Associate Professor, Multimedia Program and Co-Director, Bradley University
New Media Center
Associate Professor, Communication
Bradley University
Peoria IL 61625
Global Communication Center 315
(309) 677-2378 ell@bradley.edu
AIM/IM: dredleelam
2nd Life: Professor Beliveau
office: via IM as needed

Introduction to Field Research Methods in Virtual Worlds: MM 333

Course Goals

The purposes include:

• For you to learn about virtual worlds/immersive environments, especially as social/community environments rather than as quest games.
• For you to learn a valuable and oft-use strategy/method for doing research (ethnographic field methods) that is often used in game design and software product testing, both on and off line.
• To prepare you with the skills to study a community of practice in Second Life
• To explore various ways Second Life can be used, for example, in business and distance education.

Requirements/Expectations

Grading
Quizes over texts and notes: 200
Student presentations: 100
Assignments/exercises: 300
Blog entries: 200
Final Paper: 200
Total----------------------------------------------1000* (final total could be more or less than 1,000)
A: 88.5%-100% B:88.4-78.5 C: 78.4-68.5 D: 68.4-58.5 F:<58.5

Texts :

Field Research: Strategies for a Natural Sociology (Paperback) 
by Leonard Schatzman, Anselm L. Strauss

Second Life: A Guide to Your Virtual World
by Brian A. White
We will only deal with chapters 1-5 in this book. However, the book is excellent; in my view it provides the best guide for additional SL activities. You'll want to read and work through the rest of the book to become proficient in SL.

Special Considerations

Your attendance during class time is required. Please limit multitasking and focus your attention and energy on class activities. During the term, some of the time will be spent on your own, doing assignments inworld. I may join you/supervise from time to time. Blog work is homework, to be done out of class time. In cases of Second Life failure, iChat or Skype will be substituted during class. First choice: iChat video; if we don't all have cameras, we'll use audio.

Our class may be visited, both in world and/or "over Ed's shoulder" by guests throughout the term. Please remain respectful and focused. If you want to bring friends/relatives to class, please ask Professor Beliveau/Ed first. Refer potential guests who are not close to you to Ed for clearance and scheduling.

We have a class e-mail alias <mm33301-ja@bumail.bradley.edu>. Please check it daily (if you forward your mail out of it, be sure to empty the BU box regularly). I deduct 25 points (I'll notify you) from your score total each time--after the first (I'll warn you of this one)-- that I get bounced mail because your box is full. There is a Sakai site for grades.

Protection of Human Subjects Procedures

HSP Procedures: Although we are not conducting formal research in MM 333, we will treat human subjects protection as though we are.

• Uphold LL/SL "community standards" in all contact with residents.
• Uphold LL/SL "terms of service" with regard to "conduct of users," IP rights, the DMCA, and other matters in the agreement.
• Create a HSP handout carried by every student as a notecard offered to any avatar who inquires as to the research work/researcher’s presence (model attached at link).
• Maintain subject confidentiality in data management (coded names, etc) from informal conversations.
• Do not copy and save transcripts of talk from avatars with whom you have not gotten permission (and who haven’t been given an HSP handout).
• Do not use camera controls to see through objects and into spaces where you are not co-present with the subjects.
• Ed will review the student blogs regularly to catch any “beginners’” mistakes that might compromise subject protections.
• Block out avatar names and faces in cases of publishing photos of subjects without their permission.
• Copy of final papers posted to your blogs.
  
  
  • Association of Internet Researchers ethical research document
    www.aoir.org/reports/ethics.pdf
  • Sample class FAQ (Aaron Delwiche at Trinity) http://www.trinity.edu/adelwich/mmo/faq.html
  • Bradley CUHSR materials
    http://cuhsr.bradley.edu/
• Class Research Ethics FAQ
  
• The Belmont Report

Policy regarding student absence due to an illness:
When missing classes and related assignments due to an illness, it is the student's responsibility to provide a document issued by a medical authority to verify the student's absence due to illness, unless the Office of the Associate Provost for Student Affairs informs an instructor of the basis for the student's absence. Instructors will not call the Health Center or any other source to verify the student's reason for absence. Verification does not excuse the student from assigned work.

Policy regarding e-mail communication about grades:
As a matter of the Multimedia Program policy to protect student privacy and in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, questions and concerns regarding grades must be presented in person or in a written letter. Instructors will not respond to questions and concerns communicated through e-mail or telephone calls regarding grades.

Flexible Schedule [may be revised with notice] Note: The official schedule includes two Saturdays. We will probably find a time during the day for those meetings rather than the usual evening hours.

