Diversity University eDUcore Features

Introduction

The Diversity University eDUcore (version 2.0) is a Web-enabled, multimedia, integrated, virtual reality collaboration and learning environment. Based on "MOO" virtual reality technology, it is the most advanced and complete MOO core developed specifically for education. The eDUcore is derived from the DU Main Campus MOO, which has been serving teachers and students since 1993. The eDUcore incorporates all the critical functions familiar to the thousands of people who have made the DU Main Campus their chosen online teaching and learning environment. Now, with the full public release of the eDUcore, any school or other organization may establish its own Internet-based virtual world. Licenses for the eDUcore are available without charge for schools and other noncommercial users.

The eDUcore provides instructors and students with:

A virtual reality learning environment that provides a simulated physical space and programmable, interactive virtual objects, with independent support for text-only, Web, or 3D VRML interfaces.
Navigation among virtual rooms, each with its own appearance, functions, and enclosed virtual objects.
Extensive text-based conferencing features.
A Web-based multimedia interface for cross-platform Internet access using any advanced Web browser (Navigator, Internet Explorer, or Lynx).
An extendable environment, in which teachers and students can easily create and customize rooms and objects of their own.
Templates for many virtual objects with behaviors particularly useful for education (notice boards, slide projectors, etc.).
Powerful administrative tools both for instructors and virtual world managers.
Full source code for both core facilities and virtual objects, written in the "MOO programming language" and accessible from within the virtual world.
Extensive support from Diversity University, Inc., the nonprofit organization responsible for developing the eDUcore.

The DU Main Campus core was originally built upon the LambdaCore, but has since been modified and enriched with numerous educational and administrative tools prompted by the needs of teachers and students. However, the LambdaCore-compatibility of all critical systems has been retained, in order to insure useful virtual objects may easily be shared between other LambdaCore-based MOOs. Full support for the original LambdaCore text-based interface is retained, while the eDUcore's Web-based interface provides intuitive and graphical access.

Diversity University is a nonprofit organization established to promote the development and use of online tools for education. In addition to our free online public campuses, including the DU Main Campus MOO, we provide software, services, and training to teachers and schools using online virtual reality environments for learning. Diversity University has provided the eDUcore (release 1.0) to certain schools and other organizations since 1995, but is now making release 2.0 widely available for broad application to online education.

As with all MOO core databases, a MOO server must be obtained to run the core. Documentation for the eDUcore includes complete instructions for obtaining, compiling, and otherwise setting up a complete MOO system, including a database and a server.

Many of the advanced functions the eDUcore includes will also be made available in the near future as packages for installation into existing MOOs. Information about these will be available at Diversity University's web site when they become available.

A Web-based discussion forum that provides technical support and answers to frequently asked questions is at:

http://www.du.org/HyperNews/get/forums/educore.html

Selected Features

The eDUcore includes numerous features that were specifically developed to enhance the system's application to education. Most of these features are unique to the eDUcore. Some of the eDUcore's advanced features are:

BioGate Web System

The eDUcore was one of the two primary sites (along with BioMOO) where the BioGate Web system for MOOs was developed. The BioGate system allows the MOO to dynamically generate World Wide Web pages, which display the up-to-the-second state of rooms and other objects in the MOO. Navigation, issuing many commands, and virtual object set-up and manipulation may be performed through hyperlinks and forms with the Web pages generated. The BioGate system provides a familiar, intuitive, and graphical interface for all MOO users. Most critically, MOO builders may attach to virtual objects any graphic, sound, or other resources that can appear within a Web page, making the MOO into a full multimedia graphical environment. The MOO even can generate 3-dimensional VRML-based scenes, presenting the virtual space in a fully immersive and navigable form. The eDUcore provides not a "text-based" virtual reality, but one that is a completely graphical VR environment. However, full access through the text interface is preserved, insuring users with minimal hardware or who use speech synthesizers still have complete use of the educational environment. The "Cup-O MUD" Telnet applet, written in Java, was specifically designed for the eDUcore, and provides a real-time link that may be embedded within a graphical Web browsers display, and provides the MOO with a fully integrated, platform-independent, Web-plus-Telnet interface.

Manager System

A major weakness of traditional MOO cores is that the only administrative character class is the "wizard" type, which has total security and administrative access. As a result, even people with minor administrative roles could accidentally cause damage to the MOO database through the inexperienced use of wizardly functions. In the eDUcore, nearly all the administrative functions have been moved to a "manager" class, which has adjustable areas of responsibility, all of which can be fulfilled without "wizardly" security access. This allows schools, for instance, to assign various administrative tasks to students without having to give them complete security access. Administrative areas of responsibility that may be assigned include: character application processing and creation, public rooms and exits maintenance, builder or programmer administration, object ownership transfers, and more.

"VSPO" Groups

Educational MOOs used for teaching typically have instructors bring classes online for a semester, during which time they complete class assignments that include building rooms and other objects. The eDUcore has built-in support for temporary characters that are recycled (optionally with their owned objects also) at a specified date. In addition, these temporary characters (called VSPO characters), are created in groups and assigned to an individual who is then responsible for them. The VSPO group owner has various administrative abilities limited to the characters in VSPO groups they own. Teachers owning VSPO groups can give their students' VSPO characters builder or programmer authorization, additional building quota (to an established limit), move them all to a room together, and perform many other functions particularly useful for teachers with classes.

