A Virtual World Watch presentation to the JISC CETIS / Eduserv Foundation workshop in Glasgow, January 2009.

1. The state of Second Life in
Digital Games in
UK Higher and Further Education
European Libraries
January 2009

2. Personal position
 Three things getting better; the perfect storm:
PC and Mac technology is getting better e.g.
−
processor power, graphics.
− Broadband nearly ubiquitous.
− Virtual worlds are constantly improving.
 Lifelong learning: fit learning around your life.

Distance learning: more choice of courses.
But need:
 More evidence of academic quality.
 Practical tools, assists, jump-ins, fast ramp-ups.

4. Snapshot survey 1: July 2007
Difficulty in finding activity.
At the last minute, discovered the “2 islands away” technique.
Around 40 universities / colleges “active”.
Overall picture: fragmented.

5. Snapshot survey 2: September 2007
Essentially an update of survey 1.
A few new ones e.g. Falmouth, Bournemouth, Leicester,
Wolverhampton.
Overall picture: fragmented.

6. Snapshot survey 3:
Spring 2008
“Evidence” of Second
Life activity in roughly
75% of UK universities.
Three repeated wishes:
- more funding
opportunities
- more time to develop
- better technical
facilities within SL, or a
viable alternative
environment
Overall picture: fragmented.

7. Snapshot survey 4: Autumn 2008
Many respondents funded externally.
Overall picture: fragmented.

9. Purpose of Virtual World Watch
* To find out what the dickens is going on.
* To provide pointers to “ammunition” for academics to
use to make their case inside their institution...
* ...though while remaining neutral (“platform agnostic”).
* To try and bring together like-minded academic
practitioners.
* To see where this goes...

10. Typical respondent to a snapshot survey
 Isn’t afraid to give an Just “does it”
opinion
 Usually either
concise or extremely
verbose
 Open minded
 Practises what they
preach re: virtual
worlds
 Can go nose to nose
with sceptics
 Core of contacts in
~30 universities who
respond to most
surveys

11. Snapshot survey 5:
Late 2008 / early 2009
Probably unwise to ask
for survey data over
Christmas and New Year
…
but still had 51 responses
(highest number yet)
-- Much more
-teaching and learning
-- Several institutions now
-in 2nd or 3rd year of using
-Second Life
-- No clear “SL killer”,
-though OpenSim is
-creating interest

12. Activity in UK universities (generally HE)

13. Activity in UK colleges (generally FE)

14. Much activity outside responses
“Staffordshire University is carrying out a project to see
how useful a virtual world like Second Life might be
when it comes to undergraduate teaching.”
“We are active but not yet public.” - many responses.
“A one year JISC funded research project at the
University of Bristol.
We are creating a collection of paintings that will be
displayed within a virtual Pompeiian house in a similar
way to the actual Sydenham Crystal Palace that was
build in London in 1854.”

15. Data extraction from survey responses

16. Teaching in Second Life

17. “The virtual environment makes visualisation of three
dimensional mathematical objects easier. Quite often the
ability to jump from thinking in 2D to 3D is a major reason
why students who were good at A-level maths struggle
with degree level.” - Warwick
“Classes in E-learning, politics and society; introduction
to digital environments; introduction to digital game based
learning; language, culture and communication in online
learning; effective course design for E-learning; and
information literacies for online learning are held each
semester within Second Life.” - Edinburgh

18. “Currently we have finished building our island and are
actively using it to teach Law, Radiography, 3D interactive
media, real time media streaming, 3D animation, creative
writing, Computer Science and much more.” -
Hertfordshire
“I taught 5 x 1 hour sessions in the first semester on
bacterial cell wall ultrastructure.” – Liverpool
“Autumn 2008: Level 1 media styling students: module
'Contextual Studies'. Using Second Life to build
contemporary versions of historical fashion images. Level
3 fashion student: final year project. Level 1 Business
Studies: taking part in library skills tutorials.” -
Southampton Solent

19. Virtual Environment courses
“A course about 3D interactive environments.” – Greenwich
“In February '09, we'll be running our newly validated module
‘Virtual Environments’” - Leeds Art and Design College
“I have twice run the class ‘Virtual Worlds for Design’ for
architecture and engineering students (4th and 5th year, and
post graduate).” - Strathclyde
“The students learn how to program in Linden Script, and
some simple 3D modelling. The module is 100% course
work and their assignment this semester was to create an
interactive virtual pet.” - Heriot-Watt

20. Student design e.g. Virtual Crufts

21. Virtual worlds as simulations of dangerous environments

22. Derby
“A virtual quarry in
conjunction with the
Institute of Quarrying.
This work is intended to
replicate real quarrying
situations: dangerous
overhangs; explosions;
hazardous working
vehicles.
Students move around
the quarry identifying
those hazards.”

23. West of England
“The witnesses go
down to the simulation
set and the
investigators stay at
the gathering point.
The tutor runs the
simulation through – in
this case a fork lift
truck accident in a
small warehouse
which the witness
students can view
through their avatars.”

24. Health and medicine

25. Medical equipment created by Glasgow Caledonian
“A simulation of a full
working model of an
X-ray machine.
This allows for safe
practice; is flexible
either to be used in a
class or for self study.
It is scaleable - only
one exists on campus
but we can copy the
simulation as many
times as we wish.”

