About
Virtual worlds in UK Higher and Further Education
There are an increasing number of virtual worlds, allowing distant people to create avatars (physical personas), meet, trade, communicate and develop (virtual) infrastructures in a shared online environment. As of July 2008, Wikipedia listed 49 such worlds; several dozen more are not listed, or are in development.
Second Life is by far the most widely used virtual world in education. At the end of March 2008, approximately 13 million accounts were registered on Second Life, although there are no reliable figures for actual long-term consistent usage. For a variety of technical and functional reasons, and assisted by active support from the maintainers, Second Life has become the predominant virtual world for serious educational uses. Hundreds of universities, colleges and schools have used Second Life for holding meetings and classes, enabling students to run or recreate exhibitions, distance learning, student recruitment, online research and dissemination.
Research underpinning the May 2008 snapshot revealed that over 80% of UK universities were developing or teaching within the Second Life virtual world. This statistic astonished many UK academics, helping to overturn some misassumptions about virtual world activity within the education sector. Ongoing research shows a constant uptake of Second Life in particular by academics and researchers (of all levels of seniority) within UK Higher and Further Education.
However, recently several alternative virtual worlds have appeared. While Second Life stays the overwhelming choice of UK academics for teaching and learning purposes, an increasing number are discussing and experimenting with these alternatives to see if any can provide a “better” environment.
Information deficits
Until the Eduserv Foundation started to fund research into Second Life activity in UK Higher and Further Education, there was no centralised or easy way of assessing the extent of such activity. The majority of academic Second Life developers had not publicised their work (and many continue in this low-key way), while others disseminated across an increasingly fragmented media (e.g. blogs, university websites, conferences, Twitter, events in Second Life).
In addition, the fast-developing sector of virtual worlds means the traditional process of peer-reviewed publication is unsuitable for producing up-to-date information and analysis.
Many teaching and research staff, ICT funders and services within the UK academic sector have found the snapshots useful. A specific comment that is frequently repeated is that these reports have provided the only authoritative, reliable or comprehensive source of information on:
- The extent of virtual world use in UK universities.
- Which academics and institutions are using virtual worlds.
- What, exactly, virtual worlds are being used for.
The reports have also been used by academics as proof or evidence that virtual worlds should at least be investigated more thoroughly as teaching and learning technologies.
However … correspondence with academics has highlighted several other areas of information deficit. These include:
- Alternatives to Second Life, especially alternatives that do not have some of the technological, logistical or financial hurdles that some feel Second Life to have.
- What is currently being researched in the application of virtual worlds to education. The peer-reviewed publication system means it is difficult to determine current trends.
- Where more research or survey data concerning virtual world use in education, or other such proof or evidence – of academic quality – can be found.
Virtual World Watch will continue the snapshot series and the underlying research, but taking a wider view of virtual world use in education. This should result in the three aforementioned information “deficits” being addressed, as a by-product of the research. A timetable of forthcoming reports, as well as summaries and downloadable versions of completed reports, is available.
As with the previous snapshots, Virtual World Watch is funded by the Eduserv Foundation. The research is being carried out by John Kirriemuir, with considerable (and appreciated) help from virtual world developers and users in the UK Higher and Further Education sectors.
