The Modeling of Virtual Environment Distance Education Physics Procedia 24 (2012) 2339 – 2346 1875-3892 © 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of ICAPIE Organization Committee. doi:10.1016/j.phpro.2012.02.347 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com  Available online at www.sciencedirect.com    PhysicsProcedia00(2011)000–000 www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia   2012InternationalConferenceonAppliedPhysicsandIndustrialEngineering TheModelingofVirtualEnvironmentDistanceEducation ChangXueqin     This research presented a virtual environment that integrates in a virtual mockup services available in a university campusforstudentsandteacherscommunicationindifferentactuallocations.Advantagesofthissysteminclude:the remoteaccesstoavarietyofservicesandeducationaltools,therepresentationofrealstructuresandlandscapesinan interactive 3D model that favors localization of services and preserves the administrative organization of the university. For that, the system was implemented a control access for users and an interface to allow the use of previouseducationalequipmentsandresourcesnotdesignedfordistanceeducationmode.  ©2011PublishedbyElsevierLtd.Selectionand/orpeerreviewunderresponsibilityof[nameorganizer]  Keywords:virtualenvironment;distanceeducation;web  Virtual reality promised fully immersive environments accessed by specialized body and headset equipment.Easilyusablevirtualrealitiesofthisnaturehavelargelyfailedtoemerge.However,significant progress has been made in related areas and recent advances in multiuser, online games playing technologyhavefosteredtheemergenceofatypeofvirtualrealityintheformofgloballyaccessiblemulti uservirtualenvironments(MUVE)[1].Significantly,recentMUVEdevelopmentshavemovedawayfrom anygameplayingcontentandnowsimplyprovidea3Dplatformthatusersmaydevelopinany waythe choose.Thishasfosteredtheemergenceofa3Dinternetthatissomewhatsimilartotheworldwideweb, inthatusersdevelopsitesinprovidingrealistic,usable3Denvironmentsissuchthatthe3Dinternetisnow beinghailedasapotentialsuccessortotheworldwidewebforconductingonlineinteractions. Traditionally,studentsexpectflexibilityandmobilityoftheeducationenvironmentsandmoreintuitive interaction with the university campus, employees desire an easier access to administrative tools and the societydesiresbetterinformationregardingtheuniversitylocalities,itsactivitiesandservices.Traditional online delivery mechanisms struggle to achieve any sense of community or Ācohort cohesion” in participants even when using the latest Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, forums, etc. Here, students largely studyinisolationwithoutthenormalsocialinteractionthatissoimportanttoafullyroundededucational experience. © 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of ICAPIE Organization Committee. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ 2340 Chang Xueqin / Physics Procedia 24 (2012) 2339 – 2346       Realizethesenecessities,thispaperputforwardtoawebbasedmultiuservirtualcampus(WMUVC) for distance education, which isbased on MUVE to satisfy multiusers’ needs of which not only include students and teachers, but also managers and other employees who working for the campus. This paper presentstheapproachtobuildingasustainable,cohesiveeducationcommunity.   Perhaps oneof the most exciting developments inthecomputing arenaover the lastdecade hasbeen thealmoststealthyemergenceofdesktop,3Dvirtualrealities. Virtual Reality (VR), also known as virtual technology or artificial environment, a form of human computer interaction in which a real or imaginary environment is simulated and users interact with and manipulatethatworld.Userstravelwithinthesimulatedworldbymovingtowardwheretheywanttogo, and interact with things by grasping and manipulating simulated objects. In the most successful virtual environment, users feel that they are truly present in the simulated world and that theirexperience in the virtualworldmatcheswhattheywouldexperienceintheenvironmentbeingsimulated[2].Thissensation isreferredtoasengagement,immersion,orpresence,anditisthisqualitythatdistinguishesvirtualreality fromotherformsofhumancomputer”interaction.Virtualrealityisaproductwhichdevelopedtoacertain levelofcombiningcomputertechnologyandscienceofhumanunderstandingoftheworld.Itopenedupa new way for the visualization of special information. It has three characteristics Immersion, Interactivity andImagination.  