Virtual World Watch

Surveying virtual world use in UK universities and colleges

Mar 04

What next for Virtual World Watch?

Events, News, Presentations, Surveys, VWW 1 Comment »

As you may be aware, Eduserv Research (formerly the Eduserv Foundation) no longer funds virtual world stuff. This isn’t due to any derogatory feeling about virtual worlds, or the research they have funded, on their part, but due to changes in internal policy directions. It’s a pity – Eduserv have funded a nice array of projects, and through conferences (massively over-subscribed) and funding calls (also massively over-subscribed) lifted a lid on a lot of interest, and actual activity, in virtual world use in UK academia. They’ve also pontificated, blogged and disseminated on a wide range of virtual world issues – Art Fossett’s blog has over 300 postings, and the eFoundations blog has some recent reflective material too.

So kudos to Andy, Pete and Ed for their Heineken ethos (i.e. refreshing the projects other funding bodies cannot reach).

So, what next for Virtual World Watch? Well, it’s carrying on through 2010 and 2011, at least. VWW is a part-time service run by one person, so it doesn’t cost megabucks to run. There’s sufficient momentum in the use of virtual worlds within UK academia, and enough interesting things happening (not just technically and academically, but socio-economically) to make it worthwhile. And it fits in with my business plan for the next few years.

Anyway, having previously worked on one too many digital info projects which are gathering dust online, it’s nice to see how long such a project or service can be kept active, useful and relevant for.

Funding and advisory group

To maintain perspective (as opposed to one person going off on his own tangent) and replace the support and steerage Eduserv have given over the years, an advisory group of academics is being formed. These people will, well, advise VWW on what it does and what directions it takes, as well as advise on the political situations that regularly face VWW. Academia. Politics. *sigh*

Funding. The initial temptation was to change the name to the “Bank of Virtual World Watch” and approach HM government for a multi-billion pound bailout. This seems to work for others. Instead, VWW is keen to try different models of funding for this service, so the rest of 2010 and 2011 gives plenty of opportunities for this.

Current snapshot (number #8) and other reports

VWW is currently working on three reports/snapshots in parallel. This is not good

Report: “What is virtual world research? What is it not? Hmmm?” The troublesome hangover from the end of last year, which has turned into a reflective piece about the nature of virtual world research. This is (finally) coming out very soon. Thanks especially to contributers who wondered what the heck happened to their submissions.
Report: “Swimming to Jerusalem: four years of virtual world trend-spotting.” Partially a “final report” for Eduserv, and partially a reflective piece on the last few years of watching trends and developments. Out at the end of March/start of April.
Snapshot #8 of virtual world use in UK higher and further education. Also out at the end of March/start of April, the final snapshot under Eduserv funding.

On that last report. As ever, many people have submitted for snapshot #8, and it’s nice that there are a few new people who have submitted for the first time. Though you’ll have missed the draw for people who got theirs in by the end of February, VWW can still take submissions for this snapshot. The final deadline is the end of Sunday March 14th.

Seoul

Future snapshots: 2010 and 2011

After snapshot #8, VWW is settling into a bi-annual approach to snapshots; one at the end of the academic year (June-ish), and one at the end of the calendar year (December-ish). This has the advantage of putting about 6 months between each; one of the main problems with the current compressed cycle is contributers passing as they haven’t had enough time to do significant ’stuff’ since the last snapshot. And they’re probably quietly fed up of being asked every few months.

So, the snapshot schedule for the rest of 2010 and 2011 is:

Snapshot #9: June/July 2010
Snapshot #10: December 2010
Snapshot #11: June/July 2011
Snapshot #12: December 2011

Presentations

VWW is out and about doing presentations in the near future:

Birmingham, UK 18th March: Virtual Worlds in Education Forum
University of Sheffield, UK 18th April: Department of Information Studies
Coventry University, UK Spring (date tbd)
University of Michigan, USA Summer (date tbd)

Want VWW to come and speak to your posse? Here’s some details.

