Introducing Second Life as a Multimedia Web Interface:Distance Ed LIS Students in Second Life

Vanessa Irvin Morris (SL: Marchena Rajal)Assistant Teaching Professor

The iSchool at Drexel University

Introducing Second Life as a Multimedia Web Interface by Vanessa Irvin Morris is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at www.slideshare.net.

Drexel University in SL

▫Drexel has an island on SL; “Drexel Island” The iSchool has a small space on the island Other departments are building on this island

Biochemistry Physics College of Arts and Sciences

Looking to expand the iSchool’s space for the purpose of teaching distance ed students

Drexel University in SL

• Vanessa Irvin Morris – my agency▫Full time teaching faculty

Teach 4 sections per term, usually at full capacity Terms are 10 weeks long 25 students per class = 100 students Usually teach 3 distance ed sections, 1 face-to-face Coordinate/Teach INFO552, Introduction to Web Design for Information Organizations

Students learn html/css, principles of web design Fall 2009 – Fall 2010:

▫Towards end of course, topic: intro multimedia (Week 8)▫Offered Camtasia VOPP intro to SL as a multimedia platform▫Intro as segue into introducing Part II of INFO552 (course still in

development) Winter term 2010 - onward

▫Offer in-world experience as extra credit

Winter 2010 Class Experience in SL•Have 48 students in INFO552 across 2 sections

•Offered SL experience incentivized as extra credit opportunity

•Gave instructions on entering SL and creating av

•Offered two (2) timeslots to meet and give tours▫12 noon SLT (3pm Eastern Time)▫3pm SLT (6pm Eastern Time)

Immediate Result:

•15 students out of 48 = 30.67% participation

Winter 2010 Class Experience in SL• 12 noon SLT slot

▫ 10 students showed up ▫ Met Marchena Rajal at the Community Virtual Library (CVL)▫ Students got to see a digital library in 3D platform

There were many questions “What kinds of reference questions do you get?” “What kinds of collections are here?” “How do you access resources in the library?” “How do librarians be librarians here?”

Gave student tutorial on SL interface How to walk, fly, move around They practiced while touring the CVL Had them do “The Learning Curve” maze at CVL Good news(kinda): It was too crowded on the parcel to give a tour

▫ more avs = more “lag”However………….

Something amazing happened:

Because of high volume of students, 4 librarians “rezzed in” to help out.

Librarianship’s strength in networking support is powerful in Second Life.

Snow Scarmon

Lilia Anthony

Ander Vlodovic

ChrisZamarung

Marchena Rajal

Winter 2010 Class Experience in SL•3pm SLT slot

▫5 students showed up ▫Met Marchena Rajal at the Community

Virtual Library▫Students got to see a digital library in 3D

platform They had questions Gave them tutorial on SL interface

How to walk, fly, move around They practiced while touring the CVL Had them do “The Learning Curve” maze at

CVL

Smaller Group, relaxing time

Marchena Rajal

Capturing Student Response (data)•Recorded SL chat from tours

•Post Discussion Board forums on Blackboard

Results of Initiatory SL experience• 15 students out of 48 = 30.67% participation

• Responses:▫ Student#1:

“I found the experience changed my interaction with others because I could 'experience' a connection that the avatar figure unleashed as I interacted. …

I first started online courses and felt the release from ordinary concerns about how my voice, visage, physical attributes, gender, age etc. would enter my mind as I tried to connect with others in a virtual class as opposed to a brick and mortar experience. There is a more lasting memory impression with an avatar connection. I 'saw' another human (avatar) react to my inquiries. I am remembering this 'connection different (sic) than an email or text.”

Results of Initiatory SL experience• Responses:

▫ Student#2: “I was eager to try SL and had registered days ago. … So when I

signed on today before 6:00 p.m., I was disappointed to find no one in the class in Info Island. … I was getting pretty frustrated and lonely and decided to play around with the controls. I did a search for Professor Morris’s avatar and sent her an invitation to transport to my location. She, thankfully, responded with an invitation for me to transport to her location, which I did. Whew! …

I arrived and was greeted by Professor (Marchena Rajal) and three classmates. We had a discussion about the possible uses of SL. Some that were mentioned: library design, lectures, book discussion. While exploring, Professor Rajal educated us on setting preferences, buying real estate, etc. All in all, it was a wondrous visit, and I can’t wait to go back to SL! ”

Results of Initiatory SL experience• Responses:

▫ Student#3: “[I]t was great fun and good to virtually hang out with my

class.”

▫ Student#4: “It gives you the feeling of actually speaking face to face.”

▫ Student#5: “It was very enlightening. … I had no idea that it offered all

of those educational tools; I thought it was strictly a social networking outlet. There were tons of useful resources in there. ”

Results of Initiatory SL experience

• Responses:▫ Student#6:

“This would be a great, fun resource if I had a better idea of how to use it. … it is an interesting idea and could become very useful in a distance program.” 

▫ Student#7: “I found Second Life to be a powerful and interesting tool. … I

understand why there is a call for an organized "library" presence, and it seems like a really neat way to virtually meet people. ”

▫ Student#8: “It's about time I met [one of] my professors!”

Results of Initiatory SL experience

•Students who didn’t make the tours, upon reading their student-colleagues’ discussion forum postings, wanted me to go in again, asking:

“Professor Morris, is there a second chance at Second Life?”

Student Challenges•“The Usual”: LAG, CRASH, & CURVE

▫LAG – everyone “My computer experienced massive lag, but

that seemed to be happening with quite a few people. Not sure what was going on there.”

▫CRASH - many “I gave second life a try on my laptop, but

second life crashed. I will try again at the 6 o'clock one.”

“I succeeded in logging into sl after many failures!”

Student Challenges▫CURVE – fewer due to socialized initiation

While students initially said they felt a steep learning curve (they were very anxious about being able to move around), upon experiencing “The Learning Curve” maze at the CVL, they said the maze was: “helpful” “good” “This was a lot less frustrating (mostly) than my

first solo experience with this.”

Implications and Possibilities•Get students in here!

▫Get them engaged in understanding the multimedia-ness and the deep social embedded-ness of the web

▫Open up space for students to think about how SL empowers web design competencies, via Machinima Building 3D objects Creating apps that can transfer across platforms

▫Provide opportunities for students to explore,create and build in SL, and be able to transfer outcomes to the web via websites, and vice versa

Thank you for listening