Distanceeducationisafieldofeducationthatfocusesonthepedagogy,technology,andinstructional system designs that aim to deliver education to students who are not physically "on site" in a traditional classroomorcampus.Ithasbeendescribedas"aprocesstocreateandprovideaccesstolearningwhenthe sourceofinformationandthelearnersareseparatedbytimeanddistance,orboth." There are two distance education modes: synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronous is a mode of onlinedeliverywhereallparticipantsare"present"atthesametimerequiringatimetabletobeorganized. Asynchronous is a mode of online delivery where participants access course materials on their own schedule. Students are not required to be together at the same time. Message board forums, email and recordedvideoareexamplesofasynchronoustechnology[3]. Neithersynchronousnorsynchronous,nowadays,canfulfillthenatureofinteractionbetweenstudents andteachers.Whattheyface,nevertheless,iscomputerscreenormonitor.So,theneedforchangingthis situationemergesrecentyears.  Virtualcampusistherepresentationofuniversitycampusintheformof3Dvirtualenvironment,which is usually based on a real campus features and landform, but not necessarily always so. It's a digitized virtualspaceofanexistingorimaginedcampus,andismainlyutilizedasameansofimageexhibitionor campusdesign.Manyuniversitieshavesetuptheirownvirtualuniversitiesandvirtualcampuses,Suchas BeijingUniversityofAeronauticsandAstronautics,ZhejiangUniversity,TianjinUniversityinChina[4]. However,thesevirtualcampusesjustarepropagandaforms,whiletheyhavenoanyothereffect. Inordertosatisfytherequirementsmentionedabove,thevirtualcampus,inthefuture,notonlyaimage of the university, but also the tool make students and teachers which are involved in distance education communication naturally andfreely.Only when all thesearedone it wouldbringaperfectexperienceto users. Chang Xueqin / Physics Procedia 24 (2012) 2339 – 2346 2341        People involved in distance education include students in various locations, teachers who are in different location from students, managers who in charge of the system and other employees. They are different group people regarding to the requirement to the system. This paper engaged in establishing a systemwhichwillmakedistanceeducationsustainable,cohesiveandconvenientforallusers.  To make the virtual campus more convenient and economical, this paper combines the three dimensional scenery supplied by virtual reality technology and the information dissemination mode of traditional website, such as email, VOIP, camera chat etc together to establish a networked multiusers virtual campus which can realize the combination and share of the teaching resources which can be browsed and This virtual system experiment used freely, and benefit to the users and managers of the distanceeducationsystem. TheWMUVCisenvironmentestablishedin3Dformwhichcanaffordavividimageoftheuniversity and is more flexible than 2D rendering form. During the process of course taking, one student can communicate and discuss with teacher and other students as in real classroom, even, refer to experiment courses, students can observe the details and steps of the experiment conduct by teacher. 3D rendering form excels 2D form change of vision either in course vitality or reality, and is much fit for guiding studentstostudy. The system is a simulation of real life in campus for students can take actives such as having class, takingexercisesandmakingfriends;aswellasintherealcampus,teachercanlecture,reviewworksfrom students,conductexaminations;managerscanmanagethedailyteachingactivesandstudents’affairs.  Astheusershavedifferentlevelofknowledgeaboutcomputerandinternet,theWMUVC’sstructure shouldbesimpleanditshouldofferintuitivenavigationwhichcouldmakeuserscommunicatenaturally. Thenavigationoccursthroughavirtualmockupthataffordsmobilityandaccesstotheservicesavailable. For remote access to the system and to its services, the interface of communication of the system uses a clientserver structure. This way, the user can access a homepage to connect him to an application that establishesaconnectionwiththeserverthroughinternet. MockupsinWMUVCaremodeledandorganizedaccordingtostructuralaspectsintherealworldand thisorganizationreflectstherelationshipbetweenmockups.Thestructuraldiagramofthesystemisshown asFig.1,inwhichvirtualclassroom,laboratoriesandlibraryareconnectedtoeachother.Userscanaccess everyvirtualentitythroughthenetworkafteridentityvalidation. 