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The University of Idaho campus expands onto new frontiers, taking on the virtual world in Second Life.
Funded by research grants, students in the Virtual Technology and Design program built a UI virtual campus in the virtual simulated world, Second Life, this summer.
Jason Helt and Michael McMullin, seniors in the UI VTD program, were behind the creation of the virtual campus.
“(The) two UI students in the Virtual Technology and Design Program are the craftsmen for this new world,” Moller said.
McMullin said he and Helt started working on the project in May, and the virtual Administration building took Helt one and a half months to build.
The two work about 10-15 hours a week aside from classes. As a scripter, McMullin works with programming the teaching environment and anything interactive.
“I had a lot of fun this summer and learned a lot that pertains to (VTD),” McMullin said. “It’s nice to have a job related to my major. I was very lucky to get it.”
McMullin said although there are only two classes on the virtual campus, he hopes there will be more soon.
“As far as the actual program goes, it’s pretty ambitious,” he said. “It’s very intuitive. It’s a good learning curve, like any other program that can be used as a learning tool.”
The program has full voice capacity and includes tools for hand-raising and facilitating interaction between teachers and students.
Dr. Greg Moller, associate professor of Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology said using the 3-D interface is a different experience and has the potential to become a successful educational tool.
Two of Moller’s courses, Principles of Environmental Toxicology, EnvS 409/509, and Food Toxicology 464/564, meet in a virtual Skydome Learning Complex and a virtual Bighorn room.
Those involved on the virtual campus include upper division and graduate students taking courses at the Moscow/Post Falls/Idaho Falls campuses, as well as a diverse group of participants from the National Institutes of Health, a new professor of geosciences at a community college in Dallas with 200 students of her own, a conservation organizer in Star Valley Wyoming, a professor of food engineering at the University of New South Wales in Australia, an aquatic scientist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, a grad student taking the course from University of Alaska, Anchorage and a Philadelphia-based scientist.
“This is great professional exposure for the more typical campus-based UI students and SL will allow a greater degree of student-to-student interaction no matter what the location,” Moller said. “The students are still exploring SL themselves.”
“I really believe that SL can enable a ‘global classroom’ where place no longer matters,” Moller said. “The UI virtual campus, ‘Idahonia,’ is an experiment to increase access and enhance learning in that regard.”
Moller said users may run into avatars or users’ SL characters, who speak French, Japanese and other languages because their users are from different sites.
McMullin said he has also encountered avatars who communicate in French, Russian and German.
“It’s really quite open as far as culture goes,” McMullin said. “The whole concept of the program is very cool.”
Moller said the courses themselves don’t feature traditional teaching methods in Second Life and people are viewing this tool in the terms of its future utility.
“It’s too new, too experimental and doesn’t want to threaten the academic integrity of the course,” he said.
McMullin agreed and said he too would like to see the program utilized more widely on campus.
“I would like to see it become a tool teachers could use for educational and social interaction,” he said.
There is a virtual Bighorn room, Administration Building and water tower.
McMullin said there are plans to build a virtual Kibbie Dome and a small amphitheater for things like plays or more informal interactions.
At the moment, users can interact with students and professors in classrooms or conferences, screen lectures, blogs and listen to podcasts.
“Second Life is really, at this point, a utility for interactivity and allows all the students to sit together in a virtual space and have a real time discussion,” Moller said. “It’s just going to be a way for institutions of higher education to deliver their products to a wider audience.”
With this program, on-campus students can connect with off-campus students at anytime.
“It’s not intended to take over your ‘first’ life, but helps you stay connected,” Moller said.
Moller said SL is a little more social, but for a class dynamic users can add resources and simulators to the program.
“It’s just playful,” Moller said.
At the rate technology is advancing, the future can only hold endless possibilities.
“Right now we are on the early end of technology,” Moller said.
He said SL is starting to develop a reputation as a creative outlet, and may become more popular in time.
The transition from using Web-based programs like WebCt to something like SL could take some transitioning for people’s rections to SL to students’ reactions toward the Internet and using e-mail in school during the early ‘90s, and bumps experienced early on in the transition.
“People experienced this rapid growth on the world wide Web,” Moller said. “What would we have done without course e-mails? Having seen that, I believe there are tremendous possibilities,” Moller said.
“I sense students are changing and sometimes you need to push students out of their comfort zone. Don’t pre-judge — there may be a side to this worth experiencing as far as a university education.”
Moller is currently brainstorming a project to create a simulated body unit that anyone can use to walk inside SL.
“You can do anything — the creative possibilities are amazing,” he said.
As for the future of UI’s virtual campus on Second Life, students may be able to continue their formal coursework while studying abroad or doing something else off location.
“I think it is going to create or enhance the freedom of delivery,” Moller said.
“It’s not a replacement for what we do and do well, in terms of an intimate experience in a classroom, but in the future not everything will be classroom-based.”
The University of Idaho virtual campus in Second Life is funded by a Proof of Concept Program Grant, North West Academic Computing Consortium, the Idaho State Board of Education and a Idaho Technology Incentive Grant.
According to UI’s Second Life Web site, “the intent of the ITIG program is to demonstrate innovative approaches for integrating technology into teaching and learning while focusing on clearly defined learning outcomes and a well-developed assessment plan. The program seeks bold new ideas that are sustainable and can provide educational access beyond the institution.”
Moller said it is the power of tools like SL that enable people to imagine.
“It is a neat tool for the future, to kind of help us create,” Moller said.
“It’s going to make the job easier and I think that’s where its real value is.”
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