A presentation at the National Workshop on Teaching in Immersive Worlds in the University of Ulster, November 2009.

1. Surveying virtual world use in
UK universities and colleges
www.virtualworldwatch.net
20th November 2009

2. Eduserv Foundation / Research funded.
Phase 1: discrete activity reports (‘snapshots’) from
summer 2007 to autumn 2008.
Phase 2: more continuous data collection from
November 2008 to May 2009.

3. Phase 3: September ’09 to March ’10
Snapshots #7 and #8.
Two reports on how academics choose virtual worlds.
Report on virtual world research trends in UK HE / FE.
Making the website a hub of useful things for UK academics.
Synthesis of the learning conclusions of virtual world project
reports.
Planning phase 4.

4. 6 years and 5 months of Second Life
... this is not new technology
Bernadette Daley http://www.flickr.com/photos/photolibraries/3849881257/

5. Backdrop to snapshot #7
Some UK universities into their second or third year of using
virtual worlds.
“Community” is a mix of the long-term users and the noobs.
Projects funded by the JISC, Eduserv et al finishing and
reporting.
No longer a niche, but the majority of UK academics are
non-users with vague / incorrect ideas, no concept of
educational use (thought: like Twitter?).

6. A community of academic developers
Annabeth Robinson http://www.flickr.com/photos/annamorphic/3446888061/

7. Why build virtual stuff? What’s so bad
about the real world?
Make better use of comms. 30 silent,
mind-wandering students while a lecturer
‘lectures’? Soooo 20th century!
Learning by doing - more stuff sinks in.
Develop a battery of social, logistical, organisational,
technological skills at the same time.
Gravity sucks. So do building regulations. Build better.
Travel great distances to meet, learn, *communicate*?! WTF ?

8. Daniel Guip http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielguip/3806113501/

9. “Every time you tweet, a butterfly dies.”
Getting accurate information on effect of using ICT,
mitigation of using it as replacement for real world activities,
is hard.
Factors include the whole supply chain (proportionate cost
of making the PC); whether an attendee at a virtual meeting
would have attended the real life one; virtual / real event
organisational energy use; and hundreds more ...
Example: contested claim, maths that a Second Life avatar
uses as much power as a Brazilian:
http://bit.ly/1aLAa2

10. Effective technology use *may* help
Nick Fraser
Peak oil, CO2, Kyoto,
Copenhagen...
Remember virtual worlds
aren’t the only
communication technology
e.g. Skype, the telephone.
Follow Joss Winn (right) on
Twitter for sensible info on
energy / climate change:
@josswinn
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickfraser/169429270/

11. Meeting in a flipchart world
Tom Hapwood http://www.flickr.com/photos/hapgood/400068403/

12. Engage, record, find, research *during* your meeting
John Kirriemuir http://www.flickr.com/photos/silversprite/492317404/

13. Fly in or out of a session at will - without leaving home
John Kirriemuir http://www.flickr.com/photos/silversprite/492471366/

14. Your campus in the real world
Chen Zhao http://www.flickr.com/photos/livepine/358991717/

15. Your campus in a virtual world
Torley http://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/3030856011/

16. Lecture in a university
Vince http://www.flickr.com/photos/kitsu/404092967/

17. Lecture (not in, but) through a virtual world
Steven W Bohm http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevenwbohm/3407018233/

18. Yes, very pretty, but...
All that glitters is not ... educational. So ...
Is it worth the effort?
Virtual world development costs.
Staff virtual world learning time.
Learner virtual world learning time.
“Land” rent or ownership fees.

19. The Further Education experience
JISC RSCs are 13 regional semi-autonomous units,
providing range of support services to mainly FE / FE in HE.
Most JISC Regional Support Centres providing summaries
of what’s happening in their region (thanks).
Most FE institutions not (visibly) doing anything.
Some JISC RSCs providing Second Life islands, running
workshops, levering HE experience to help FE in their area.
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/rsc

20. Barriers (a bit similar to 2007 HE)
“We used six months of RSC-Northern-granted access to try
and get it working inside our college network. Our efforts for
a solution were unrealised in the end. Also, graphic cards
were an issue for many machines in our estate. We are now
considering using Second Life OpenSim, but are awaiting
new servers and virtualisation being set up in college.” (Paul
Flynn, Stockton Riverside College)
“Access to online virtual worlds is a particular problem for
Local Authority provision due to network restrictions.” (Paul
Miller, JISC RSC Northern)