Book

Steady progress is being made on a book about the use of virtual worlds in teaching and learning, based on the last few years experiences in the UK and other research, teaching and use elsewhere. The proofreader and a few reviewers are lined up, and we seem to be pencilled in for a December 2010 release to the masses, just in time for the Christmas book market. Now you know what to get for that aunt who sends you a hand-knitted Rupert Bear jumper every single ******* year, even though you are 41.

Also putting this in writing is another incentive, as I know that if I don’t produce it, there’ll be reminders on public twitter from certain people (hard stare in general direction of Teesside ).

Other stuff

There’s some other stuff that may be produced by VWW, that the advisory group are and will be chewing over; it will be good to reflect on the past few years work first though. Everything, including the book, will go up on, or via, this website.

That’s enough for now. A big thank you to the many UK academics, and other people, who have contributed to the snapshots, Flickr group, and other materials over the last four year. To infinity, and beyond…

Tagged with: college • Eduserv • university

Feb 21

Win a tenner – last call :-)

Surveys, VWW No Comments »

Just a gentle nudge to UK academics doing things with virtual worlds such as Second Life, OpenSim, ReactionGrid and the others. Write a few paragraphs for snapshot #8 about what you’ve done, are doing, or plan to do; submit it by the end of February – that’s a week from now – and you’ll go into the draw to win one of five ten pound notes.

Virtual World Watch can take submissions into the early part of March if you are pressed, but only stuff submitted by 11:59pm on February 28th 2010 will go into the VWW “Lottery of Riches”.

Thanks for all submissions,
Virtual World Watch

Feb 10

Earn £10! (if Ellie the cat likes you)

Surveys, VWW No Comments »

Responses have been coming in for snapshot #8; thanks to those of you who have submitted so far.

As an additional incentive to write responses to snapshot #8 by February 28th; those in by the end of the month will be put into a shoebox. Ellie the cat will then be encouraged to paw at the contents of the box. The senders of the first five responses she paws will receive £10. That’s ten pounds of hard cash, as opposed to Linden Dollars, or some other virtual currency that’s difficult to use at your local (real) pub.

So, in a nutshell. Please get your submissions in by the end of February 28th, and you stand a chance of winning one of 5 ten pound notes.

Thanks,
Virtual World Watch

Tagged with: money cash loot cat

Feb 01

Call for info: Snapshot #8 (Spring 2010)

Surveys, VWW No Comments »

This is a “Request For Information” for the eighth Virtual World Watch snapshot survey. As with the others, this is an opportunity to publicise what you are doing, to your peers, potential collaborators, users of your “stuff” and funders.

There’s one main question which can be interpreted as broadly, or as narrowly, as you wish. As per usual, the scope is limited to UK Higher and Further Education.

The question

How are you using virtual worlds in your teaching, learning or research?

Things you may want to include:

Why you are using a virtual world.
If teaching using a virtual world, how it fits into your curriculum.
Any evaluation of the experience of using the virtual world.
Will you do it again next year? Why (or why not)?

A few side points

Do you know of any other individual, group or project at your institution using virtual worlds for teaching, learning or research? If so, a contact detail would be appreciated.
Do you have any interesting screenshots of what you’ve been doing in virtual worlds? If so, then please consider submitting them to the Virtual World use in UK Education Flickr group – thanks.

Deadline

As per normal there is a backlog of “stuff” to process. *sigh* If you get your submissions in by mid-March, then they’ll make it in. After that, and they *may* make it in.

Thank you for any and all contributions.

Sending information in

Please send your contributions, in whatever format (e.g. email, Word, text) to john (@) virtualworldwatch.net

Please note that these reports are fully public – and available under creative commons – so what you say will be readable by anyone.

This is the last snapshot funded under the Eduserv Foundation/Research regime, before Virtual World Watch moves to the new funding streams. More on that later in the Spring.

Update…

Oh btw – if you get your response in by the end of February 2010, then you could be one of five lucky people to win ten pounds.

Tagged with: college • Eduserv • Learning • snapshot • Teaching • university

Dec 12

Activity snapshot #7 (Winter 2009)

Reports, Surveys, VWW 4 Comments »

This report is available in PDF format.

Summary

From input to this and previous snapshots, plus background research, institutional website searches and anecdotes, it is evident that every UK university except one (the University of the Highlands and Islands) has members of staff who have developed, or are developing, something in a virtual world – though that ‘something’, and the use and educational relevance of it, varies extremely widely.

