Imagine attending class while never having to leave home.
That was the reality for Professor Peter Leong’s Instructional Design in Virtual Worlds (ETEC 648) course. Students could attend each class in the 3-D online world of Second Life (SL) from wherever they were.
SL is a “special Internet browser that offers a multi-user virtual environment in 3-D,” according to the University of Hawai‘i’s Second Life Web site. UH has its own “island,” which replicates parts of the Mānoa campus. Professors and students can access it at any time.
In Spring 2009, Human Dimension in Information Systems (LIS 677) was the first credited course to use SL. Nine courses are planning to use the program in the future.
“Eventually, we’re hoping for it to be a place where people can hang out and bump into people and meet, like Campus Center,” said Joseph Samuel, a researcher for the College of Education.
The psychology, library science, second language studies, education and music departments are teaching credited courses in Second Life. The computer science and aquaculture departments are involved in doing research.
The UH island was created by Samuel and a team that researched driving simulation and geography in Second Life. This was made possible due to a $1 million industry grant for exploring novel wireless applications.
When the grant ended in 2008, however, the team still had the island.
Now, the island can be used by anyone on campus, including Leong and his students. Each lecture is held in a classroom space designed in Second Life for “hands-on” experience. A classroom is simulated on a rooftop terrace where students sit on floor cushions and interact. While there, they can watch “movies” and practice creating objects in SL.
Professor Barbara McLain of the music department is using Second Life in her Music Education and Internet Technologies (MUS 600F) course. Her students will be creating information booths in the virtual world so visitors from around the globe can see their ideas displayed as final projects.
Benny Ron, coordinator of the aquaculture program at UH, simulates aquaculture farms in Second Life. The hope is that SL will enable the department to reach out to other people, educate them about aquaculture, and be useful to future interdisciplinary courses on the subject, according to the Virtual World Education and Research Case Study.
Students can also take advantage of the island. Two parties have been thrown in Second Life, where students and faculty danced and interacted all night. A summer celebration, which was a first for UH, attracted over 75 visitors. Users danced, played games, took tours and chatted, all through their computers.
Sidebar
A Halloween party will be held Wednesday, Oct. 28, where students and faculty can dress up in costume and mingle.
Students can arrange to use the virtual world by contacting Joseph at sjoseph@hawaii.edu. To explain Second Life, tutorials are being held every Wednesday in Campus Center by the Corner Market Café at 1 p.m.
Also, hawaii.edu/secondlife has instructions for beginners on how to get started.
