Best Practices for Second Life

Best Practices to Form Online Multi-Users Best Practices to Form Online Multi-Users Virtual Environments for Education Virtual Environments for Education

in Developing Countriesin Developing Countries

Poonsri Vate-U-Lan, Ed.D.College of Internet Distance Education

Assumption University of Thailand, [email protected]

The Sixth International Conference on eLearning for Knowledge-Based Society, 17-18 December, 2009, Thailand

AgendaAgenda


• Assistant Program Director, Ph.D. in eLearning Methodology

• Doctor of Education from RMIT, Australia

• International Visiting Scholar, Brock University, Canada

• Translator of Don’t make me think! and

• Author of CourseBuilder for DreamWeaver

Poonsri Vate-U-Lan, Ed.D.Poonsri Vate-U-Lan, Ed.D.

Introduction and motivation!Introduction and motivation!

• In 2008, the logins rate grew 23 %• More than 250 institutes/museum active in

SL and the numbers is unending increasing • Majority or 7/10 of institutes in SL are

physically located in North America • Approximately 20 % of institutes in SL were

universities from Northern Europe

•Second Life (SL) is a significant online communication tools. •By the end of 2011, 80 % of active Internet users will join any kind of online 3D MUVE which similar to SL


ABAC: The First Thai University in SLABAC: The First Thai University in SL

• Professor Dr. Srisakdi Charmonman, Chief Executive Officer at the College of Internet Distance Education, Assumption University invented the first Thai online 3D campus in SLat ‘Charming Island’. The online 3D campus of Assumption University was recommended to be a place for visiting at ‘thaisecondlife.net’


Interesting of Second Life!Interesting of Second Life!

• SL, a free client program that most institutes would like to use for vibrant education

• The feeling of reality when residents avatar or transform themselves into 3D model in virtual computer environments

• In-world experiences for residents of SL are communication and transportation

• Examples of Learning typologies include demonstration, experiential, diagnostic, role play


University in SLUniversity in SL• Universities that occupied land were

branded with the institutions’ official logo • 2/5 of institutes used ‘notecard’ for

common greetings and almost half of the institutes (45.1%) had sidewalks, pathways, road or other types of footpaths

• Almost half the institutes (46.5%) created ‘Links’ direct to normal web sites of the universities which majorities were showcase institutes SL projects (75.5%), Home page of universities (63.8%) and solicit enrollment of new students (45.4 %) respectively (Watch Video)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFuNFRie8wA

Some facts about SLSome facts about SL

• Most educators see ‘SL is just a game’ but SL manifests itself not a game since it lacks of pre-defined goals

• Explored 13,000 regions during 2008 • a few regions have large populations • 45 % of regions were empty • 30 % of the regions are never visited during a six day period • only 2 % of regions had more than 20 avatars visited. • Characteristics of SL residents are similar to real humans

preferring to participate in small groups of about 2-10 avatars, visiting the same places and meeting the same avatars. Remarkably, 90 % of time spend in-world was for socializing rather than transporting


Profiles of participantsProfiles of participants

• 23 participants, 17 females and six males. More than half the participants (56.5%) were younger than 30.

• 52.2% of participants never experienced using online 3D MUVE

• 30.4% of participants have less than six months’ experience using online 3D MUVE

• 17.3 % of participants had had less than 12 months’ experience.


Research Finding: before and afterResearch Finding: before and after


Attitude towards SL

4.2 43.7 3.7 3.5

3.9 3.8 3.8 3.73.2

00.5

11.5

22.5

33.5

44.5

Belief Preference Interest Demand Confidence

five

-rat

ing

-sca

le

Before After

Barriers of SLBarriers of SL


3.9

3.6

3.6

3.5

3.4

3.4

3.2

3.2

3

0 1 2 3 4 5

insufficient Internet bandwidth

insufficient hardware capability

Not understanding English

Frequent server-time-out

teleporting

Not remembering functions

SL was complex and difficult

controlling and modifying avatars

installing the software

To Form 3D Online MUVE for EducationTo Form 3D Online MUVE for Education

HITS Model HITS Model

HumanStudents

Teachers Facilitators

InstructionMediaPedagogy Courseware

TechnologyNetwork Wireless

Open source

SocialFinanceCulturesLanguage

Best practices: HumanBest practices: Human

• Good: students, faculties and support teams commit themselves to adopting online 3D MUVE

• Better: students, faculties and support teams aim to practice online 3D MUVE

• Best: students, faculties and support teams are involved in and invent online 3D MUVE projects


HumanStudents

Teachers Facilitators

Best practices: InstructionBest practices: Instruction

• Good: Providing a list of required instructional features that include clear learning objectives and computer technology literacy

• Better: Preparing instructions that make user-friendly the potential of online 3D MUVE

• Best: Reviewing instructions that make user-friendly the potential of online 3D MUVE


InstructionMediaPedagogy Courseware

Best practices:TechnologyBest practices:Technology

• Good: Users have both adequate computer hardware and network connection

• Better: Institutions provide adequate computer hardware and network connection

• Best: Linden Lab reduce the high demand for resources which make Second Life needing less bandwidth, easier to function and clearer interface design


TechnologyNetwork Wireless

Open source

Best practices: SocialBest practices: Social

• Good: SL support multi-lingual functionality, especially the languages of developing countries such as Thai, Burmese Cambodia and so on. Non-English users of MUVE community should develop manuals in their own languages

• Better: SL support security concepts of sharable content systems to reduce investment in education

• Best: Linden Lab and all stakeholders develop policies regarding law, finance and ethics that support education


SocialFinanceCulturesLanguage

ConclusionConclusion

• The SL can be used to enlarge the potential of eLearning in many ways

• This research has found that graduate students were very interested in joining SL for educational purposes

• This paper has proposed the drafting of best practice guidelines to form online 3D MUVE for developing countries

• Further research in this field is urgently needed


Questions and DiscussionQuestions and Discussion

Thank you for your attention!

References of ImagesReferences of Images

• http://www.bautforum.com/attachments/off-topic-babbling/4466d1168305043-anyone-here-tried-second-life-avatar.jpg

• http://mpop99.com/mypopspace/pages/blog_images/secondlife_main_485.jpg

• http://popsci.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/12/13/bu_markey_avatar_bx103.jpg

• http://askehbl.wordpress.com/2007/07/