LT's research and development focuses on several areas of the NASA eEducation agenda:

Games for Learning



Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond

• -- LT is partnering in the development of Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond, a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) that will include science, technology, engineering and mathematics learning and career exploration.
• -- This game environment will provide NASA virtual, immersive educational experience to students and educators and will allow us to evaluate its effectiveness on student engagement and learning.

Virtual Worlds



LT Island Managers testing out Max the Virtual Guidedog from Virtual Helping Hands

• -- LT is researching virtual worlds as platforms for learning, collaboration, networking and event delivery. We manage NASA eEducation Island in Second Life and are using this space to facilitate NASA education projects' entry into virtual worlds.
• -- Building on prior research and development, LT's Information Accessibility Lab is collaborating with multiple industry and academic partners → on methods of making 3D virtual worlds accessible to the blind and visually-impaired.

Electronic Professional Development



NASA Digital Learning Network Training in Second Life

• -- LT is undertaking research into the best practices for professional development in online and virtual environments.
• -- Particular attention is being paid to ways to best deliver training for using NASA educational materials.

Publications

• -- Laughlin, D., Roper, M., Howell, K.,Research Challenges in the Design of Massively Multiplayer Games for Education and Training: NASA eEducation Roadmap, April 2007.
  
• -- Laughlin, D., NASA eEducation Roadmap Implementation Guide, Internal NASA Document, March 2007.
  This document is intended as a research based outline of tasks for the NASA eEducation unit to implement some of the research and development areas identified by the NASA eEducation Roadmap.
• -- Laughlin, D., Marchuk, N., A Guide to Educational Computer Games for NASA, November 2005.
  An NLT research white paper on the computer games as educational media. This document includes input solicited in a 2004 Request for Information.
• -- Smith, Stephanie L., Second Life Mixed Reality Broadcasts: A Timeline of Practical Experiments at the NASA CoLab Island", Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, Volume 1, Number 1, July 2008.
• -- Hoppin, A., Smith, Stephanie L., et al, "Framework and Implementation of the NGEC-2 Mixed Reality Broadcast", Proceedings of the Next Generation Exploration Conference-2: Entrepreneurial Opportunities in Lunar Development, Appendix D, NASA/CP-2008-214583, July 2008.