Second Life: Hype or Reality? Higher Education in the Virtual World


Joanna (Xuan) Zhang
Instructional Support Specialist
Center for Support of Instruction
Published: 0 2007

Category: » Online-pedagogy » Emerging-technologies

Overview

If you stay current with the news media, Second Life should not be a strange name to you. Second Life is a Web-based multi-user 3D virtual world developed by Linden Lab, a San Francisco-based company. It is neither the first nor the largest virtual community, but it has become most widely known. Since its first release in 2003, Second Life has become one of the most popular virtual reality tools, attracting educators from all over the world by offering a variety of opportunities for interaction, sense of community, and users' self-building capabilities.

Recent statistics show that there are over 100 educational institutes that have established their virtual campus in Second Life and are actively working in the virtual world (Joly, 2007). As a higher education faculty or administrator, you may be wondering what educators can do in Second Life and what other educators are doing in this virtual world.

What Are They Doing in Second Life

Many researchers and educators are experimenting with teaching/learning activities in Second Life, and other pioneers are developing interactive learning materials by taking advantage of the building and programming features. Additionally, a number of higher education institutes are exploring how to set up student communities in the virtual environment. UMUC has begun exploring how Second Life can be used to enhance student learning as well as building student and faculty communities. As part of a Poster Session at NMC, Julie Gillaim and Kathleen Puckett presented their poster "Using Simulations To Enhance Online Learning".  It provides an overview of three different online simulations created at UMUC.

Teaching Classes in Second Life

Higher education institutes are advancing their online teaching methods by offering classes in Second Life. One of the most widely known pioneers in Second Life is Harvard University. From last fall, Harvard Law School and Harvard Extension School started a pilot by jointly offering a class in Second Life. In this class, student groups developed an argument for presentation at a virtual court room with other students acting as the judges. Different from other typical distance learning delivery platforms, "Second Life gives us the capability to really have a classroom experience with the students", said Rebecca Nesson, the instructor of the class (Lamb, 2006).  In addition, the course integrated Web 2.0 tools such as wikis and blogs with the Second Life environment to enrich learner's media experience. The rich media integration is also a major advantage of Second Life that is valued by many educators.

Town CenterThe main building of Harvard University in Second Life

Bradley University offers a "Field Research in Second Life" class which is designed to teach students how to apply the fundamentals of qualitative field research methods in the ethnographic tradition (Educational Uses of Second Life, 2007). Students explored various communities of practice in Second Life by observing, interviewing, documenting and applying other qualitative research methods. Similarly, a professor at Ball State University uses the field research approach in her English class for research composition.  The professor considers that the major benefits of using Second Life are that students can easily access various online communities, interact with different people, and experience other cultures.

The building and scripting functions of Second Life allows students to create objects and content by themselves, which facilitate experiential learning. The functionalities make Second Life an ideal platform to teach subjects such as computer science and interactive multimedia. For example, a professor of University of Florida teaches an Aesthetic Computing class in Second Life. In the class, students are required to create interactive objects in Second Life with their programming knowledge. Later the professor led a tour and discussion of the digital objects and the programming code developed by students for the course projects. The professor especially values Second Life with its "potential for collaboration, immersion, aesthetics, creativity, social interaction" (Science Daily, 2007).

Developing Self-paced Learning

Ohio University innovated their teaching in Second Life by developing self-paced learning materials and educational games which makes asynchronous learning possible in Second Life. There are multiple "Learning Kiosks" available in the learning center on the virtual campus. Students can access the modularized learning materials, such as presentations, podcasts and blogs, at the kiosks (Athens, 2007). Additionally, the VITAL lab of Ohio University developed a number of learning games to intrigue and enhance  students' learning. For instance, in a nutrition game, learners/players would be able to choose meals based on the nutritional facts attached to each food item throughout the course of the day. In a software engineering process game, learners/players collaborated and played different roles to make a software system for a simulated client. In a Multicultural Genealogical Center (MGC) Clue Game, learners/players would be able to become familiar with the historical documents collected by MGC (VITAL Lab, Ohio University, 2007).