21. JISC RSC Northern Ireland
6 multi-campus FE/HE
colleges formed 2 years ago by
the merger of 16 existing
colleges.
South Eastern Regional College
is using Second Life for HE and
OpenSim for FE students.
strangfordmultimedia.com/
wordp/ - James Bell

22. The Higher Education experience
Extremely fragmented. Activities in all but one UK university.
... but rarely in a joined-up way. Always been the case. *sigh*
A lot of curiosity, talk, speculation, but far less actual action in
some institutions.
Most developments not publicised; some private; some have odd
names. Again, always been the case.
Some academics open, some closed, some want to just do their
remit and move on to the next thing.

23. Some HE-based activities
Research into how virtual worlds could be used in education.
Teaching courses, especially e-learning, computer science.
Recreation of historical sites and buildings.
Student developments, exhibitions (esp. art and design).
Health and safety workplace training.
Crime investigation and training.
Medical emergency, procedure, situations.
Meetings and conferences, integrating video, audio.

24. “I lecture in Criminology at Coventry University and am
using Second Life to develop a dysfunctional community
as a teaching and learning resource ... Second Life
provides a platform that allows immersion in a relatively
realistically simulated neighbourhood without the ethical
dilemmas and potential risks of field studies.”
Graham Steventon, Coventry University

25. Training safely in a litigious, health and safety, culture
Bree Kjeller http://www.flickr.com/photos/24568275@N07/3034203645/

26. Virtual Quarry
“Learn by dying” - apprentices stumble into, onto, under the
many hazards in a digital environment first.
Role-play e.g. procedure for detonating a cliff.
It’s cheaper per student and per class.
Students don’t have to spend time, money, travelling to a real
quarry in the first place. May decide it’s not for them after the
virtual experience.
Course tutor less worried about implications of mishaps of fresh
apprentice.

27. Safety in the quarry (driving jeeps over cliffs)
Institute of Quarrying in Second Life

28. MSc in E-learning (Fiona Littleton)
Online distance programme with over 130 students.
We use a virtual world in various courses across the entire
programme from an Introduction to Digital Environments
for Learning (IDEL), where we introduce virtual worlds and
discuss online identity to dissertation supervision, where
supervisors meet with their students for virtual meetings.
This semester (Sept - Dec 09) has been the first time that all
students on IDEL have been able to access Second Life.
http://www.education.ed.ac.uk/e-learning/content.htm

29. MSc in E-learning, University of Edinburgh
Fiona Littleton http://www.flickr.com/photos/flittleton/4093207474

30. First World War poetry digital archive
A range of digitised archival materials like poetry
manuscripts, letters and diaries from the major poets of the
First World War including Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg
and Vera Brittain, along with contextual primary source
materials.
Encourages exploration of SL sim. Click on boxes to hear
poets recite, soldiers describe conditions. Try on uniforms,
explore camps and trenches.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Frideswide/219/199/646/

31. Historical and geographical information
Tara Yeats http://www.flickr.com/photos/taraform/4065271142/

32. Modeling very small or large things
Recreate, animate, interact.
More practical than “the real thing”.
Plenty of already created stuff (tho’ hard to find - virtual
world search, indexing is dire)...
...build and share. (IPR issues brooding).
Safer e.g. growth of the tuberculosis bacteria.
Stop, start, record, replay. Copy.

33. Molecules, bacteria, virus and other tiny stuff
Peter Miller, University of Liverpool

34. Learning information literacy
Research (offline and on).
Model.
Link to related things.
Display and present.
Discuss, seminar, workshop.
Disseminate.

35. Info management student exhibition, Sheffield University
Sheila Webber http://www.flickr.com/photos/23396182@N00/4091324776/

36. Develop and discuss learning theories
Bex Ferriday http://www.flickr.com/photos/fezzette/3463950370/

37. Wind turbine Second Life project
1. Designing and coding programmes to calculate electricity
generation of wind turbines.
2.Using Second Life to simulate the effect of ‘real world'
variables on turbines of different design and displaying the
output of electricity generated.
3.Evaluating their experience in Second Life.
Student evaluations largely positive:
http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=240765

38. Barry Spencer, Bromley College http://shimmer-island.blogspot.com/

39. Virtual Maternity Unit, Kate Boardman
The Virtual Maternity Unit is an embedded part of the midwifery training at
Teesside. It has 36 ante- and post-natal rooms and two birthing suites.
Each cohort of student midwives have complete ownership of the 'Unit', choosing its
name, décor, layout of some rooms and working through - with roles which include
community midwives with home birth duties - case scenarios of a variety of girls and
women for whom to establish care plans and identify mother or baby health
problems in monitoring their progress.
Second Life now offers the opportunity to engage in a much more realistic manner
with many of the exercises, and - similar to the SLENZ Birthing Centre in New
Zealand - undertake research and make choices as to the environment as well as the
medical issues.
The greater learning however - and testament to the 'reality' of the virtual world - is
that squeamish men have backed off from the actual birthing activity, so it's been a
fantastic antenatal resource for the two about to become new fathers on my team :)

40. Midwifery (Teesside University)
Kate Boardman Teesside University

41. Midwifery (Teesside University)
Kate Boardman Teesside University

42. Midwifery (Teesside University)
Kate Boardman Teesside University

43. “In my day we had chalk and blackboards and
education where you sat in rows and faced the
lecturer who told you things that you memorised
and you had a brain and didn’t need a calculator
or a computer and ... blah blah blah ... where will
it all end? Graduation in cyberspace?”
Overheard rant, type 3 user (later), University of Fuddy Duddy

44. Corporation Pop http://www.flickr.com/photos/24220989@N03/sets/72157615481073463/

45. Second Life.
You either love it,
or you hate it.
Steve Calcott http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevec77/252591863/

46. Polarising student base
Student reactions to Second Life appear more emotive than
to other software.
Strongly negative (usually between ¼ to ⅓ ) “This is
pointless.”
Strongly positive (the remainder) “I’m a flying cardboard
box. It’s mint.”
Seems to play the biggest part in success (more than
interface, learning design, etc).
Mark Childs http://www.slideshare.net/markchilds/using-sl-and-theatron

47. Type 1: the ‘fault-finder’
Technically experienced.
May be a gamer.
Focuses on the lower resolution graphics of VWs in
comparison with games.
Becomes especially frustrated with glitches, crashes and lag.
May have a point.
Mark Childs http://www.slideshare.net/markchilds/using-sl-and-theatron

48. Type 2: the ‘feelie’
Feels particularly alienated by inability to read facial
expressions.
Values tactile and physical experiences particularly.
Extrovert.
“So strongly situated in the real world and their real body
that they have a difficult time becoming involved in a virtual
world.” (Heeter, 1995; 200)
Mark Childs http://www.slideshare.net/markchilds/using-sl-and-theatron

49. Type 3: the ‘killjoy’
Views education as an activity to be engaged with seriously
at all times.
The superficial resemblance of VWs to games deters them.
The fantasy elements (flying, teleportation) are seen as
frivolous and any experience inworld is therefore seen as
inauthentic.
Regards the activities of others in the space (dancing,
morphing) as having an undermining effect on learning
activities.
Mark Childs http://www.slideshare.net/markchilds/using-sl-and-theatron

50. “Before Second Life launched we used virtual
worlds like Palace, Active Worlds and There as a
space to meet students, but because Second Life
was multi platform and more immersive we
began to use Second Life on our programme
more than any other virtual world.”
Fiona Littleton, University of Edinburgh

51. “I have also ventured into MetaPlace ... the
main advantage is not needing to download
anything - this is a great advantage over SL,
especially for those of us with ‘locked-down’
computers, and means that you don’t have to
worry about whether the most up-to-date client
is loaded on a particular PC, etc.”
Lindsay Da Silva, University of Chichester

52. Metaplace
Daniel Livingstone http://www.flickr.com/photos/dlivingstone/3349381417/

53. OpenSim / Reactiongrid
Annabeth Robinson http://www.flickr.com/photos/annamorphic/3933560753/

54. Project reports starting to appear
Waves of projects from the last
few years finishing.
Have a rummage through JISC,
Eduserv websites and look for
final reports.
Open Habitat is a good starter;
look through the conclusions.
www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/
documents/habitatfinalreport
http://www.tall.ox.ac.uk/research/current/habitat.php

55. Open Habitat summary (1)
The two main affordances of MUVEs in particular are:
Eventedness: The ability to provide a space in which students feel
a shared endeavour can take place.
Co-presence: The sense that you are present with other people.
Of note is that MUVEs do not provide very strong ‘latent social
presence’ i.e. when you log-off your presence ceases, unlike for
example social networking or forums. In conjunction with the correct
pedagogy and facilitation the MUVE can be very effective in
supporting shared endeavours but close collaboration can still be
challenging.

56. Open Habitat summary (2)
Using an MUVE is a high risk activity as because of the nature of
the platform the range of student and tutor experiences can be
varied. A bad session can feel highly isolating and alienating while
a good experience can feel very communal and co-operative.
Social technologies such as MUVEs benefit from a less hierarchical
approach to teaching. Even the ‘master-apprentice’ model seems a
little too authoritarian.
Subjects that are an ongoing process of debate or discovery seem
to be best suited to MUVEs rather than subjects or sessions that
attempt to converge on a ‘correct’ answer.

57. Personal view
Is it worth the effort?
Depends on the learning situation...
Worlds are getting easier to use; effort reducing. But still
more hurdles than with most other educational technologies.
2009-2010 - this year - academia researching, testing,
finding out what works and what doesn’t.
Some subject areas e.g. midwifery, work simulation,
molecular work, medical, emergency, showing much use.

58. Sheila Webber http://www.flickr.com/photos/23396182@N00/4083217536/

59. Growing academic community
Uses the VirtualWorlds list on www.jiscmail.ac.uk
Culture of openly sharing, discussing virtual world
development and learning experiences.
Academics from outside UK very welcome (geographic
borders kinda irrelevant).
Discuss on the list, or meet on the 2nd tuesday, evening,
somewhere in-world (see the list). Next is December 8th.
n.b. nearly all UK VW developers are on Twitter.

60. Alberto Avramidis
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kiki99/1062744637/
Money

61. Who wants to be a (funding) millionaire?
Roo Reynolds - www.rooreynolds.com
Much development in UK
academia is voluntary.
But this can only go so far.
Land, development time,
curriculum integration,
formal staff time. Need
money, money, money ...
So ... how does an
academic get funding?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rooreynolds/95488462/

62. Uncertain times ahead in the education sector
Conservative Party http://www.flickr.com/photos/conservatives/4078512316/
“So when I see Ed Balls blow hundreds of millions on so-called ‘curriculum development’
on consultancies, on quangos like the QCDA and BECTA ...”
David Cameron MP, Conservative Party conference, October 2009

63. Everyone is economising ...
Howard Gees
Doom and gloom at
education conferences.
Credit crunch.
Massive deficit.
British currency looks good
- but only against Iceland’s.
“Golden age” of education
funding may be ending.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyberslayer/3284255426/

64. Generic advice for proposal writers
Follow the remit of the call. Don’t act surprised if you don’t and your bid
is rejected.
Imagine that your writing will be marked by three Mister Men:
‘Mr Cynical’, ‘Mr Grumpy’, and ‘Mr WTF Is A Virtual World?’
Cover all of “What, Why, When, How, Where, Who” (Just So Stories,
Kipling, 1902).
Exit strategy and legacy. What will yours be?
How does your project make the funding body look good? (Uncertain
times; they need good PR too). How does it fit in with their remit?
Check that no-one else has done it first...

65. Good approaches to take
How much time, money, CO2 emissions saved (reference credible data)
by doing things in virtual worlds.
Re-use of existing virtual world structures and content.
Bringing “stuff” created by old projects e.g. Digitisation, TLTP, eLib,
NOF, into a virtual world (justify why).
Learning enhancement (reference relevant literature, project reports).
How can other learning providers use this, replicate it.
Making useful stuff available for future re-use.

66. Bad approaches to take
Develop something in a virtual world, then ask for a
£10,000 budget for real world international travel.
Ignoring other technologies. Say why using a virtual world is
better than other software and systems.
Forgetting to show the number of learners who will benefit,
and how they will benefit.
Not rapidly disseminating. Share stuff this year, not next.
Using buzzwords ...

67. Virtual world proposal cliche bingo!
Form any line of 5 words or phrases for an instant funding proposal rejection :-)
Cyber- Digital
Game The future Tron
university natives
New Virtual
Cybersex Game Super Mario
technology student
Hyper- Online
Noob Game Furry
reality dating
The VLE is
Virtuality The Matrix Game Cool
dead
Virtual
Skins Cyberspace Hairstyle Game
Reality

68. And finally - a quick plug ...

69. Choosing the
best virtual
world for your
teaching needs
JISC Innovating
e-Learning 2009
Online Conference
November 24th - 27th
www.jisc.ac.uk/events
Frankie Rockett http://www.flickr.com/photos/frankierockett/3334290833/