Andrew Marunchak, University of Hertfordshire
This is where I did my degree several decades ago now, so it is pleasing to see the University (or Hatfield Polytechnic as it was then) being active in virtual worlds. The respondent, Andrew Marunchak, was also the first person to reply to a snapshot survey request, way back in 2007.
Why are you?
My name’s Andrew Marunchak, I work in real-time 3D and am the chief developer of the University of Hertfordshire’s Second Life presence.
What are you doing in virtual worlds?
I started work on the SL UH presence, in a part-time capacity, over a year ago. Since then, interest has grown and two new members have been added to the team. Originally, the goal of the project was to gain exposure in a popular 3D social network but it has since been altered to include research into how such environments are able to facilitate communication and learning. I now work full-time as part of a team dedicated to creating real-time 3D simulations and architectural visualisation inside SL as well as various other 3D engines at the UH.
David Lee, the Virtual Campus Manager, also contributed a reply to this question: Researching and teaching in SL. Currently we have finished building our island and are actively using it to teach Law, Radiography, 3D interactive media, Real time media streaming, 3D animation, creative writing, Computer Science and much more. We have started researching Unity for simulations, Visualisations and to build a private MUVE that is webpage accessible.
Are you doing any teaching or learning in virtual worlds such as Second Life?
I’m currently assisting a module called “3D Interactive Media”. It is the first we have run inside a networked virtual environment and is designed as a means of introducing students to the concepts of networked 3D worlds and cyberculture in general.
The presence is freely available for all staff to use and we encourage them to leave us feedback. We have streamed live events such as our Science and Technology Research Showcase and Digital Animation exposé into SL.
Do you think you’ll do more virtual world “stuff” in your institution in the next academic year? What will this be?
Most of the activities currently taking place are research oriented. There is growing interest in this field and as a growth industry there is plenty of data to collect. We need to establish best practices for teaching and learning so as to bring some order to how we engage with this new medium.
Tell me interesting “stuff” – anything you think is relevant.
The key to making a virtual world usable for an educational establishment is accessibility. In the case of Second Life, people have to download the client and register an account, which has proven to be a confusing process for (some) staff and students alike. We have gone to great lengths to streamline this process to the point of installing the SL client in our Learning Resource Centre and using the ‘Reg API’ (registration assisted programming interface) provided by Linden Lab to allow students to create accounts from inside the university network.
We are also working on a way to fix a few issues we’re having with voice chat (we have a separate network for staff and students, freeing up ports is proving to be problematic).
