The following is an announcement submitted to It's Happening at State (IHAS), on Sat, 27 Feb 1999.

WWWIC Research Group Hits the Conference Circuit

Eight refereed conference publications are being presented this Spring by the members of the NDSU World Wide Web Instructional Committee (WWWIC). WWWIC is an ad hoc collection of faculty from different disciplines and colleges at NDSU who conduct research into advanced approaches for developing virtual educational environments. Financed primarily by the NSF, WWWIC members are involved in a range of projects for creating immersive, Internet-based "worlds" where students learn by exploring and doing.

WWWIC members are Paul Juell, Computer Science, Phil McClean, Plant Sciences, Bernhardt Saini-Eidukat, Geosciences, Donald Schwert, Geosciences, Brian Slator, Computer Science, and Alan White, Botany/Biology; Jeff Clark, Sociology/Anthropology, and Joe Latimer, Business Administration, also collaborate with the group.

Papers include 3 being presented at the International Conference on Mathematics/Science Education & Technology, March 1-4, in San Antonio, TX.

• "Cooperative Development of Visually-Oriented, Problem-Solving Science Courseware" by McClean, Schwert, Juell, Saini-Eidukat, Slator, and White
• "A Virtual World For Earth Science Education In Secondary And Post-Secondary Environments" by Schwert, Slator, and Saini-Eidukat
• "Educational Opportunities using VRML in the Classroom" by Juell

One paper at the International Conference on Computers and Their Applications (CATA-99), April 7-9 in Cancun

• "Designing, Building, and Assessing a Virtual World for Science Education" by Saini-Eidukat, Schwert and Slator

One paper at the International Conference on Computers and Advanced Technology in Education (CATE'99), May 6-8 in Cherry Hill, NJ,

• "Phased Development of a Multi-Modal Virtual Educational World" by Slator, Schwert, and Saini-Eidukat

Three papers at the World Conference on Educational Media, Hypermedia and Telecommunications (ED-MEDIA 99), June 19-24 in Seattle, WA.

• "The Virtual Cell: An Interactive, Virtual Environment for Cell Biology" by White, McClean, and Slator
• "Virtual Environments for Education at NDSU" by Slator, Juell, McClean, Saini-Eidukat, Schwert, White and Hill
• "Mixing Media For Distance Learning" by Slator and Hill

In addition, White, McClean and Slator are presenting a refereed abstract, "The Virtual Cell: A Virtual Environment for Learning Cell Biology" at the Tenth International Conference on College Teaching and Learning April 14-17, in Jacksonville, Florida; and Slator and Juell have additional papers appearing in the Small College Computing Symposium (SCCS-99), April 15-17 in La Crosse, WI,