Survey response: OpenSim at the University of Lincoln
Joss Winn, Technology Officer at the Centre for Educational Research and Development in the University of Lincoln was one of the first people to respond to the latest “snapshot” call for information. Joss can be found on Twitter.
He’s doing work with OpenSim:
We installed OpenSim on our university network two weeks ago and are looking at its potential to stage an internally funded project to embed our Blackboard VLE in a student produced Virtual World. It’s very, very early days, but the project will be led by staff in the animation department and offer students who are studying animation, the opportunity of creating their avatars, designing and building in a 3D environment and developing a personalised portal to learning resources on Blackboard.
We feel that these students in particular, would engage with the VLE more if embedded in an environment which they enjoy and have helped create.
The University of Lincoln appears to have a pleasingly positive attitude to experimenting with new software. Joss continues:
The Centre for Educational Research and Development maintain their own Linux server at the university and use this to experiment with and host a variety of open source software. It is because of this that we were able to quickly install and set up OpenSim without any consultation or involvement by or ITC department (who are supportive of this approach).
There is already a significant Second Life community in UK academia; it will be interesting to see if an OpenSim development community also forms in the same sector.
Mentioned this in my response to the snapshot; we’re trying to sort out a grid for OpenSim installations across the UK academic community. If anyone has, or wants to have, an OpenSim installation, and would like to join this grid or talk to me about the implications of doing so, please contact me at jrn2005 at cs.st-andrews.ac.uk .