Advanced Room Variants

The eDUcore has a complete series of advanced room types that extend the standard "$room" with all the most popular MOO features. These features include "details" (including surface, furniture, and container types), active atmosphere messages, teleporting rooms, and more. These are all fully integrated with the eDUcore, supporting its advanced room security features.

Character Applications and Processing

The eDUcore has the most advanced character application and processing system available today. Guests and VSPO characters may apply for a permanent character and are automatically given an online form to complete. This form may be customized to include research questions, contact information, or any other data the administrators wish to collect. Administrators then may review each application and accept or reject it, selecting among several form letters (to which personal messages may be added) that may be sent to the applicant. Information from the application form is retained in association with the created character, providing administrators with access to information that may be used for better understanding the composition of the MOO community.

Unrecycle System

A major flaw in most MOO systems is that once an object is "recycled" (destroyed and made available for reuse as new object), it is permanently lost. This can lead to accidental destruction of objects that represent weeks or months of work, including a student's entire project for the semester. The eDUcore contains an "unrecycle" system that retains recycled objects for 24 hours in a form that allows them to be completely recreated by their original owner or MOO administrators. No online educational environment should be without this type of critical system.

Room Security

The eDUcore includes a sophisticated room security system, that permits room owners to screen which characters or other MOO objects are allowed to enter, as well as the mechanisms they may use to enter (standard exit walking, teleporting, etc.). Special "invite" and "knock" commands are available to promote polite usage. These are integrated with the eDUcore room security to allow room owners to invite specific people temporarily past the room's security restrictions.

Helpful Persons System

The sophisticated "helpful persons system" allows MOO users to be designated as "official" helpful persons. The "helpme" command is available for sending questions to the official helpful persons currently online. In addition to a "basic" help category, many other categories of help may be established. Helpers may indicate which categories of help they wish to receive messages for, and the "helpme" command may optionally be used to specify the category of help, restricting the question to being sent to only helpers registered for that category.

InterMOO Portal

The InterMOO Portal is a room that allows MOO users to "walk" to other MOOs. Portals can be established for as many other MOOs as you wish, providing a simple mechanism for networking several MOOs together. When a character enters a portal, she or he is connected to the other MOO, which may be located anywhere on the Internet, and can connect as a guest or registered character there. After quitting that distant MOO, the user is ejected from the portal, restoring him or her to the original MOO. More advanced inter-MOO networking features are currently in development, and some are included in a beta-test form with the eDUcore.

Email Permeability

Diversity University and SRI International's "TAPPED IN" group have developed an "email permeability" system that allows Internet email to both be sent directly by MOO users and also received by their characters. In addition to the usual "@send Jim" command for sending a "MOOmail" message to the character named Jim, users can "@send jane@outside.school.edu" to send mail directly to an Internet address. Also, if an outside UNIX mail-drop is established for the MOO, the email permeability system can retrieve Internet email addressed directly to MOO users (e.g. to Jim@moomail.ourmoo.edu). The email permeability system installed in the eDUcore uses standard POP3 protocols to retrieve mail from its outside mail-drop, and then distributes the mail to appropriate recipients. Similarly, MOO mail folders may be established to send and receive Internet email, allowing them to serve as in-MOO proxies for outside mail lists. The authorization to send or receive Internet email directly may be regulated by the MOO administrators individually, with access being given to all users or only specified classes or individuals.

Multiple Ownership of Objects

Every virtual object in an eDUcore MOO may have "additional owners" who have access to most of the editing facilities for that object, including the ability to edit its name, description, messages, and most behaviors. This feature permits group development of individual objects within a project.

Extensive Online Help

Every command available to eDUcore users is documented in the online help system. Many of the original LambdaCore help texts have been rewritten or extended to improve their clarity and usefulness. Keyword searching through either the entire or limited segments of the help system is available. The complete set of online help texts is also included with the eDUcore as a set of HTML and PDF format documents that may be used to create printed manuals.

Disk-based Mail Option

Database growth is a serious concern for any long-term MOO, since increased size can lead to slower operation and expensive memory usage. In-MOO mail, both for characters and mail folders, is usually the single largest part of a MOO's growth. The eDUcore incorporates a "disk-based mail" system that moves all the mail outside the MOO database itself. This system uses the BioMOO/Weizmann Institute's "File Utilities Package" (FUP) for MOO, which allows mail to be written to external files and retrieved, in a manner that is completely transparent to MOO users. The FUP system must be installed into the MOO server for the disk-based mail system to function. However, in-MOO mail is fully supported for servers without the FUP system installed.

Many Generic Objects

Many "generic" objects are available as templates for builders to create their own custom learning environment. In addition to objects that are standard to all MOO cores, the eDUcore include everything from simple surfaces to bookshelves, robots, several "feature objects," tutorial rooms, and much more. These have all been developed specifically to support online education.