While Kathryn Trinder has decided on a career change to learn how to grow [find vegetable that grows in Scotland; shortbread?], her mind has been turning to using her previous experience of virtual worlds in education as part of her new learning experiences. Here’s her contribution to Virtual World Watch snapshot #10.
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What are you doing with virtual worlds? (And how long have you been doing it?)
I used to be active in VWs in a Scottish University, since around 2007, but since taking a career change earlier this year I’ve stopped that particular strand of work.
However, now looking at this from a student perspective (trainee gardener), who has an assignment coming up in which I have to design and plan a vegetable plot, I’ve begun looking at how to simulate that in a VW, so that I can see the layout, growth patterns, sizes and spacing, etc.
Which virtual worlds are you using? Why those in particular?
I would have done it in Second Life so that I could easily get ‘vegetables’ and not have to build those myself, but as I no longer have land there I’m looking at OpenSim or Kitely instead as these are accessible to me. OpenSim I’ll have control over and should be able to take my work into colllege to show my tutors easily (USB key style). I need to refresh myself on what’s available in Kitely.
I was considering using it for Horticultural Mechanisation as well, but I ran out of time. (A giant hydrostatic transmission set up, 4 stroke engine, or cylinder mower would have been great for understanding it better!)
3. What support do you get in your institution in your use of virtual worlds?
No idea as a student of the Scottish Agricultural College, but as we now share a campus at Ayr with UWS, I may be chatting to Dan Livingstone soon.
I’m not aware of any SAC activity in VWs, but there must be lots of possibilites, especially thinking back to the work Ferdinand was doing at GCU with the Sustainable House, as there is a course here on Sustainable Building.
(/waves to Ferdinand – I’ll see what I can find out and get back to you if theres any chance of a lead there! 
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Any thoughts on the integration of virtual worlds with other learning technologies?
SAC is now using Moodle …so… watch this space (/waves to Dan & @GianninaRossini! )
The catch-all: anything else you’d like to say?
Glad to see there is still activity in VWs. 
Some notes from Austin Tate, Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, on what they are doing with virtual worlds. Here’s his contribution to Virtual World Watch snapshot #10.
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As well as its Second Life regions (currently 7 in use) the Virtual University of Edinburgh (Vue) has had access for the last 5 years to an OpenSim-based grid “Openvue” – running on 3 server computers hosted within the Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute (AIAI) in the School of Informatics in the University of Edinburgh. Most of its regions are accessible over the “HyperGrid” by avatars in other OpenSim grids. Vue also has regions on other OpenSim-based grids with open avatar registration – on OSGrid and New World Grid (regions NewVue and NewVCE). A Freeswitch server provides voice support on the Openvue, Newvue (New World Grid) and OSGrid.
Openvue is being used for experimentation and feedback to the OpenSim development community, often running the very latest development version of the OpenSim server software. Openvue and the Open Virtual Collaboration Environment projects at Edinburgh have also supported the development of an entire OpenSim region with meeting rooms, lecture theatre, expo pavilion and classooms, along with presentation screens and a link up with web portals. This “OpenSim Archive (OAR) file is freely available and has been ported between the Openvue grid, OSGrid, New World Grid and the MOSES Grid.
Two years ago some work took place in the School of Informatics to test Moodle linkups to Second Life using the SLoodle classroom kit. This work is now being retried using Moodle 2.x and Second Life and OpenSim virtual worlds. A new PhD student project in the School of Informatics starting in Autumn 2011 has started to look at intelligent classroom educational technologies involving I-Rooms and Moodle/SLoodle.
Today, it’s Dr Suzanne Lavelle, on some of the work using Second Life for teaching and research in the University of Leicester.
And, yes, you still have a few days (not weeks) to get any last submissions of what you are doing with virtual worlds in for inclusion in snapshot #10.
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1. What are you doing with virtual worlds? (And how long have you been doing it?)