This snapshot includes input from new respondents. In addition, several academics who are at the early stages of using virtual worlds chose not to report for this snapshot (and will hopefully do so for the next one).

Overall, the picture is one of more virtual world activity in UK academia than in previous years. Several universities, such as Edinburgh and the Open University, are into their third or fourth year of using Second Life and an academic development community continues to grow, though steadily rather than quickly.

As the snapshots reflect only what is reported to us, rather than giving a comprehensive overview, caution has to be taken in comparing activity by subject area. However, some subject domains do appear to be making more use of virtual world technology than others. The biological, health and medical sectors, in particular, make up a large proportion of virtual world activity in UK academia.

Language learning, patient treatment, computer science, health and safety, and art, performance and design stand out as subjects where several institutions are actively using virtual worlds in teaching. Academics in a range of more specific subject areas, such as criminal detection, electrical engineering and midwifery, have used virtual worlds in their teaching.

All 13 of the JISC Regional Support Centres responded to the snapshot survey request for information. The picture they present is of virtual world use being much more isolated and infrequent in further education (FE) than in higher education (HE). Institutional technical barriers and support are still major issues for further education staff. Where institutions have overcome these, substantive virtual world developments have occurred.

The RSCs themselves are providing support in different ways, e.g. events, forming a national coordination grouping, and levering the experience of HE institutions to support FE colleges. Across the 13 regions, staff hold widely differing views on the effectiveness of virtual worlds in education.

As with all previous snapshots, Second Life is the predominant virtual world of choice. Having said that, OpenSim is being mentioned by more respondents than in previous snapshot surveys, though actual implementations in UK academia remain few and far between.

This is the fourth academic year covered by an Eduserv virtual world snapshot, as the first one covered the tail-end of the 2006–07 session. While cases of virtual world use in academia have steadily risen, evaluations and evidence of their effectiveness has been fragmented and low-key. Though the same observation could be leveled at many other technologies – take a bow, Virtual Learning Environments – used in education.

Many academics – possibly a significant majority – are still wary, sceptical or openly hostile to virtual world use in education. More visible proof of where it works may swing the more open-minded of them. With the mass of teaching and research activity currently under way in higher education, it’s only reasonable to hope for more (and better) evaluations, and clarity concerning where virtual worlds can be put to good use and where not. For proof, evidence, data and convincing arguments, 2009 to 2010 feels like the year of virtual world expectation.

Tagged with: Eduserv • JISC • Learning • OLIVE • OpenSim • RSC • Second Life • snapshot • Teaching • university

Oct 27

Snapshot survey #7 of virtual world use in UK Higher and Further Education

Social media, Surveys, VWW 2 Comments »

This is a “Request For Information” for the seventh Virtual World Watch snapshot survey.

This time, there’s just one main question, and a few side points. The main question can be interpreted as broadly, or as narrowly, as you wish. As before, the scope is limited to UK Higher and Further Education.

The question

How are you using virtual worlds (e.g. Second Life, OpenSim, Metaplace, OLIVE, Active Worlds, Playstation Home, Blue Mars, Twinity, Wonderland) in teaching, learning or research?

Things you may want to include:

Why you are using a virtual world.
If teaching using a virtual world, how it fits into your curriculum.
Any evaluation of the experience of using the virtual world.
Will you do it again next year? Why (or why not)?

A few side points

Do you know of any other individual, group or project at your institution using virtual worlds for teaching, learning or research? If so, a contact detail would be appreciated.
Do you have any interesting screenshots of what you’ve been doing in virtual worlds? If so, then please consider submitting them to the Virtual World use in UK Education Flickr group – thanks.

Deadline

Please send your contributions, in whatever format (e.g. email, Word, text) to john (@) virtualworldwatch.net by the end of Friday 20th November. Relevant content submitted by then is guaranteed to go into the report; content received afterwards is unlikely to make it in.

