UNews - online community

RAVE project virtually ready

trevor.kenney — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:20:41 +0000

For new and prospective learners and their families, one of the best ways to gain an appreciation for what sets the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge apart from other post-secondary institutions is to visit the campus in person. The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's relatively small size, accessibility and quality are readily apparent to anyone who has spent even a day here, but visiting the campus isn't always an affordable option for learners from other provinces and countries. Language barriers can also make the process of selecting a university difficult for prospective international learners and their families.

In response to this challenge, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge has produced an innovative multilingual online virtual campus environment that will allow anyone with web access and a free copy of Google Earth to experience the Lethbridge campus in a way that mirrors an actual campus visit.

This wide campus view is the starting point for your virtual tour.

Visitors to the RAVE (Reaching Audiences through Virtual Entryways) virtual campus site will be provided several options for exploring the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, its services and facilities.

"Instead of finding out about a club you would have liked to participate in when you might be in your final year, new students have the opportunity to know it all before they even arrive on campus," says Jeff Bingley, a RAVE production member and videographer. "It has the potential to really streamline your ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ experience."

Navigating the RAVE world can be accomplished through 3D virtual campus tours, whereby visitors can get a look at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's facilities and services, all described in a number of different languages.

Users can also access the RAVE web environment through traditional hyperlinks on the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's website. Each link on the RAVE web page will take you to specific locations – such as department offices, the Students' Union Building – in the virtual U of L environment. Another click on that office will connect the viewer to a relevant YouTube video describing the resources that the office provides.

The third method of navigating RAVE is as an unguided explorer of the 3D buildings and their contextual information links.

In summer 2013, the U of L will release the first stage of the 3D RAVE virtual campus environment.

"RAVE uses a combination of advanced video game and Google Earth technologies to produce highly-detailed, interactive 3D environments," says professor James Graham of the Faculty of Fine Arts Department of New Media, RAVE's lead designer and production manager. "These feature architecturally accurate campus building models using the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's CAD drawings, interactive video components, photographs, audio, web-interactivity and pre-programmed animated camera sequences."

The release of RAVE this summer will focus initially on student and administrative services and clubs for new learners who will be arriving at the U of L.

"The Students' Union partnership has been critical in delivering the learner interest components, and the Faculty of Fine Arts partnership has provided RAVE with a secure production lab and equipment," says Graham.

The RAVE project grew out of collaboration between Mike Spiteri (IT), Graham and Heather Mirau (director, Integrated Planning). RAVE is a Recruitment and Retention Project with one-time seed funding from the U of L Strategic Enrolment Management Committee.

A team of eight new media learners (including six undergraduates, one co-op and one master's student) worked on the project. The Department of New Media also loaned computer and camera equipment, while use of the RAVE lab is by loan from the Faculty of Fine Arts Dean's Office. Close to 90 per cent of the RAVE project costs are paid to the production team, allowing learners to offset educational expenses and continue with their studies.

"This student, faculty and staff collaboration drives the project," says Mirau. "James is masterful at building in the latest technical applications with a solid focus of growing an online community for the recruitment and retention of our learners."

RAVE has also been designed and constructed using a layered approach, allowing it to grow organically and logically moving forward. This gives the project the ability to serve multiple functions, such as showcasing our faculty research to interested audiences.

This story first appeared in the May 2013 edition of the Legend. For a look at the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Finding a new reality on Facebook

trevor.kenney — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:35:30 +0000

Is your new Facebook 'friend' really a friend or someone using a fake identity to get your personal information? How easy is it to convince someone to accept a completely made–up person as his or her friend?

A group of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Faculty of Management students – all active users of social media such as Facebook – recently tested those two ideas on a group of their peers and found some surprising answers.

"With more than 300 million users, Facebook and many other social networking sites pose a growing concern for the safety of individuals who use these sites and services," says Sarah Lajeunesse, group spokesperson who worked on the term-long project with team members David Ho, Kirk Patterson, Lauren O'Dwyer and Tony Melicchio. "Our primary concern with the increasing popularity of these sites is the consequences and dangers that we, as users, are potentially facing."

With that idea in mind, their assignment for the Information Systems component of the Integrated Management Experience (IME) program – under the supervision of IME Director Dan Kazakoff and Management Information Systems Professor Gordon Hunter – turned into a research-based episode of the popular MTV program Punk'd, where average people are fooled by sophisticated stunts.

In this case it was frighteningly simple.

"We have all heard about people putting up fake identities for criminal or revenge purposes, but we wanted to actually test how easy it could be to fool Facebook users," says Lajeunesse. "Our group created an imaginary female, who in less than 24 hours managed to entice more than 25 users to become her 'friends' – including complete strangers and many students from our more than 50-person research group. What really surprised us was the speed with which the 'friendship' requests were accepted, and also that one-third of the respondents who accepted this fake person as a friend started up an online conversation. As well, at least two people expected to have dates with our fake person within the week."

Lajeunesse adds the male-to-female ratio of acceptances was 65 to 35 per cent.

Their work raises concerns about the overall validity of online identities, and serves as a warning for people of all ages to be more careful about who they accept as friends or interact with online.

While the idea of people being so easily conned into accepting a completely fake person as a friend seems absurd, Lajeunesse says that as Facebook and other social networking sites are increasing in popularity at an exponential rate, so too are the number of false identities.

"Unfortunately, the social networking sites lack the technology, the legal power, or, in some cases, the will to prevent these abuses," she says. "Learning about this issue was a huge wake-up call for our group and our class. We really want people to know about our results, because this was very easy for us to do. It is not a stretch to assume that it is equally easy for others who might have bad intentions to do as well. We hope that by learning more about this issue – and talking about it – parents can increase their level of supervision to protect the young, our most vulnerable, yet least cautious, users."

The fact that young adults and teenagers are being taken in by fake Facebook pages is not a surprise to Dr. Mary Dyck.

A researcher in the U of L's Kinesiology and Physical Education department who is an expert on cyber bullying and inappropriate use of online communities, Dyck collaborated on Canada's first-ever study on rural teens' online social communication with U of L Faculty of Education researchers Dr. Pamela Adams and Dr. Robin Bright.

"Our research supports that the more information someone puts online, the more vulnerable they become to bullying, targeted marketing, predators, unwanted harassment and intrusions, and feelings of discomfort," says Dyck. "Facebook is an online community. Nothing is safe online. We can only make every attempt to be safer online by restricting our images and information, setting privacy settings for content and applications, and continually being aware of our own behaviour – and the information presented by the IME student group confirms that."

UNews - online community

RAVE project virtually ready

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Finding a new reality on Facebook

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