The SWIFT project, run by GENIE (based within the Department of Genetics at the University of Leicester) and funded by the Higher Education Academy, is a 3-year research project which is investigating the effectiveness of using Second Life for genetics education. We are running 3 different scenarios/experiments with first and second year biological science and medical students. In these we have progressed from a fairly simple health and safety lab with some interactive items, to a self-directed training area and individual working where students get to grips with performing a genetic screen for inherited conditions, to a scenario where students work in groups to develop a medically important protein. In two cases we have used the PIVOTE system along with Second Life to provide interactive exercises for the students.
We are 2 and a half years into the 3 year research project, which is due to end in August 2012.
2. Which virtual worlds are you using? Why those in particular?
We are using Second Life, primarily because of our links with the Beyond Distance Research Alliance (BDRA) which is based at the University of Leicester. The BDRA under the former directorship of Gilly Salmon already had an island in Second Life which they were using for their Moose Project, and for this reason, we used the technology with which we were most familiar and in which we had already invested quite a lot of resources.
3. What support do you get in your institution in your use of virtual worlds?
It is getting better. We still don’t have free and unlimited access for students to Second Life across campus, but things are changing slowly. IT is very helpful when we need access, it is granted and they are very good at getting new viewers installed on the computer system and in upgrading computers in named areas where we are planning to use Second Life. Of course, the ideal solution would be for students to have free and unrestricted access, and I feel that this is a real possibility in the future.
With regard to support from teaching staff, this is variable. Some are very interested in it and are keen to see how they can use the technology for elements of their course, but there are others who think it is some kind of slippery slope into hell from which the students will return without having learned anything at all.
4. What do you like/dislike about the virtual worlds you are using?
I dislike the costs and the loss of the education discount in Second Life, but I do like the way it works, the flexibility it offers and the fact that there is a support system out there (somewhere) if you are in dire straits.
5. If teaching using virtual worlds, what’s the experience been like, for you and/or the students?
I have taught using Second Life and for the most part, the experience has been a positive one for both myself and for the students. Naturally, some students dislike it – but for the most part, they not only enjoy it, but seem to like the fact that the university is trying out new things. I find teaching in smaller groups is much better. Recently I took a class of 35 students into Second Life, and although they were doing the work in smaller groups and on their own, it was very difficult to support them properly and to keep track of who was doing what and where.
Time is also an issue when using Second Life – everything takes much longer and that is a factor that we are only just beginning to realise the full implications of when trying to adapt some of the teaching materials for Second Life. It all takes so much more time – and perhaps because the students find it more fun, they don’t take it as seriously and also spend time “playing” with their avatars rather than performing the tasks. As the students I teach only get a very small amount of time in Second Life, this novelty factor does not wear off, and so has to be worked around.
6. Any thoughts on the integration of virtual worlds with other learning technologies?
It would be wonderful if work could be set for students to complete in Second Life, but that this could be monitored or marked somehow using some other learning technology – perhaps some sort of integration with BlackBoard would prove to be of use? I am not really sure about this one.
7. The catch-all: anything else you’d like to say?
I have heard people say that no-one is interested in Second Life as an educational tool any more – but I think that they are wrong. There is a lot still to learn about how these virtual environments can be used in education.
There is very little real research out there as to the effects, benefits, downsides and results of using virtual worlds in education. It seems like many are simply saying it doesn’t work because of lack of evidence. Where was the evidence that said that the internet would be a useful tool in education? Where was the evidence that says that interactive white boards are useful tools in education?
Like most things, virtual worlds are there, they can be used in wonderful ways by educators to enhance teaching and learning, and just because the evidence is not there yet, I don’t feel that they should be dismissed just yet.
Today, a brief submission from Michael Callaghan and Kerri McCusker of the University of Ulster, for Virtual World Watch snapshot #10. Michael and Kerri are in the Serious Games and Virtual Worlds team at the University.
Tomorrow, it’s the turn of Dr Suzanne Lavelle, from Leicester University.
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1. What are you doing with virtual worlds? (And how long have you been doing it?)
The main focus of the Serious Games and Virtual Worlds team at the University of Ulster is on Engineering Education.
