A Social Network Game as virtual Third Place: Community Enabler in Virtual Learning Environments?
Abstract: Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are essential components especially in distance learning. However, they show shortcomings in terms of community building. Because (community-induced) social interactions are considered to be a fundamental part of learning, there is still a need for strategies to mitigate this weakness. On the other hand video games have proven to be community-enabling catalysts. Combining both facts leads to the idea of using a video game as community builder. Therefore we present the case of a simple Social Network Game (SNG). We evaluate this SNG (Fliplife) as a virtual third place. We also match an accepted set of rules for building virtual communities to characteristics of Fliplife. In sum we found evidence that it facilitates social interactions. As a consequence we propose the integration of a Fliplife-like game into a VLE to foster community building and thus to improve the learning success.
Presider: Jennifer Leauga, Lynfield College