Prior to 1/1/09: you must log on to Second Life, establish an account (free is ok; recommend that you give credit card information if you can); create an avatar and send me an IM, inworld before noon 1/2/09 so that I can send you a landmark for the classroom).We recommend entry via the NMC portal. Join the NMC SL group at that time. If you entered otherwise, go to the NMC webpage and join the NMC group.<http://sl.nmc.org/join/> You will be added to the Bradley University group in SL. I will offer you friendship and membership in my fan group (the Professor's Posse). Accept my friendship; Posse membership is optional. If at any time you decide to upgrade our account from basic to premium, please use this link so that I get credit for the referral. Thanks

1/5 class 1
In Class: Introduce our avatars. Communication in SL. Introduction to Second Life and Field Research Methods/Ethnography. Examine some previous student work in this area.
For future class: Read Chapters 1-2 of Second Life: A Guide to Your Virtual World. Visit the Research Methods WWW tutorial and familiarize yourself with the 4 sections: What are research methods? Common errors made in research. Some early steps in research. Variables and relationships. Note that these are NOT the methods that we are going to use, but they are methods to which we will compare our practices so I want you to be familiar with the basic steps for social scientific research.
Three "professional/commercial" ethnography sites:
Ethnographic Research Inc.
Trend Influence
Ethnographic Insight

1/6 class 2
In Class: Oral quiz, Chapters 1-2 of Second Life: A Guide to Your Virtual World. "Normal" v. "qualitative" science.
For future class: Read Chapters 3-4-5 of Second Life: A Guide to Your Virtual World. Set up your class blog, report the url, send me a picture of your avatar, asap.

1/7 class 3
In Class: Oral Quiz, Chapters 3-4-5 of Second Life: A Guide to Your Virtual World. Fields and communities of practice.
For future class: Read S&S chapters 1 & 2.

1/8 class 4
In Class: Oral Quiz, S&S chapters 1 & 2; Field Research, Ethnography, and Ethnography of speaking. Assignment 1 due [also post all assignment reports to your blog after emailing the content to Ed and getting his approval for posting].
For future class: Read S&S, chapters 3 & 4

1/9 class 5
In Class:; Assignments 2&3 due; Chapters 2& 3 + Human Subject Protection Protocols
For future class: study the entire HSP section (above, including all 4 linked files); Assignment 4 due 1/12

1/10 class 6
In Class: Oral quiz: S&S, chapter 3; Research roles+s&s chapter 4
For future class: S&S ch. 5; Assignment 5 due 1/12; Declare dates for assignment 11 by 1/13; complete assignment 11 by 1/17.

1/12 class 7
In Class: Assignments 4 & 5 due; Oral Quiz: S&S Chapter 4 & Human Subject Protection; Chapter 5 Strategies for Listening.
For future class: S&S ch. 6; Assignment 6 by 1/13; 8 & 9 by 1/14

1/13 class 8
In Class: Oral Quiz, s&s chapter 5; Assignment 6 due; Field Observations and rendering notes
For future class: S&S chapters 7 & 8

1/14 class 9
In Class: Assignments 8 & 9 due; ;Oral Quiz, s&s chapter 6; Data Analysis; format for prospectus.
For future class: field work

1/15 class 10: Meets from 7pm-9pm; field work and writing
In Class: Oral quiz s&s chapters 7 & 8; Assignment 10 due;
For future class: field work

1/16 class 11
In Class: field work and writing
For future class: Assignment 12 due 1/17

1/17 class 12 Assignment 11 must be completed prior to class this date.
In Class: Present and discuss rough drafts

1/19 class 13
In Class: Assignments 7, 13 & 14 due. Final paper due; Presentation of prospectus

Assignments

1. Identify 5 communities of practice in SL. Describe them and their activities in some detail.
2. Observe and describe, in detail and natural language, an event in SL that is typical of the kind in which you might be interested. Do not collect or record subject names or take pictures that might identify subjects. Keep a written record of your observations.
3. Identify the community of practice in which you are interested.
4. Revise Human Subjects Protection handout to meet the needs of the community of practice you might come to better understand.
5.Complete the HSP handout with the <land-owner/group owner/proprietor> of the <land/group/place> you are going to observe.
6. Read "Visualizing the Spatial and Temporal Distribution of User Interaction Data Collected in Three-Dimensional Virtual Worlds", by Katy Börner, William R. Hazlewood and Sy-Miaw Lin. Adapt one of their protocols for mapping interaction in virtual spaces to your site/community of practice and render a preliminary version of the map.
7. Adapt one of Börner et al's. protocols for mapping interaction in virtual spaces to your site/community of practice and render a final version with your completed paper/report.
8. Engage and get permissions from an informant for a conversation in which you will practice interviewing. Identify with details and justify via explanations who this person is in the community of practice and why they can serve as useful informant. DO NOT INTERVIEW THE PERSON until Lamoureux has approved the choice and the schedule.
9. Prepare a draft question schedule for your conversation with the informant.
10 . Complete a conversation with your informant in which you practice the skills of the interview. Write report of the conversation, complete with illustrative Q&A with regard to the points you pursued.
11 .Determine two days and times before 1/17 that are most likely to result in viewable behaviors by participants in your chosen community of practice. Notify me of the days, times, and SL coordinates for the events. Briefly summarize what sorts of event you (roughly) expect to take place at that time. Let me know if I need special permission to enter the area; if so, let me know from whom I get that permission. You will observe the event and take descriptive notes to be turned in to me for the assignment; I will also observe parts of the event. You may or may not know that I am present (depending on the circumstances, I may use an "ALT" that is unknown to you and all present). Within 24 hours after each event, turn in to me data files (a) with the rough observations that you take at the event and (b) transform some of those observations into sample note files (ON/TN/MN/Packages/analytic memos).
12. Rough draft and dry run presentation, research prospectus detailing the research project that you are proposing for the MM 444 class project.
13. Final research prospectus detailing the research project that you are proposing for the MM 444 class project.
14.Oral presentation to the class of the research project that you are proposing for the MM 444 class project.
© Ed Lamoureux