Our research looks at the integration of virtual worlds, virtual learning environments and external hardware (sensors, test instrumentation, circuit boards), and the use of gameplay mechanics in this context.
We are looking at creating engaging collaborative/competitive group/team based learning experiences to teach electronic and electrical circuit theory.
We have also started to look at the use of intelligent tutoring systems in the context of virtual worlds and the nuances/affordances this offers e.g. how can these sort of systems be used effectively in 3D virtual environments.
We’ve been working with virtual worlds for over four years.
2. Which virtual worlds are you using? Why those in particular?
We are using Second Life, but moving to Opensim and Unity. OpenSim for the cost and flexibility. Unity as we are doing a lot of work in games.
3. What support do you get in your institution in your use of virtual worlds?
Our research is mainly externally funded.
4. What do you like/dislike about the virtual worlds you are using?
The usual. Installing clients, frequent updates, network/firewall problems, and support when using open source technologies.
5. If teaching using virtual worlds, what’s the experience been like, for you and/or the students?
Positive. The students are generally highly engaged, very open to trying new technologies and interested in trying new approaches to learning.
6. Any thoughts on the integration of virtual worlds with other learning technologies?
This is the main focus of the team’s research. The bringing together/integrating of a range of different/diverse technologies, usually not designed for this purpose, into coherent teaching tools is challenging, interesting, frustrating and rewarding, all in equal measures.
7. The catch-all: anything else you’d like to say?
Yes. I’m still interested, and excited, about the potential of this area.
Submissions for snapshot #10 have rolled in over the last few weeks, and there’s a growing pile of them to get through. Expect to see one or two daily on here for a while – and you can still get your submission in, if you are an academic in the UK or Ireland, doing something with virtual worlds. Please remember to include a few links to relevant things online, so people can find their way to your work, research or results.
Today’s featured submission is from Liz Falconer, the director of the Education Innovation Centre at the University of the West of England. Tomorrow it’s Michael Callaghan from the University of Ulster.
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1. What are you doing with virtual worlds? (And how long have you been doing it?)
We’ve been active in virtual worlds since 2007 and our main focus at the University of the West of England is on using virtual worlds for simulations of experiences it would otherwise be difficult, impractical, unethical or just dangerous for our students to experience pre-qualification. Subjects now being covered include environmental health, nursing, emergency response training, sociology, counseling in psychology and business ethics. We’re planning to develop midwifery, animal training and automotive engineering scenarios in the coming year.
Next year our biggest development will be the MA Education in Virtual Worlds, which will run entirely in virtual worlds. It will be based in Second Life, but will also explore a range of other types of virtual world. It goes to validation in March 2012 with a planned Sept 2012 start (see http://www.uwe.ac.uk/elearning/virtualWorldsMA/index.shtml).
2. Which virtual worlds are you using? Why those in particular?
We’ve used Second Life exclusively for our developments so far, as it is easy to access, one of the better and more intuitive virtual worlds for development, and is where most HEIs are active, so the opportunity for collaboration is greatest there.
3. What support do you get in your institution in your use of virtual worlds?
A lot now. We have three islands in Second Life and a great deal of interest and support, both practical (fees, innovation funding etc) and ideological (e.g. support for the curriculum development of the MA in Education in Virtual Worlds). We seem to be moving into a phase where virtual worlds are taken very seriously as potential environments for learning which means, as an institution, we don’t waste time trying to repeatedly convince ourselves any more.
4. What do you like/dislike about the virtual worlds you are using?
We like the accessibility and collaboration aspects of Second Life, but it could be more robust. It still has a tendency to shut down regions with little warning, which is an issue for scheduled teaching.
5. If teaching using virtual worlds, what’s the experience been like, for you and/or the students?
We now have lots of data on teaching and learning experiences from the evaluations we have done of various projects. Overall, it is like any form of teaching and learning experience. If the experience has been well thought-out and enthusiastically driven by the teaching staff, it is successful. If not, it isn’t.
