MUVER Lab
Background – October 2011
Aalborg University (AAU) is not merely a physical location, but also a general idea/pedagogical concept. Since 2008 AAU has branched out and now has campuses in several locations in Denmark – one of which is in Copenhagen, where I’ve been situated since late 2010. In the Department of Communication at AAU-CPH, we have decided to create a local research unit to combine our research and teaching efforts; The Multi-User Virtual Environments Research (MUVER) Lab.
Initial logo – Fall 2011
About MUVER Lab
The Multi-User Virtual Environments Research (MUVER) Lab is a multi-disciplinary and cross-faculty unit based at the Faculty of Humanities, Aalborg University – Copenhagen (AAU-CPH). The lab is focused on collaborative research into multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs), with an overall focus on learning, persuasion, innovation and communication. The lab will emphasize collaborative, applied research with real-world applications, distinguishing its activities from other Danish and international centers/labs focusing on various other aspects of virtual environments research. The activities of the lab will have a strong focus on applied research of relevance to the industry and organizations, notably within the areas of learning, persuasion, technology, information, innovation and communication. A notable focus will be forming collaborations with startup/SMV industry typical of the Danish setting, but which has a high need for research partners in order to increase sustainability, for example in learning and games.
The MUVER Lab is envisioned as having four overall research focus areas:
- Learning in MUVEs – CSCL, Networked Learning, CSCW
- Persuasion in MUVEs – behavior, IS, UX, HCI
- Innovation in MUVEs – embedded and distributed innovation, user-driven, co-creation
- Communication in MUVEs – CMC, organizational and interpersonal
A work in progress …
My colleague, Anders Drachen and I conceived the idea of the MUVER Lab in the spring of 2011, and after discussing our ideas with both the Dean of Humanities, the Director of the Dept. of Communication, and our local colleagues, we now have started the work of setting up a homepage (actually another WP-blog for now), create content, and organize our future work. As part of our work with this new Lab, we have received funding from the Faculty of Humanities to create a physical lab in our Copenhagen campus, and we hope that this lab will include; an area for teaching with ICT, a social area for the students to hang-out, a creative area, an area for games, an audio-visual lab, and a usability lab. We will also launch a contest among our students to create a new logo for the lab, and we are currently working on a research application hoping to land a project involving several Danish research libraries in a project aimed at facilitation improved student seeking, search, information retrieval and information application from bachelor to PhD-level using elements from persuasion and our overall pedagogical framework Problem-Based Learning.
More on this, incl. a link to our MUVER Lab homepage will be published asap.
/Mariis – October, 5th 2011
On the move …
Finally, there is some news regarding our Lab. The last 3-4 months we’ve seen some major changes at Aalborg University’s Copenhagen campus. In December 2011 it was decided that the campus would move from our current location in the suburbs of Copenhagen to a more central location in Copenhagen (in Nokia’s old buildings in the harbor :-). The transition is slowly getting started, and we expect to commence the fall semester in our new location. This is something both students and staff are very happy about, but it also meant that we decided to put our plans for the MUVER Lab on hold until we see our new premises. Further, we recently welcomed about 15 new colleagues all formerly employed at the Danish School of Education, and in particular researchers from a specific research programme on Media and IT in a learning perspective. Our new colleagues are situated both in our Dept. of Communication (where Anders and I are), and in the Dept. of Learning & Philosophy. Hiring some of the best Danish researchers within the field of ICT and Education is part of a strategy to enhance Aalborg University’s focus in this area.
Our new location – poster from the recent “Open House” event for prospective students.
On April 20th, 2012 a new research lab called “IT and Designs for Learning Lab” will be inaugurated, and what is particularly interesting about this, is that this ILD Lab will bring together researcher cross departments and cross institutions; the Lab will focus on both university and primary school settings. In the midst of al these new exciting changes, Anders and I need to figure out exactly how our idea of the MUVER Lab best will fit in. However, we are firmly convinced of the need for a research lab that focuses on especially 3D social Multi-User Virtual Environments, and since many of our new colleagues are working with game environments, I do believe we’ll be able to complement each other very well!
/Mariis, March 30th, 2012
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