The project will test the effectiveness of Virtual World Technology (VWT) for archaeological interpretation and dissemination. The research project is aimed at scholars and students of Roman archaeology, architecture, and culture, but it also has the potential to generate insights and results that archaeologists of other periods and cultures will find helpful as they adopt VWT. A testbed will be created which is a virtual world representation of Hadrian?s Villa (Tivoli, Italy). Hadrian's Villa is the best known and best preserved of the imperial villas built near Rome by its emperors. The project will attempt innovate use of VWT avatar observation as a form of scholarly research and teaching. Using this designed space, undergraduates will take on the role of particular avatars who will be required to maintain ways of being that are consistent with their defined role. Graduate students will observe their interactions as a means of testing and possible challenge the existing thesis about how this complex space functioned.
This project asked whether it was possible to improve the study of history and archaeology by using virtual time travel to take students to the places they study. Generally courses in these fields are presented to undergraduates through lectures and assigned readings, and learning is measured through examinations and written assignments such as research papers. In this research project, the core learning resource was a 3D simulation ("virtual world") of the historic place and people studied, which was the court of the Roman emperor Hadrian at the government retreat of Hadrian's Villa. The villa is a World Heritage Site located twenty miles east of Rome at Tivoli, Italy. It covered over 200 acres of buildings, formal gardens, orchards, and woods. When in residence there, the emperor was supported by an entourage estimated to total some 3,000 people. In order to teach undergraduates how to understand this large and complex space as well as the activities and interactions of the people residing there, the project team created an evidence-based computer simulation of the site and inhabitants using a popular game engine. The simulation was created with the help of a team of consulting experts who provided input on everything from ancient art and architecture to costumes and gestures. A related website documenting the condition of the site today made it possible for students to compare and contrast what they saw in the computer simulation with the remains still visible on the ground. Students in the classes using the simulation at the University of Virginia and Xavier University were organized into small collaborative research groups (usually consisting of 3-5 students). As the course progressed, the research groups were asked to engage in a number of problem solving activities. For example, students were asked to imagine that they were members of a delegation from Ostia, the port of Rome, and were tasked with visiting the villa in order to ask the emperor for funds to enhance the infrastructure of their city. To tackle the assignment, students had to study the history and urban design of Ostia, agree on a project that should have the highest priority to improve the city, assemble precedents for Hadrian's patronage of cities around the empire that could be cited in support of their request, and--last but not least--learn how to make an appointment for an imperial audience. how to navigate the villa from the entrance hall to the imperial audience hall, and how best to address the emperor. In each assignment, the research groups were required to explore the villa simulation and to undertake research in large online databases of high-quality scholarly resources such as academic journals and encyclopedias. The resulting solution to the problem set for each group was presented in class by the students operating their avatars in short skits which they authored. Students received grades on their groups' solution and also on related weekly quizzes and blogs. All the classes were videotaped and transcribed. An independent educational expert studied the tapes, transcriptions, graded exercises, and also conducted exit interviews of all the students. Quantitative and qualitative results showed that the experiment was a success. The historic computer simulation offered students a new way to think critically about problems that could not be easily obtained through typical classroom learning techniques such as traditional lectures combined with assigned readings. The opportunity for students to explore a 3D replica of a specific time in history led to new insights about the problems studied. The added benefit of being able to participate inside this immersive space as avatarsallowed students to stretch their understanding and enhanced the sophistication of their collaborative problem-solving. Students took more possession of the information studied, and they remembered it longer. This was particularly true of their mastery of the complex spaces of the simulated villa as well as the of the structure of the imperial court that inhabited it. In the past, a professor teaching Hadrian's Villa might, at best, ask the students to demonstrate their knowledge of it by drawing a very schematic map. In the courses using the computer simulation, students could be asked much more probing questions, such as "when you leave building X and turn right, what is the name of building Y that you see directly in front of you." Similarly, the personality and duties of the various members of the imperial court were much better grasped after students had played their roles as avatars. Studying the past by means of the virtual time travel enabled by computer simulations is a promising new way to bring history to life for today's students. This project represents one of the first attempts to show how it can be done and to demonstrate through expert assessment that it results in measurable educational benefits. For a short video about the project, see www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIgpriAny2k.