The overwhelming outcome of evaluations so far has been positive, both from the point of view of the students learning in a way that gives them the chance to have new experiences, and from the tutors being able to see their students learn in a physical sense.
6. Any thoughts on the integration of virtual worlds with other learning technologies?
I guess it depends on what you mean by integration? With the web-on-a-prim facilities in Second Life now, we can give the impression of integration fairly well. To be honest, I can’t see a reason for a virtual world to be “part” of a virtual learning environment for example, and in any case that’s not what virtual worlds are for. They are open, collaborative spaces, rather than controlled spaces for private student-tutor transactions.
We’re starting to put this together with the contributions that have come in so far. Some of these have been posted on this website over the last few weeks.
If you’re in the education sector in the UK or Ireland and you use virtual worlds, feel free to add your bit by answering some or all of seven questions. This is further exposure and publicity for your work, as the final report will be sent off to 219 people who fall into these categories:
1. UK and Ireland funding bodies who fund virtual world in education activities.
2. Journalists who specialise in technology in education news.
3. Relevant government and civil service departments.
4. The owners/developers of key virtual worlds.
5. Major research groups (worldwide) involved in virtual world in education research.
Here’s the seven questions:
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1. What are you doing with virtual worlds? (And how long have you been doing it?)
2. Which virtual worlds are you using? Why those in particular?
3. What support do you get in your institution in your use of virtual worlds?
4. What do you like/dislike about the virtual worlds you are using?
5. If teaching using virtual worlds, what’s the experience been like, for you and/or the students?
6. Any thoughts on the integration of virtual worlds with other learning technologies?
7. The catch-all: anything else you’d like to say?
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Email responses to: john@virtualworldwatch.net – if you attach a nice screenshot or two, then it may also join the other posts on the VWW website. Do it pretty soon though, if you want to be included in the report.
From the library school in Sheffield University, here’s Sheila Webber’s contribution to snapshot #10. Sheila blogs about her adventures in virtual worlds, and also tweets.
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1. What are you doing with virtual worlds? (And how long have you been doing it?)
Since 2007 I have been (based on our island, Infolit iSchool):
- Teaching a first year undergraduate Information Management class. This year this meant introducing them to SL, supporting them in creating team exhibits focused around a presentation, on mini-islands, and then setting up interviews so that each student could do a research interview. This year they were interviewing mostly students at Gwinnett College Georgia, USA, a collaboration facilitated by (SL) Grizzla Pixelmaid. This year there were 40 students in this class. This is a video of delegates at a SL conference visiting the mini-islands in October 2011.
- Having sessions with Masters students in an optional class Educational Informatics. They learn the SL basics, and visit educational locations. For the last couple of years they have had to attend at least one session at the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference and report back on the session in SL.
- Organising events of interest, in particular, to librarians and educators. There is a list of past events at online.
- A regular event currently is a Second Life journal club; see a snippet from the first one. These are now usually held in the journal club room on Infolit iSchool.
- This is a video of snippets of the mini conference held in SL to celebrate the launch of my department as part of the iSchools association, in June 2011 (we had speakers from two iSchools in the USA, a discussion led by a librarian here and a talk from Professor Ford at my iSchool plus fireworks at the end).
- I am co-supervising a PhD student (Ridvan Ata, SL Ridvan-Researcher) who is investigating teaching in Second Life.
- I attended various events in SL, so I have been using it for networking and personal development.
- I revised the 3D model of the SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Literacy (free on the island, see below for the smaller free standing model and the wearable 7 pillars hat) and also encouraged additions to the Health Literacy Corner on Infolit iSchool.

2. Which virtual worlds are you using? Why those in particular?
I am still using Second Life. Reasons are:
- Do not need to be a technical expert to build simple items (like the SCONUL model) or to use the functions in SL, or to do very simple hacks on things that other talented people have made. This to me is a big plus over e.g. OpenSim where you need SOMEONE with technical expertise involved. My eyes pixelate over when people start talking about IARS and OARS.
- Huge variety of high-quality content which enables you to customise your environment at low cost: the standard of creation on things like buildings, furniture, plants is very high indeed now with some creators.