Building Virtual Communities

Ohio University went further to build its virtual community in Second Life through the exploration of teaching/learning. The university has a well constructed campus in Second Life with various buildings such as a student center, learning center, and arts and music center. Students may explore the virtual campus and join real student organizations at the student center. Student groups can meet and collaborate on the virtual campus just as they might on the real one. There is also a virtual art and music center where students may meet artists and listen to live music in the cyberspace (Briggs, 2007).

There are some other colleges that have started their venture in Second Life by building learner communities. Interactive Art and Media School of Columbia College in Chicago hosted its first Manifest Second Life festival this May. In the festival, a virtual nine-layer building displayed the gallery of students' artistic works such as paintings and photographs. A parade was held on the virtual campus. These activities in Second Life were parallel to the real life event held on Columbia College's physical campus. The virtual event in Second Life allowed alumni who could not travel to the campus to be able to participate. Except for hosting virtual events, the college uses its virtual campus as "an information site for prospective students, and a proposed site for educational development in virtual environments" (Columbia College Chicago, 2007).

Town CenterA corner of the NMC Campus in Second Life

Other educational organizations have set up communities in Second Life in a broader way by attracting and supporting educators from everywhere to discuss, explore and practice the educational applications of Second Life. New Media Consortium (NMC) is one of the major educational organizations that have set up a virtual community for educators and have conducted a variety of activities in Second Life. This community supports events, classes, demonstrations, art exhibitions and learning experiences (Educational Uses of Second Life, 2007). The NMC campus has hosted a number of presentations discussing teaching and learning in 3D virtual environment. In addition, the NMC have also hosted many real life conferences with associated sessions in Second Life via streaming audio/video technologies to broadcast real-life events in the virtual world. It is free to join the virtual NMC group as a guest member in Second Life. With the membership, visitors can go to the NMC campus and attend various virtual events.

Promising Applications

Second Life places some challenges for educators, such as the high requirements for computer hardware and network speed. Also, the learning curve could be steep, especially for people with little technical or gaming background. However, its application in distance education still looks very promising to many educators and researchers because of its unique features and associated benefits brought by the virtual reality tool.

One of the major advantages that educators value most is the social networking capability. The visual context of the virtual world generated a sense of presence and shared space which make students feel that they have experienced the benefits of a real class. As we have seen in some of the above examples, the rich opportunities of social interactions provided by the virtual environment are especially valuable for teaching social science related subjects.

In a number of the virtual classrooms and campuses in Second Life, the participant may find opportunities to engage in blogs and wiki pages linked from inside Second Life. The integration of Second Life and external communication media enables users to create, publish and manage content without leaving the 3D virtual environment. Being aware of the integration feature, San Jose State University has developed a programming project which connects Moodle, an open source learning management system, with Second Life. With this learning system, named as "Sloodle", professors and students can easily post content from inside Second Life to their online courses, class blogs and wiki pages.

User self-building and programming features of Second Life make it extremely useful for educators and learners to develop learning content and settings by themselves. With these features, educators may develop learning games, interactive learning objects and other materials for self-paced learning in Second Life. Well designed learning objects and games promote learner-content interaction that may actively engage students in asynchronous learning.

Conclusion

Given that many people have recognized Second Life’s attractive features and its possible applications in education, more and more educators and researchers have started examining the utilization of Second Life in innovative ways for distance teaching. In current research projects, educators are collecting data by surveys and questionnaires, professors and multimedia specialists are building reusable learning objects, developing learning games, integrating various learning media and learning management systems into Second Life. If you are interested in learning more about the Second Life and experiencing the interactivity opportunities and the learning facilities in the virtual world, just visit the Second Life website to create a free account to get started.

References

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