Approaches for 3D-visualizations and knowledge worlds for exploratory learning

Graphical knowledge representations open promising perspectives to support the explorative learning on web. 2D-visualization are recently evaluated as gainful knowledge exploration systems, whereas 3D-visualization systems did not find their way into web-based explorative learning. 3D-visualizations and "3D Knowledge Worlds", as virtual environment in context of e-learning, comprise a high degree of authenticity, because the used metaphors are known by the users from the real world. But different challenges like the usage of 3D-Knowledge World without losing the learning context and the focused learning goals are rarely investigated and considered. New technologies provide the opportunity to introduce 3D-visualizations and environments on web to support a web-based explorative learning. Therefore it is necessary to investigate the prospects of 3D-visualization for transferring and adopting knowledge on web. The following paper describes different approaches to use 3D-visualization and Knowledge Worlds for conveying knowledge on web-based systems using web-based contents. The approaches for 3D visualizations are classified into different layout algorithm and the knowledge worlds are classified interaction character.