions. I really do appreciate it but I'll leave this for now. I can see where this is going. Thanks. It is indeed an interesting topic. I have only read enough to know that there is a body of work out there on the topic. But you can go find the work that has been done, read it, digest it, and impress your professor with how much you have learned.