2342 Chang Xueqin / Physics Procedia 24 (2012) 2339 – 2346        Figure1. Thestructureofwebbasedmultiusersvirtualcampussystem The system is composed by: a virtual mockup situated in a Client subsystem; an interface of communication,responsible forthe access to the services;and a layerof applications available for users, situated in the Server subsystem. The Client subsystem is responsible for the management and sending requestsfortheServerthroughtheInternet.TheServersubsystemisresponsiblefortranslation,processing andreplyoftherequests. ThetheoreticalmodelofWMUVCisshowninFig.2,whichiscomprisedofthreemajorparts.Theleft partandrightpartisthemodelofstudentsubsystemandteachersubsystem,respectively,whichcomprise five layers,and the middle part istheOpen System Interconnection(OSI) model which comprises seven layers. The left part and right part communicate and exchange information through the middle part. The fivelayersofWMUVCinclude:  thislayersuppliestheuserwithavirtualcampus,andtheusercaninteractwith thevirtualcampus,teacher,andotherclassmatesfreelyandnaturally.    this layer consists of the basic functions of WMUVC, including design of the system, simulation to the physical world, transferring information and displaying images and other information,etc.     this layer integrates the algorithms necessary for the operation of WMUVC system,suchasplanningalgorithm,graphicrenderingalgorithmanddataprocessingalgorithm.  thislayer includestheinformationofcampus,courseandteacherdescription, demonstrationofsomeexperiments,displayingofthemockupsandotherthingsinWMUVC,etc.  thislayercomprisesthehardwareofthevirtualenvironmentsuchasclassrooms andotherbuildings,experimentalinstruments,tables,chairs,etc. Serversandequipments Webbasedmultiusersvirtualcampussystem library laboratorie s classroom s  Systeminterface students teachers managers other Dataserver Chang Xueqin / Physics Procedia 24 (2012) 2339 – 2346 2343        Figure2. ThetheoreticalmodelofWMUVC. While the seven layers of OSI model include application layer, presentation layer, session layer, transport layer, network layer, data link layer, and physical layer. The dashed block is the established WMUVC system. Students can enter any virtual classroom to having class; any laboratory to operate experiments; library to reading books, teachers can lecture in the virtual classroom or laboratory, and managers can overview the activities and process occurring in the system, as long as their identities is validated.  Consideringvarietyoftheusers,thecommunicateinterfaceofthesystemshouldbeflexible,available andeasytouse.AstheCSconstructionofthesystem,theinterfacecouldbuiltonthewebbrowsersuchas Microsoft Internet Explore, Firefox, Opera, Safari etc, then users can access the information and  take coursesanywhere,anytimeaslongastheyworkwithcomputerandinternet. Furthermore; the WIFI could be the solution to connect the users and system too, then, users can acquire the information and message with a smart phone, justly. This will make the system more convenient,andflexible.  Expressing the special information of the users and nonspatial data of the objective world such as buildings teaching equipments in the virtual environment is an important goal and difficult task in WMUVCsystem.Sincecomplexityanddiversityoftherealworld,variousdataisessentialandshouldbe integrated, and a complex data model is used to express the system's vector data, raster data, as well as CADdata.Forthesakeofmanagementandcollection,dataaredividedintospatialdataandmanagement dataasshowninTableI. TABLEI. ALISTOFDATATYPES WMUVC Student subsystem OSIbased subsystem Teacherand managersubsystem Perceptionlayer Functionlayer Algorithmlayer Information layer Physicallayer Applicationlayer Presentationlayer Sessionlayer Transportlayer Networklayer Datalinklayer physicallayer Perceptionlayer Functionlayer Algorithmlayer Information layer Physicallayer 2344 Chang Xueqin / Physics Procedia 24 (2012) 2339 – 2346       Dataname sources functions Topographic map Maps of the real world To provide information for simulationtotherealworld Buildings data Photogrammetric survey To provide referring informationformodeling Features data Questionnaire To provide relative user’ information CADdata Engineeringdesignprofiles To provide information for mockupsmodeling Texture images Picture from digitalcamera To provide a realistic imagesformockups Although one would expect relatively open access to a University campus, it would not be unreasonabletorestrictaccesstosomeareastoeitherstaffonlyorstudentsandstaffonly,toprevent,for example, casual visitors from disrupting a teaching session. Virtual worlds as with any other internet activity have their share of disruptive, destructive users, who seek to disrupt or deface sites in a similar fashiontowebsitedefacement.Accesscontrols,althoughnotinfallible,canbeimposedatvaryinglevelsof granularity,fromrestrictingaccesstothesitetoregistereduserstorestrictingaccesstoaparticularvenue toaclasslist.  