Virtual-world environments such as Second Life, There, Whyville, etc. provide opportunities to learn in virtual communities where students meet online for class activities, including lectures, discussions, case studies, projects, papers, exams, labs, and more. Classes can be synchronous, asynchronous, or both. A virtual-world experience is an immersive environment in a three-dimensional (3D) graphical setting, with the use of avatars to represent the class participants, and the sense of presence that puts the learner within the scene.
Second Life is one of the many virtual-world environments available via the Internet and commonly used in higher education. At K-State, faculty have used Second Life to teach courses in geology and hospitality management and dietetics. K-State Research and Extension has a presence in Second Life.
To learn more about Second Life, visit one or more of these YouTube videos:
- Educational Uses of Second Life
- Sustainable Education in Second Life
- Colloborative Learning for Higher Education using Secondlife Virtual World
Last fall, then-Provost Nellis appointed a Second Life Taskforce to draft a Virtual Worlds Use policy and to make other recommendations relative to K-State’s use specific to Second Life. One recommendation was to develop a Second Life Course for Instructors. Interim Provost Dyer has asked that we follow up on this recommendation and gauge interest among faculty.
We want to determine faculty interest in a Second Life course. If you are a K-State teacher (tenured, tenure-track faculty, instructor, GTA, adjunct faculty, etc.) and are interested in taking a course on how to use Second Life for instruction, please take this survey.
