Virtual World Watch informally presented at the CETIS / Eduserv Foundation workshop at the University of Strathclyde earlier this month. The presentation gave a swift overview of the snapshot surveys to date, drawing out some generalised findings.
A record number of responses, in various formats, have come in for the January 2009 snapshot. VWW is still going through them, and chasing up various leads and snippets of information. The subsequent report will be out soon, and will be available from here.
VWW has also received feedback about what kind of information actual and potential UK academic virtual world developers need that would be of use to them. More feedback is welcome; this is an interesting issue in itself. Obviously, a seasoned academic in year three of using Second Life for teaching and learning has very different information needs to an academic trying to make the case, inside their institution, for the purchase of an island.
Over the next four weeks, some such information will appear and/or be linked from the Virtual World Watch website.
Andy is the Learning Team Leader at the University of Nottingham. As well as answering the latest snapshot survey, Andy provided a beatiful screenshot of the University of Nottingham marina in Second Life, which forms the title screen of my presentation tomorrow.
The university island can be found here:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/University%20of%20Nottingham/98/43/25
What are you doing in virtual worlds?
We are exploring using SL to provide a web based campus to support teaching and research. This is a fairly new initiative for the University (since Sept 08), but even in this relatively short timeframe the island has already been used to support teaching and research activities.
Are you doing any teaching or learning in virtual worlds such as Second Life?
Yes. For both staff and students. SL has been used to support teaching of undergraduates, as well as sessions aimed at staff who teach. We have also developed a sand box with freebies and tutorials to further develop SL skills, plus additional online support via our e-learning support website. We plan to use a combination of online support and taught sessions (in SL and RL) to widen exposure to the potential of MUVEs for teaching and learning.
Do you think you’ll do more virtual world “stuff” in your institution in the next academic year? What will this be?
Yes. A recent internal call for e-learning projects has resulted in a number of SL based bids. This is encouraging in terms of interest and active use to support teaching and research. These projects will be explored and developed further over the coming months.
The School of Geography at Nottingham is also part of the DELVE project (JISC funded) and they are exploring using virtual worlds.
Tell me interesting “stuff” – anything you think is relevant.
At an upcoming Nottingham e-learning seminar (January 09), I have invited a colleague – who recently used our island to support his teaching – to present to the audience via SL. He is now in Lebanon and I will meet him in SL, he will then use the voice facility in SL and discuss his experiences to an audience in RL. I will relay questions to him from the audience.
Dr. Will Tuladhar-Douglas is an anthropologist specializing in religion, ecology and technology at the University of Aberdeen. His web page (previous link) makes for some pretty interesting reading (especially the stuff about sharing parasites with bats – eww). Anyway, some of his response to the latest snapshot survey follows.
What are you doing in virtual worlds?
We’re building a Buddhist monastery as part of a 2nd year course on the anthropology of Buddhism. It’s not designed to be ‘authentic’ – rather, we’re focussing on the student experience. A subset of the class will create avatars, learn to socialize in Second Life in all its indulgent glory, and then surrender all fashion, wealth and gender to become temporary monks/nuns. After engaging with other inhabitants as mendicant renunciants for a few weeks, they will go back to their ordinary life.
Do you think you’ll do more virtual world “stuff” in your institution in the next academic year?
Yes. We’re planning to integrate with Sloodle and I’m looking to collaborate with creative colleagues on building ‘living manuscripts’ and the like.
Thank you to all those who have responded to the current survey. And especially those who spent time over Christmas and the New Year doing this. Two responses came in on Christmas Day, tho’ that may be a reflection on how bad television is nowadays
If you are thinking “Oh no, I’ve just missed the deadline!” then it is okay to get something in in the next few days. The response rate has been good, and therefore VWW is ploughing through a collection of replies.
We (myself and Andy Powell) look forward to meeting some respondants and other UK academics at the CETIS / Eduserv Foundation workshop on Virtual Worlds on Friday January 16th. I will be there for the whole day and evening, and also some of the day and evening before. If you want to meet up, then please get in touch.
Thanks again,
Virtual World Watch