- Places to go, people to see, events to attend. This is of particular relevance to the Educational Informatics students.
- International community (exploited through the partnership with Gwinnett College this year).
- Seems to be a good chance it will still be here next year: unlike some other worlds that have come and gone.
- I am in SL recreationally: sightseeing, doing virtual home decorating, trying on outfits. There really are always new things to explore. I wouldn’t be using SL for teaching if I did not think there was a pedagogical aim (and I do think that, especially for the information managers and librarians I teach), but the fact that I LIKE being in SL obviously influences me too. By contrast, I do not spend much me-time on Wimba and Blackboard

When VWER had an opensim area I did toy with that, but I did not devote much time to it, and then it closed. I’ve visited some other areas, and I will have to look at alternatives more seriously when the island rental is due next autumn.
3. What support do you get in your institution in your use of virtual worlds?
The Information School, together with the School of Education, have paid rental on our SL island to September 2012. A couple of my colleagues support my teaching in SL (by co-tutoring in sessions).
We still aren’t allowed the SL browser on the desktop at my university, so there is still limited access to SL for my students on campus: which, as the majority can’t easily access it from home, continues to be a pain.
4. What do you like/dislike about the virtual worlds you are using?
See question 2 as regards what I like. Dislikes include, I suppose, the inevitable wish that land was cheaper so that we could afford more space for staff and students. I also wish that it was less demanding in terms of computing and graphics power, but then I can see how that is the down side of a strength (e.g. the huge number of different graphics in SL).
I would be fine with SL needing a dedicated browser (it only takes a moment to boot it up, and it boots up automatically ) if only we had it on the campus computers. I like the commercial side of SL; I think it adds to the richness and complexity and there is lots you can do with no linden, if you want to.
5. If teaching using virtual worlds, what’s the experience been like, for you and/or the students?
Probably pretty much the same as in previous years that I’ve answered this question, except that this year I’ve had assistance in the classroom from my PhD student, and it has made the classroom teaching a bit less stressful and more interesting (having discussions about SL teaching with another interested person – mostly those discussions have taken place within SL only, before).
Teaching in SL requires a lot of planning (thinking about what might go wrong, designing interventions that are meaningful and achievable), but then a lot of my teaching (in any environment) requires a lot of planning because I have moved away from doing lots of straight lectures in face-to-face teaching to constructivist, inquiry- and problem-based approaches.
The possibility of working with people who are geographically remote, as tutors in SL, is a great thing. In particular this year I have valued the contribution of (SL) Pancha Enzyme (Edinburgh University).
I think the “VW gen” still hasn’t reached university, at least not in the UK. In terms of spontaneous reactions this year, I would say they varied from “cool” “so pretty” to reactions that indicated – ok, this is something we have to do.
6. Any thoughts on the integration of virtual worlds with other learning technologies?
There was a application which I heard about at the VWBPE conference which sounded interesting – the name of which I can’t immediately remember I think that how use of VWs integrate with face-to-face teaching is equally interesting – thinking of the whole blend of environments that are being used. It would be useful (e.g.) to save chatlogs or photos directly into Blackboard, or to have been able to export presentations into SL more easily – though having said that, the way that Blackboard handles graphics is very clunky. Actually, integrating SL with MS Office would probably be more useful!
7. The catch-all: anything else you’d like to say?
No, except thanks for all the snapshots!
Daniel is one of the long-term users of virtual worlds in UK academia, hailing from the University of the West of Scotland. Here’s his latest, for snapshot #10. And you still have time to get your contribution in for this latest information-gathering exercise.
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1. What are you doing with virtual worlds? (And how long have you been doing it?)
Virtual worlds have some use here in teaching; we are also developing and evaluating tools to integrate Virtual Worlds and VLEs (i.e. SLOODLE). I’ve been doing this stuff for around five years now.
