E-Learning Quality through Second Life

Ways of (Virtual) Seeing: Applying a Bergerian Lens in a Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE)

Substantial evidence now supports pedagogical applications of virtual worlds; however, most research supporting virtual worlds for education has been conducted using researcher-developed Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVE). Second Life (SL) is a MUVE that has been adopted by a large number of academic institutions; however, little research has systematically investigated the potential of using SL for higher education. A 2–year pilot study was conducted that included seven SL activities and a mixed-methods evaluation of the SL's affordances, challenges, and limitations. Three SL integration factors emerged, each with sub-factors: pedagogical (relevance, complexity of required SL skills, use of SL affordances); contextual (student prior gaming experience, activity duration, frequency of events); and logistical (SL usability, training, technical support, computer issues). A framework for creating SL instructional activities is presented using the factors.

Construction industry is a very complicated and complex environment that causes high accident rate. The development of advanced virtual world has become an important issue for safety education in order to reduce dangerous occurrence in the construction site. However, most researchers on virtual world still have limitations such as the offline virtual world simulation, the low level of interaction between users in virtual world, and so on. With the regard to this issue, this paper proposes the adoption online 3D world Second Life (SL) platform which allows students to perform role-playing, dialogic learning, and social interaction for efficient and effective construction safety and health education. In this approach, construction safety education model based on Second Life (CSESL) is developed, which consists of the following three modules: 1) Safety information and knowledge preparation to understand the critical causes of accident in construction site; 2) Collaborative simulation for safety case study to transfer unsafe case or dangerous occurrence information to 3D modeling; 3) Reflection on safety lesson for education and training to enhance practical safety knowledge by participating in 3D inspection game. The CSESL advantages and disadvantages are identified by testing the model using a real case scenario. This study presents the potentials and benefits of SL which could enhance construction safety and health education.

Multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) are growing in popularity with the emergence of faster broadband Internet access and more powerful computer technology. Virtual worlds are used extensively for social networking, business, and education. The virtual world (VW) of Second Life has 12 million residents (a resident is a person represented within the VW by an avatar). The 3D Art Challenges started at the University of Western Australia in Second Life (SL) in 2009. Since that time, UWA has rapidly emerged as a central hub of art activity in SL. A survey was conducted in SL by UWA to understand the demographic who are regular participants in the Art Challenges. It was hoped to determine virtual age, ethnicity, experience, education, insights into virtual art, and opinions regarding the Art Challenges from as wide a sample as possible. It was hoped that the information obtained would further enlighten researchers regarding the role of large social networks and communities in achieving collective intelligence. The survey was aimed at increasing understanding of how practical art and design skills could be developed within the visually rich, immersive SL environment, facilitated by the networking of a community of global art practitioners.

<p>Due to the unique applications of virtual reality in many modern contexts, Second Life (SL) offers inimitable opportunities for research and exploration and experiential learning as part of a distance learning curriculum assignment. A review of current research regarding SL examined real world social influences in online interactions and what the effects on users may be. This aids students in understanding the social constructionist perceptions and worldview of those persons they may serve in social services. This suggests the importance of developing an understanding of the relationship between users’ real life (RL) and their SL. Some research has begun to reveal the effectiveness of telecommunication and computer simulation with certain clients in the fields of mental health and social work, yet there is a lack of sufficient research done within the context of virtual worlds. The current study surveyed users of several educationally and health focused SIMS (simulations) as to what motivates their SL and RL interactions. The data explores associations between users’ RL and their SL in several areas,potentially addressing the future role of educating social work students regarding research methodology in online virtual reality interactions. Implications for social work are discussed including engaging clients using incentives for social participation built into the SL milieu.</p>

Virtual worlds are a potential medium for teaching college-level chemistry laboratory courses. To determine the feasibility of conducting chemistry experiments in such an environment, undergraduate students performed two experiments in the immersive virtual world of Second Life (SL) as part of their regular General Chemistry 2 laboratory course. The experiments’ development and implementation are presented with feedback from students and graduate teaching assistants. Students successfully completed the experiments and showed learning gains similar to students performing real world experiments, as shown by pre/postlab quizzes and a laboratory practicum. Student participants held positive views of their experience in the SL chemistry laboratory. Teaching assistants provided an important perspective about using the virtual world for laboratory instruction. Overall, results of this pilot study suggest that virtual worlds can be effective for teaching chemistry experiments. This is the first account of student learning and attitudes after performing college-level chemistry experiments in the immersive virtual world of SL.

This study aims to compare the social presence and motivation of students taking a database II course using either the virtual world Second Life (SL) or the Enocta learning management system (LMS)/Adobe Connect. The study group consisted of 60 undergraduate sophomore students enrolled in a fully online computer programming program. Students were divided into two groups of 30. The first group was the experimental group taking the course on Second Life and the latter was control group taking the course through the Enocta LMS/Adobe Connect. A matching-only pre- and post-test control group design was applied. The data were collected through the Perceived Sociability Scale of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Environments (Sociability Scale) and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). The results of the study showed significant differences in motivation and social presence scores in favour of the students taking the course through Second Life.

Kerstin Radde-Antweiler gives an overview or a cross section about the religious and ritualistic settings within “Second Life” and explores the question why studies in and around Virtual Worlds represent an important issue in the Study of Religions. In her article about “Virtual Religion. An Approach to a Religious and Ritual Topography of Second Life” she introduces the theoretical concept of an “actor-related religious historiography” which tries to take into account the religiousness of the individual actor.

