Paper

Upon entering //Bully World,// the user will be put in the perspective of an avatar facing a welcome information billboard. Following the cues on the screen, the avatar will then be transported to the help area to learn how to navigate through the world. From there, the avatar will move to view a number of student profile billboards. After reading a student's confidential record, the user will select two profiles to observe in a scenario. These scenarios represent how the selected students may interact with each other if the teacher is unable to address the situation before it occurs. A resource section will also be available in the world to instruct the user on how to handle bullying situations and direct the user to websites and journal articles to further their knowledge on this topic.

The prototype is limited to two scenarios, further development would lead to many more; expanding beyond verbal bullying into physical and cyber bullying. Additionally, while the prototype is limited to female students, the full version of //Bully World// would include male students as well. More student profiles with varying identifying characteristics would also be included. At this point, the prototype introduces the entire concept of //Bully World// in it's introduction to allow prototype users a greater understanding of what the completed project would entail. However, in the full version, this information would be spread throughout various checkpoints in the levels. The finished version of //Bully World// would have two levels: Prediction and Intervention.

The user will select two students based on the provided profiles. From this information, the user will predict the outcome of an interaction between the two students. Who will be the bully? Who will be the victim? Is one of the students a neutral character? Based on the selection, the user will view a scenario that may result from the interaction between a bully and a victim or a bully and neutral.
 * Prediction level: **

The intervention level will provide the user with strategies to effectively intervene in the scenario and, ideally, prevent bullying from occurring again. The user will first select an action: ignore the situation; report the situation to administration; meet with the parents; punish the student; refer the student to the guidance counselor, etc. After the user selects an option, a corresponding scenario will show if bullying behavior would potentially continue. This allows the user to identify which solution to use based on specific bullying/victim characteristics when solving real bullying incidences in his/her school. More research resources will be available in this section to support the intervention strategies identified.
 * Intervention Strategies: **