Over the last year I was involved in a JISC LTIG project “Supporting Learning in Virtual Worlds with VLEs”. This was with partners at Imperial College London, The Open University and The University of Ulster. With pilot studies across four universities in engineering, computing science and medicine, and with pilot groups using virtual worlds to support learning through simulation, informal discussion groups and through clinical role-play, the project was able to explore a range of the different ways in which web-based learning environments can be used to support learning in virtual worlds.
More here: http://virtualworldsandvles.jiscinvolve.org/wp/
2. Which virtual worlds are you using? Why those in particular?
Second Life and OpenSim. We have a much reduced presence in Second Life due to their increased costs and our reduced ability to get funding in current climate.
I started in Second Life; it’s very easy to get started (still is really), very flexible for a wide range of tasks. The ability for SL objects to communicate with internet at large is very useful for developing new features and tools.
OpenSim has developed fantastically well – but it’s still having issues with getting everything working with the complex multi-domain and very firewalled network setup at the University of the West of Scotland. For example, I can very easily run OpenSim on staff domain – but then it is only visible within that domain. To run on the public web, I am reliant on tech support. Tech support here is very constrained; they are willing to help, but limited in time available.
Student projects last year also included one project using Half-Life 2 with Garys Mod to develop a game. A bit tangential, but there is quite a bit more game based learning/serious games work at UWS that doesn’t quite fall into the ‘virtual worlds’ domain.
One member of staff is currently exploring Open Wonderland. ICT are providing some support and have made a server available. This is early days, however, and further work has yet to be done before it is available to additional staff and to students – but the plan is to explore how we can make use of the platform to provide additional support to students.
3. What support do you get in your institution in your use of virtual worlds?
Technical support have agreed to set up OpenSim & OpenWonderland. This is proceeding, but slowly.
4. What do you like/dislike about the virtual worlds you are using?
Overall, they are very time consuming – and I am finding I never have quite enough time! They all have a range of limitations, but lack of time is really my biggest problem.
5. If teaching using virtual worlds, what’s the experience been like, for you and/or the students?
Computer science students are often underwhelmed. Games oriented students in particular are often disappointed by how clunky Second Life is in comparison to the latest version of Call of War: Shoot them In the Face IV, or whatever. Providing a good *reason* for using virtual worlds is something that really has to come at the start of a class, or there are real challenges engaging students. To an extent, this is true for doing anything outside the norm with students; for example, with other students we have to carefully explain why we are asking them to blog.
6. Any thoughts on the integration of virtual worlds with other learning technologies?
Yes. In brief, to get the full potential of virtual worlds, they have to stop being a ‘ghetto’ type activity. Barriers have to be broken down between virtual worlds and the wider web, and usability has to dramatically improve.
Rather than try to repeat them all here, can I direct people to http://www.sloodle.org/ and
http://virtualworldsandvles.jiscinvolve.org/wp/ The final report of the latter is also available online and has two conclusions:
General Conclusions
Across the range of pilots, students have generally responded enthusiastically to virtual world based learning activities – whether individual or group simulations, tutor groups or role-play. This provides some support to prior claims on the uses of virtual worlds for learning and teaching.
As specifically regards the integration of VW and VLE, integration with VLE does not require the use of specific software, but can be as simple as providing adequate scaffolding and guidance on VLE for VW activities – but students do not always read instructions. Thus it remains important to use signage or other guidance within the virtual world itself: design not just of the learning tasks but of the surroundings can be very important for self-guided use of simulations as it is easy to get lost in a 3D environment such as SL.
Conclusions for Wider Community
SLOODLE has now been tested on one of the very largest production Moodle environments in the world. From this, and the close code review by core Moodle developers that preceded this, we have greatly increased confidence in the reliability, security and performance of the SLOODLE software.
Yet the OU experience offers a conclusion that the institutional reviews necessary in order to implement anything on the VLE should not be underestimated – getting additional software added to an institutional VLE may take many months and require multiple approvals before it can proceed. Tighter integration between VW and VLE (such as by using SLOODLE) can support enhanced formative and summative assessment, and allow tutors to more easily track student progress. It can also benefit students by allowing them more rapid feedback than might be the cases if VW and VLE activities are separated.