26. Medical and bioscience
“A project entitled “A virtual bug’s life” which has students
working on projects within many different types of
virtual worlds as part of their student selected
component. This is launching soon, so more on this in
the next snapshot!” - Edinburgh
“We have been developing game-based learning for the
delivery of virtual patients in Second Life.” - Imperial
College London

27. Health and simulation of dangerous situations
“We have developed a virtual care home in Second Life
for ‘patients’ with moderate to severe learning
disabilities.
Designed with clinical management students in mind, the
care home is a basis for strategy development,
whereby the students undertake scenarios in the care
home such as an epidemic, a fire outbreak, a poorly
managed staff team or an unhelpful higher being.
They must collaborate with each other to come up with a
convenient strategy that should effectively solve the
scenario.” - Coventry

28. Other things that repeatedly appeared in the responses

29. Studying SL as a learning environment
“A pilot study looking at Interprofessional education in
Second Life.” - Coventry
“Determining whether SL is a suitable environment within
which to develop students' business enterprise skills.” -
Leeds
“Through the Open Habitat project, we are piloting
various approaches to teaching and learning in Second
Life and OpenSim.” - Leeds Metropolitan
“This project investigated pedagogical issues related to
teaching within 3D virtual worlds using Second Life as
the delivery platform.” - Ulster

30. Staff introduction
“We held a number of induction events to allow interested
members of staff to familiarise themselves with the
environment.” - Leeds
“Teaching our staff about virtual worlds and the
possibilities of these as a learning and teaching
environment.” - Glasgow Caledonian
“Currently exploring SL with a small group for staff to look
at the feasibility of using SL to exchange and work with
other educational establishments or projects.” – Strode
College

31. Stuff difficult to do elsewhere
“Creating some crime scene scenarios for use by
forensic science students.” - East London
“We're building a Buddhist monastery as part of a 2nd
year course on the anthropology of Buddhism. A
subset of the class will create avatars, learn to
socialise in SL in all its indulgent glory, and then
surrender all fashion, wealth and gender to become
temporary monks/nuns.” - Aberdeen

32. Machinima
“A section of the island is designated for film making
(machinima), with an adaptable diorama and
terraformable landscape for creating sets.” - JISC RSC
(Northern)
“A group of media students are undertaking a project on
creating machinima and guidance on the use of the
event simulator described above as part of their
interactive media course.” - West of England

33. Funding

34. Funding
In terms of number of activities, internal funding still
the predominant main source.
However, more external sources e.g.:
 JISC funds many projects.
 MUVEnation funded by the European Commission.
 Leverhulme Trust funding researchers at Coventry.

35. Other worlds …

36. OpenSim
“We expect to see more interest in OpenSim, and
possibly Wonderland - emphasising the need to keep
the ‘intelligence’ of any solution out of any one
particular virtual world. We also still see no ‘Second
Life killer’ out there.” - Daden Limited
“The latest OpenSim server builds offer outstanding
performance, and are rapidly maturing and becoming
reliable for everyday use. Porting objects and scripts
(but not all of them) from Second Life to OpenSim is
now possible.” - Plymouth

37. OpenSim (more)
“We plan to set up our own OpenSim server for our 600
art & design students to enjoy, free from some of the
obstacles that we have encountered whilst trying to
use Second Life.” - Leeds Metropolitan
“We have an OpenSim grid running with a few regions
set up. We are applying for funding to support an
OpenSim grid for the UK academic community.” – St.
Andrews

38. Night balloon over University of Nottingham marina in SL
By Andy Beggan, University of Nottingham
Myself on the west beach of Berneray
By John Kirriemuir, http://www.silversprite.com
Eduserv Foundation
http://www.eduserv.org.uk/foundation
Andy Powell in the pool, by Andy Powell
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andypowe11/2750658057
Finland (snapshot number 1), by John Kirriemuir
http://www.flickr.com/photos/silversprite/478326770/
Seattle skyline (snapshot number 2), by John Kirriemuir
http://www.flickr.com/photos/silversprite/902573785/
Lift in Swedish hotel (snapshot number 3), by John Kirriemuir
http://www.flickr.com/photos/silversprite/2646601174/
Santa Monica pier at dusk (snapshot number 4), by John Kirriemuir
http://www.flickr.com/photos/silversprite/2950941750/
Virtual World Watch
http://www.virtualworldwatch.net
“Just Do It” (skateboard, hill and pier)
http://www.perthlaw.biz/Bird%20Week%202006/nike.jpg
This is Bear Country, by John Kirriemuir
http://www.flickr.com/photos/silversprite/2985946778/in/set-72157607957657774
New York City view, by Flickr user Meironke
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meironke/2670845984/

39. Desert Landscape, by Flickr user Eggman
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eqqman/463425700/
Teaching in Second Life (Brain picture), by Flickr user rosefirerising
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosefirerising/498913702/
Virtual Crufts, by Judy Robertson
http://judyrobertson.typepad.com/judy_robertson/2008/12/virtual-crufts.html
Quarry overview, by Peter Radcliff
University of Derby
Quarry rockfall, by Peter Radcliff
University of Derby
Factory safety picture, by Liz Falconer
University of the West of England
Medical science bench, by Rose Heaney
University of East London
X-ray machine, by Ferdinand Francino
Glasgow Caledonian University
Sloodle101/Second Life & Moodle, by Flickr user robinmochi
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25095603@N07/2525372809/
JISC discussion table (funding), by Flickr user Eduserv Foundation
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eduservfoundation/542482576/in/set-72157600343823993
PS3 Home marina picture, by Annabeth Robinson
http://www.flickr.com/photos/annamorphic/3104565954/
PS3 Interior picture, by Annabeth Robinson
http://www.flickr.com/photos/annamorphic/3106473041/