Authors:
Athanasios Christopoulos
and
Marc Conrad
Affiliation:
University of Bedfordshire, United Kingdom
Keyword(s):
Virtual World, Virtual Reality, Virtual Learning, Second Life, Opensim, Persistence.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Assessment Software Tools
;
Computer-Supported Education
;
Course Design and e-Learning Curriculae
;
Educating the Educators
;
e-Learning
;
Instructional Design
;
Learning/Teaching Methodologies and Assessment
;
Social Context and Learning Environments
Abstract:
The increased demand for the use of virtual worlds in higher education has led many educators and researchers in in-depth analysis and evaluation of a number of different virtual environments, aiming to highlight their potentials. Until recently, Second Life was one of the most widely used virtual worlds for educational purposes. However, the decision of Linden Lab to stop offering the educational discount, the rumours around its future and the emergence of a novel technology called OpenSim challenged institutions’ decisions to keep using Second Life. In a try to identify the way institutions make their decision to use a virtual world, 34 interviews have been conducted with university educators. The results of this study reveal that both the cost and the persistence of a virtual world play an important role on this decision. However, there are still some unique benefits offered by each world affecting to a great extent the educators’ decision. We conclude the paper by advocating the
use of a cross-institutional hypergrid.
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