This paper reports the perceived benefits and drawbacks of using Second Life (SL), a virtual reality program, as a classroom supplement to promote contact and conversation with native Spanish speakers. Herein, both the professor and students voice their experiences with the program and how they believe it benefits language learning or does not. A questionnaire was administered to fifteen third-semester Spanish students attending a university in the southeastern United States of America. Thirteen of fifteen students reported that SL could help them learn Spanish, specifically in conversational interactions and the creative aspects of learning in a virtual world. The negatives associated with the program focused primarily on the logistical issues of computer hardware and the high learning curve of navigating in SL. In general, the study found that SL may be a beneficial resource that allows students a wider array of conversational opportunities and cultural experiences than provided in a traditional classroom. In addition to questionnaire results, suggestions for classroom implementation of SL are presented.

This chapter provides an introduction to learning and teaching in the virtual world Second Life (SL). It focuses on the nature of the environment and the constructivist cognitive approach to learning that it supports. The authors present detailed accounts of two case studies and provide preliminary analysis of the way in which the environment helps students to achieve both explicit and implicit learning outcomes. The formal assessment for these studies allowed the content, style, narrative and working pattern to be decided by the students. They believe that this approach provides a useful stepping stone between content driven and problem-based teaching techniques. Initial results seem to indicate that students have brought in learning from other areas with a mature approach that enhances their transferable skills in group work, project management and problem based learning. The authors suggest that loosely specified assessments with suitable scaffolding, within the rich environment of Second Life, can be used to help students develop independent, self motivated learning. To support this they map criteria from problembased learning literature and link the learning experience to types of learner.

The chapter considers the goal of consonance, achieving a functional harmony between a person and a virtual world that makes it a suitable environment for an avatar based on that person. Most computer games in which the user assumes a virtual identity are violent, but the person revived here was a very nonviolent woman, so there was a challenge finding a suitable home for her. First, she entered a relatively popular and quite spiritual online role-playing game, Aion, then discovered half way through its levels of experience that she would be forced to become unacceptably violent if she continued. Therefore, she took the advice of a leading female researcher on virtual gameworlds to shift to one based on puzzle-solving rather than combat, called Myst, thus illustrating one of the boundaries of the genre, and showing how a gameworld need not be popular to serve quasi-religious purposes. To provide a broad overview of the possibilities, she explored Myst in three very different forms, briefly the original solo-player computer game, more extensively the unpopular Internet-based social sequel, Uru: Myst Online, and very briefly the active Myst community in the nongame virtual world, Second Life.

Collaborative filtering (CF) is a class of recommendation methods that have been used in web contents such as video sites and electronic-commerce sites. To our knowledge, CF, however, has not been used in three-dimensional virtual worlds yet. In this paper, we verify the applicability of two state-of-the-art CF methods in a three-dimensional virtual world called Second Life (SL). Our experiment results on data from SL verify that CF methods can also be applied to area recommendation in virtual worlds. A discussion on which CF method should be used in this application domain is also given.

Gor is one of the most successful role-play themes in the Virtual World of Second Life (SL). In this theme, player-characters act out a barbaric world of sexual slavery that is based on the novels of John Norman. Norman’s narrative comes alive in privately owned 3D simulations (SIMs) that depict settlements in Roman, Viking, or tribal style. This paper gives insight into the construction of Gorean role-play, and positions it within the discourse on role-play in Virtual Worlds. The role-play was studied by undertaking an ethnographic participant-observation. Moreover, the rules of the city of Veroda (a pseudonym) are analysed in detail. The analysis shows that Veroda’s rules aim at immersion in the role-play experience and are concerned with the power structure of the SIM, as well as with the personal power relationships of its members. In conclusion, Gorean SIM communities are closed or semi-closed social groups that act as real communities “living” in a particular shared online place. Whereas within gaming worlds the play occurs under the rules of game-design, Gorean role-play groups in Second Life construct their own social rules and play. In doing so, they create and maintain a vibrant community life.

In this paper we present a Mixed Reality (MR) teleconferencing application based on Second Life (SL) and the OpenSim virtual world. Augmented Reality (AR) techniques are used for displaying virtual avatars of remote meeting participants in real physical spaces, while Augmented Virtuality (AV), in form of video based gesture detection, enables capturing of human expressions to control avatars and to manipulate virtual objects in virtual worlds. The use of Second Life for creating a shared augmented space to represent different physical locations allows us to incorporate the application into existing infrastructure. The application is implemented using open source Second Life viewer, ARToolKit and OpenCV libraries.

The 3D virtual community known as Second Life (SL) which is available on the Internet (www.secondlife.com) represents the latest online services for business, learning, training, and entertainment. People, regional and ethnic groups, business organizations, social activities, and various societal environments populate this world. People who live in this virtual world, known as residents, use personal avatars to declare themselves. People from the Arab region also exist in this world, and they practice their activities as human beings, emotions, and actions. For the Arab residents, there is no escape from living in these communities, like others, using this unlimited space and time. The SL Societies honour their own traditions, ethics, and behaviors as personal values. And since Arab society, in particular, has its own values, traditions, and ethics, could there be a significant reflection of these values in the Second Life Society? This paper aims to pinpoint the possible consequences that certain ethical attitudes attribute to Arab residents, while also posing the crucial question of whether these values and ethics align with the diverse societies within the SL realm. The paper identifies the possibility of a decline in the popularity and population of SL with the reluctance of Arab societies, although, a large number of Arabs have access to Internet services as enriched with technical issues and Internet provision in most Arab countries.