01451nas a2200133   4500008004100000245008400041210006900125300001200194520090400206100002101110700002701131700002501158856013401183       2008                        eng d00aExploiting Virtual Environments to Support Collaborative e-Learning Communities0 aExploiting Virtual Environments to Support Collaborative eLearni  a 1 - 223 aThe main goal of this paper is to facilitate educational designers and developers by providing a point of reference for making decisions on how to incorporate 3D environments into the applications they develop as well as for extending their capabilities by integrating more functionality. Therefore, this paper presents the design principles for virtual spaces, which aim at supporting multi-user communication in web-based learning communities. In addition the implementation of these principles is presented using as point of reference EVE Training Area. This environment constitutes a three-dimensional space where participants, represented by 3D humanoid avatars, have the ability to use a variety of 3D e-collaboration tools for learning together. Furthermore, this paper presents collaborative e-learning usage scenarios that could be realized by exploiting collaborative virtual environments.1 aBouras, Christos1 aTsiatsos, Thrasivoulos1 aGiannaka, Eleftheria  uhttp://telematics.upatras.gr/telematics/publications/exploiting-virtual-environments-support-collaborative-e-learning-communities