Today it’s the turn of David Burden, of Daden Limited, with his submission for virtual world watch snapshot #10. As you’ll read, they’ve been heavily involved in virtual world developments in education for many a long year now.
Next week, we’ll feature submissions by Mark Conrad, Sheila Webber and Daniel Livingstone, amongst others.
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1. What are you doing with virtual worlds? (And how long have you been doing it?)
We are still focussed on using virtual worlds for education/training, and building/data visualisation. I’ve been in Second Life (SL) since 2004, and in virtual worlds since VRML back in 1997.
Our big project in the education space at the moment is working with Academy 360 up in Sunderland. They are a through school – 5 – 16 – and we are working with them to create a successor to the PIVOTE virtual world authoring tool. The new system will be far easier to use and allow you to not only build the logic and 2D content of a learning exercise on the web, but also to design the 3D environment using the equivalent of a 2D “kitchen designer” drag and drop system. Our initial scenarios include a beachcombing exercise – where teachers will be able to lay out the beach from a set of library objects, and a classroom management exercise – again with a library of school type assets. Working with the school means that we are getting real user input form the word go, and we are also collaborating on the project with the educationalists at the University of Hull. We hope to have a first public release early in 2012.
Another project we had this year was creating a distance learning space for Hamdan Bin-Mohammed eUniversity in Dubai. This was a conventional, if futuristic looking, teaching space, which brought their Moodle system into SL using shared media, and we then developed a HUD system which let the teacher “push” pages to the students, and enable the students to raise questions through a HUD based “hands up” mechanism.
Something else we did that was a little bit different for a University in Florida was to create an SL to SMS gateway so students from SL chat could SMS message their teachers for help, and the teacher could reply back into SL via SMS – with everything being logged. The core SL application was for accountancy training – not the first thing you think of using SL for.
We are also continuing to support projects at places such as Coventry University, the University of Leicester, the University of West England, University of Central Florida and City University of New York.
2. Which virtual worlds are you using? Why those in particular?
Second Life, OpenSim and beginning to get involved with Unity and HTML5. We love the flexibility and ease of development in SL, and OpenSim then lets us not only run that locally but also to add server code functionality, either direct, or through region modules, or though mechanisms like the bounty we recently paid to have the osNPC functions fixed.
Some clients though want something more closed down and installable, and Unity seems a good route for that. And HTML5/WebGL looks like it could be a good next step on the road to a standards based, zero foot print virtual world architecture – I think we’re more attracted to that than the OpenSim/Unity hybrids.
3. What support do you get in your institution in your use of virtual worlds?
Not applicable since we’re a private company, but we still get the impression that our clients find it an uphill struggle in their institutions – private and public. The recent RelIve conference had a good summary of the challenges – near and long term.
4. What do you like/dislike about the virtual worlds you are using?
SL is still not 100% solid – especially voice, but the new mesh support is great, and viewer 3 looks like what viewer 2 should have been. But having got used to OpenSim where I can develop worlds on the train I find it hard to see why I should spend much more time in SL – although you do miss the social side.
The OAR capability is stunning, being able to save whole builds off and email them to people, and the emerging osNPC functionality will mean that we can finally populate the virtual world with virtual people.
5. If teaching using virtual worlds, what’s the experience been like, for you and/or the students?
Not applicable – although again from our clients feedback there is still some polarisation of student views, but after they’ve actually been exposed to the environment and use it the net feedback is far more positive. We just need to make it a lot easier to get in and do stuff.
6. Any thoughts on the integration of virtual worlds with other learning technologies?
Lots. Virtual Worlds need to be embeddable within a VLE, need to be able to exchange data with a VLE, and to be able to embed the VLE on screens with the world.
However a virtual world experience is very different to standard VLE content (slides, quizes) so we’ve never been particular advocates of sucking existing VLE content out and representing it in the virtual world. One insight we had at the reLive content was not so much “what would happen if SL dies” but rather “what would have happened if Google’s Lively had lived”. Imagine being able to drop users into a bespoke virtual world from every page of your VLE – perhaps HTML5/WebGL will give us that.