TheWMUVCsystemisdevelopedwithSouthwestUniversityofScienceandTechnologyexemplified. Through the procedure, VRML and 3DSMAX is used for modeling the mockups, and virtual worlds. In generalway,thetoolsusedtodevelopvirtualcampuscanbedividedas: • Packagesfor3Ddrawing; • PackagesorlanguagesforVRmodeling; • Programminglanguagestoallowthedevelopmentofinteractionandaccesscontrol.    Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) is oneof themost populartools for establishing the3D environment. VRML introduces the interactive 3D rendering form into the World Wide Web, and it is a multiplatformusedmodelinglanguage.VRMLusesthenodeasthebasicunit,anddefinesthecommon descriptivelanguagesof3Dapplicationsystemsuchaslightsource;animation,changingoflevels,etc,and it have the function of simply description of the behavior characteristics. VRML has the advantages of expansible,multiplatform,interaction,etc[5].   VRML uses nodes to establish virtual scenes. However, using nodes to design models is not very convenient, and is difficult to design complicated models. However, the 3DSMAX can make up for the disadvantagesofVRML. 3DSMAX is mainly used in the fields of architecture design, product design and three dimensional animation design. The models designed by 3DSMAX have good feelings, and are easy controlled [6]. Whileinthevirtualcampuswhichmainlyfocusonthefeelingofinteractionandimmersion,thedetailis notaleadingfactor,so,thesimplyoperatedmodelingsoftware3DSMAXispopularinthedesigningof virtualcampus. Chang Xueqin / Physics Procedia 24 (2012) 2339 – 2346 2345        The models in WMUVC include: buildings such as classroom, library and laboratories, vegetal structuresliketrees,flowersandbushes,andavatarswhichisthepresentationofstudentsandteachersand otherpeoplewhoinvolvethissystem.Everymockupislinkedtodepartmenthomepages,laboratoriesand educationaltoolsincludingliterature,videosandlisteningmaterialsreferringtothecourses.Themodeling couldnotbeperformedfromCADmodelsduetheircomplexityandelevatednumberofpointstodescribe each structure. But the CAD models generated by 3DSMAX were used to identify proportions and localizationofthestructuresinthevirtualenvironment.ThemodelsshownFig.3isoneclassroomin the WMUVCsystem.  Figure3. OneclassroommodeloftheWMUVCsystem The system developed in this research is based on web include Internet and WiFi, so the communicationinterfaceisbuiltinbrowsersuchasInterneExplore.Justdoingthis,users can access the information and other education materials, and, furthermore, some words expressed materials,videosandlisteningmaterialscouldaccessedbyWiFithroughsmartphoneorotherdevices.Fig. 4istheinterfaceofthesystem,userscanloadonthesystemwiththeiridentitiesvalidationtogetstartthe courses.Forthenonmemberpeople,theycouldskipthecommoninformation.  Figure4. TheinterfaceofWMUVC  Theexperienceobtainedfromthissystemshouldbeusedasbasisforthecompleteimplementationof theVirtualCampus.Thepurposeofthisresearchistoprovideacompletemethodologyforthemodelingof virtualenvironmenttoexpanditsuseforotherapplications. 2346 Chang Xueqin / Physics Procedia 24 (2012) 2339 – 2346        [1] Maria Virvou,George Katsionis.On the usability and likeability of virtual reality games for education:The case of VR ENGAGE[J].Computers&Education.2008,(50):154178. [2] T.Drury,“GeneratingaThreeDimensionalCampusModel”.MITLaboratoryforComputerScience.AUPReport,2001. [3] BurdeaG,CoiffetP.VirtualRealityTechnology(2ndEdition)[M].WileyIEEEPress.June2003. [4] Mamtyla,K.:BlendingELearning:thePowerisintheMix.McGrawHill,NewYork(2001). [5] C.Wang,R.X.Gao.A virtual instrumentation system for integrated bearing conditon monitoring[J].IEEE TRANSACTIONSONINSTRUMENTATIONANDMEASUREMENT.2004,4(2):325332. [6] P Edirisingha,M Nie,M Pluciennik,and R Young,"Socialisation for Learning at a distance in a 3D multiuser virtual environment,"BritishJournalofEducationalTechnology,vol.40,no.3,pp.458479,200