Thank you for your contribution,
Virtual World Watch

Tagged with: Blue Mars • HOME • Learning • Metaplace • OLIVE • OpenSim • Research • Second Life • snapshot • Teaching • Twinity • Wonderland

Sep 17

End of summer and future reports

Events, Reports, Surveys, VWW No Comments »

You can see what reports are coming up, as funded by Eduserv, over the next 6 months; these are nicely spread out to allow enough time to collect data from the increasing number of virtual world activities in UK academia.

As ever, Virtual World Watch is collecting data on teaching and learning activities in the UK Higher and Further Education sector in virtual worlds. And we want to stress; although Second Life is still by far the most-used such ‘world’ for this application, we are interested in the use of other ‘worlds’ as well. Any such information would be warmly received.

Virtual World Watch will be participating in the JISC e-Learning online conference 09 event towards the end of November, and will also be at the Learning Innovation National Workshop earlier that same month in Coventry. If you are interested in VWW speaking at your event or to your crowd, then get in touch.

Tagged with: Eduserv • Learning • Second Life • Teaching

Jun 22

Early summer 2009 snapshot

Quotes, Reports, Surveys, VWW No Comments »

The early summer 2009 snapshot of virtual world activity in UK HE and FE is now available in PDF format.

Executive summary

Second Life (SL) was launched on June 23rd, 2003, making it nearly six years old. Virtual worlds such as SL are therefore not ‘new’. This is apparent when noticing the growing number of UK universities who are into their second or third year of teaching and learning using this technology.

Second Life remains, by far, the ‘virtual world of choice’ for academics in UK universities and colleges. Though OpenSim is mentioned by a minority of vocal academics, the number of non-SL uses and investigations across UK academia is still a small fraction of the SL uses. This does not mean, of course, that Linden Labs should remain confident, or that academics should focus solely/blindly on Second Life. Though well developed (and well used) in academia over the past half-decade, SL still throws up a number of technical, administrative and logistical hurdles for academic practitioners and their institutions.

Second Life in particular is being used in a very wide range of teaching and learning activities. The number of students who take part in these activities varies wildly from just a few to over a hundred in several cases.

A core of universities, most significantly the Open University, Edinburgh and Coventry, have many groups, courses and departments using virtual worlds as a central technology for teaching and learning activities, e.g.

“Virtual worlds have become a core technology for our teaching, learning, research and collaboration.” – Fiona Littleton, Virtual Worlds Development Adviser, University of Edinburgh.

Other universities, such as Lancaster, Teesside, Southampton Solent, Glasgow Caledonian and Strathclyde, are also developing a significant virtual world presence, e.g.

“Lancaster University’s long term plans are grand. We are laying the ground work for more courses to be taught, more students to have access and more research to be conducted.” – Michele Ryan, Department of Management Learning & Leadership, Lancaster University.

Some universities, such as Glasgow, Oxford and Cambridge, report little or no virtual world development, though investigation often shows more activity than is being stated in some of these institutions. Activity in further education remains difficult to quantify, locate or obtain clear information on (this is becoming a long-term problem with the snapshot series).

Trends, especially subject areas of use, are becoming clearer. The academic health and medical science sector in particular has a disproportionate number of virtual world activities. This could be because the subject matter lends itself more easily to such development, and also due to the (relative) ease of funding for such applications. For example, hands-on maternity and birthing simulations have been developed in several UK universities (Coventry, Nottingham, Teesside and Worcester). The full experience is especially difficult to convey in mere textual words, and the author of this report recommends trying one out as a good introduction to the experience of learning in virtual worlds.

Other emerging subject areas where there are several instances of virtual world use include health and safety, art and design, and computer science. However, none of these exhibit anything near the activity of the health and medical sector in its use of Second Life. Fewer academics are complaining about technical issues, such as equipment and Second Life viewer update access in universities. This reduction is most likely due to a combination of some academics giving up in ‘unfertile’ institutions, whilst other institutions are now more supportive of virtual world activities.

Tagged with: college • Learning • Research • Second Life • Teaching • university

Previous Entries

Virtual World Watch

What next for Virtual World Watch?

Win a tenner – last call :-)

Earn £10! (if Ellie the cat likes you)

Call for info: Snapshot #8 (Spring 2010)

Activity snapshot #7 (Winter 2009)

End of summer and future reports

Early summer 2009 snapshot

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