Nexus Virtual Worlds

Nexus Virtual Worlds are engaging, stimulating spaces that can augment and enhance existing methods of communication and collaboration by allowing individuals and groups to meet online for a variety of class activities, including lectures, discussions, case studies, projects, papers, exams, and labs. Other benefits include new ways to collaboratively study, practice, discuss, create, and express the course subject under the supervision and support of an instructor. These 3D Communities of Practice supplement traditional training methods by providing contextual 3D environments where war fighters can work together to practice and understand the concepts that are being taught.

The US Nexus is a Virtual World platform being developed through cooperation from different government agencies to improve and augment their existing instructional technologies and capabilities. Virtual Worlds consist of 3D environments where students, experts, educators, and leaders can interact through representations of themselves called avatars.  Each customizable avatar is part of a learner-focused 3D social network where individuals interact with others through different types of virtual worlds, virtual classrooms, social networks, and communities of practice. This interconnected system incorporates a comprehensive knowledge network and numerous tools to help capture, tag and store knowledge content and other information from a variety of sources. The collaborative technologies within the Nexus Platform allow public and private communication between individuals and groups to give user’s access to a blended curriculum.  The curriculum uses virtual, avatar-based environments to provide both synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities that employ various types of content that augment traditional methods of training.

The Nexus Virtual Worlds platform delivers collaborative 3D environments and applications that integrate with an organization’s existing technology infrastructure using common architectures, interfaces and specifications.  This transcends the traditional boundaries of proprietary systems by providing a comprehensive environment for integrating new technology, tools and information and enables Nexus to reach large numbers of people quickly, allow for the rapid tailoring of scenarios, and provides simulated experiences that transfer into critical thinking skills and high levels of performance.