7. The catch-all: anything else you’d like to say?
Just about covers it. I think everyone is still finding it a bit of an uphill struggle, and the stability and complexity of the technology isn’t helping at all. But we’re finding converts in some very surprising places. Again the ReLive Delphi session defined the problem and opportunity pretty well:
- Short term: Getting it to work & be desirable
- Medium term: Interoperability & mobile
- Long term: Radical UI changes (gesture/nervous/brain) & societal change (both changes that effect VW, and how VW effects changes)
Today’s featured contribution to the snapshot #10 report is by Evelyn McElhinney, a lecturer from Glasgow Caledonian University.
Tomorrow, it’s the turn of David Burden of Daden Limited, and early next week it’s Mark Conrad from Bedfordshire and Sheila Webber from Sheffield. You still have time to get details in of what you are doing in virtual worlds in for the snapshot report; attach a screenshot or two and it could also get featured on this blog.
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1. What are you doing with virtual worlds? (And how long have you been doing it?)
I am currently conducting interviews in-world for my PhD pilot and recruiting for phase 1 of my study. The PhD is investigating the way people access health information in virtual worlds, and the influence on real life health behaviour. Next semester I will be using Second Life for formative problem-based learning scenarios with masters nursing students who are learning to take diagnostic history, physical examination and make decisions about investigation and interpretation of those investigations. This includes the use of volunteers who access SL from their home and allows the students to take their real life health history.
I hope to collaborate with some international colleagues and am always looking for others to collaborate with (so especially if you don’t have land and want to get involved please contact me – SL:Kali Pizzaro)
I have also founded an international virtual world health community of practice which includes nurses, midwifes, learning technologists and builders – again if anyone wants to join, IM me in-world.
I have been in virtual worlds for 2.5 years.
2. Which virtual worlds are you using? Why those in particular?
We are using Second Life as we have an area within the grid. We have no support to create an OpenSim grid, which is beyond my capabilities.
3. What support do you get in your institution in your use of virtual worlds?
Unfortunately due to restructuring there is no longer a university team, only local school support. However, much is still done by me and a school technician when we can fit it in. I have also had help from the SL community, which has been really amazing.
4. What do you like/dislike about the virtual worlds you are using?
Dislike: The cost; if it was lower I am sure it would be guaranteed full time but at the moment it is really year to year. Although in the grand scale of things it is still low.
I also dislike the high computer specifications of SL; if it was browser based that would be a game changer. Although I know some are not keen if the quality of the world goes down.
Like: I like the immersion and communication in SL which allows me to create authentic, more engaging teaching, learning and assessment strategies. The access to a large international community is also very important to me.
5. If teaching using virtual worlds, what’s the experience been like, for you and/or the students?
Mostly positive. At first the students are a bit puzzled but once they get more involved they have reported that they really enjoyed the experience and felt they were learning, which was evident in their summative exam. I am about to submit a paper for publication which will report the findings of an action research project I conducted between 2009-2011 in Second Life. Hopefully that will be accepted and of interest to people.
6. Any thoughts on the integration of virtual worlds with other learning technologies?
They need to get mobile, or on the web with less requirement for programming skills, and require less bandwidth on PC/Mac. Of course that is only for individual educators; others may not agree who are capable builders and can script.
7. The catch-all: anything else you’d like to say?
Don’t be frightened to try out 3D virtual worlds for teaching; they have much to offer you and your students. The education community is strong and will help as much as they can to get you get up and running. However, make sure you know what you are doing before introducing students and have a fairly good idea what you want to use VWs for, as opposed to another tool. Also, ensure you understand, like any emerging technology virtual worlds – whether SL or OpenSim – have their limitations. Join an educator group (virtual worlds education roundtable is a good one and if an nurse or midwife join VWhealthed – excuse the plug).
There are loads of opportunities to work with others; even if you have no land, find out what others have done and what the VW is capable off but most of all … proceed until apprehended!
