The Lantern

Issue date: 1/28/08 Section: Campus

As early as autumn quarter, students will be able to learn not only outside the classroom but in an entirely virtual environment known as "Second Life."

Ohio State's Technology Enhanced Learning and Research bought a virtual island in "Second Life," called TELRport, in December for faculty to use as an educational tool for their courses. The benefit of teaching in "Second Life" is the learning possibilities are limitless, said Nick Johnson, graduate research assistant for TELR and the Digital Union.

"It's an actual universe in which you can do almost everything you can do in real life, you can do in second life. And there's a lot of things you can't do in real life that you can do in 'Second Life,'" he said. "It allows you to take risks in a safe environment."

"Second Life" can be compared to similar video games such as "World of Warcraft," except that "Second Life" does not have winners or losers, Johnson said.

In this virtual environment, architecture students will be able to design and create buildings without having to use the time and resources required in real life. Business students can use what Johnson calls the game's "very real economy" to make otherwise risky decisions. A professor at OSU has already created a walk-through model of the male reproductive system to explore, he said.

"These are things you just can't do in real life," Johnson said.

To sign on to "Second Life," users create virtual representations called avatars. Any aspect of the avatar - race, gender, hair color and so on - can easily be changed at the user's discretion. Avatars will meet in both traditional and non-traditional learning spaces that TELR is currently building. But it's the more unusual types of learning Johnson said he is excited about.

Johnson began researching "Second Life" in September 2006, when he first arrived at OSU. Within the time Johnson has spent researching "Second Life," he said the environment's population has skyrocketed from 15,000 users in October 2006 to more than 12 million residents.

Universities across the nation comprise a portion of these virtual residents, Johnson said, although the majority of users are not associated with schools. Harvard began teaching classes in "Second Life" in fall 2006, he said, while Ohio University and Case Western are two other Ohio schools in the virtual community.

OSU's involvement in the virtual universe will demonstrate the university's technological advancements to the "Second Life" community, Johnson said.

"If Ohio State has a strong virtual presence, it's connected to a whole virtual world and it's something that will be noticed by other people, by other universities," he said. "It's kind of a prestige thing, in a way."

TELR is accepting applications until Feb. 8 from faculty interested in developing a portion of the island, Johnson said. Full-fledged classes in "Second Life" will begin autumn quarter. At the end of the quarter Johnson said he and his colleagues will analyze the program's success to determine how and if TELR should proceed in its development.

"We're trying to not really make this The Ohio State University's island," Johnson said. "It's kind of just a trial space. We're providing our resources to give this a year test."

To prepare faculty for the program, the Digital Union has presented about six workshops on "Second Life," Johnson said. The most recent workshop was held Friday. At these meetings, Johnson said he usually receives positive feedback from the participants.

"Mostly people are very excited about it," he said. "We don't really know about students yet because these workshops are pretty much all faculty. Ninety percent of the attendees in these workshops are wanting to use 'Second Life' somehow in their department or in their class. Most people want to use it more."

Sharon Collingwood, a lecturer of women's studies, has been using "Second Life" since spring 2006 when she used her own money to buy an island. The following year, continuing education provided her with a grant to fund the development of Collingwood's own land called Minerva Island.

Collingwood said she ran a pilot program on Minerva Island in fall 2007 for her 110 course. Half of the course was taught in the classroom, she said, while the remainder was taught in "Second Life." Collingwood said that approach had moderate success. Now, Collingwood teaches entirely in "Second Life."

"I only know my students by their avatar," she said.

One of the more interesting enhancements "Second Life" has made to her class is that male students can switch genders so easily, Collingwood said.

"I have a male student who wants to explore the idea of being female. He wanted to know what that would be like," she said. "I told him to choose a non-gender specific name for his avatar so he could easily change his gender."

The type of learning experience "Second Life" provides extends beyond women's studies, Collingwood said. The virtual environment has created a way to make learning in all fields of study a more-collaborative process.

"It's a much more normal, social experience," she said. "Not a lonely, individual experience."

Allison D'Aurora can be reached at daurora.5@osu.edu.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools