Creating an Integrated Second Life Curriculum: Teaching and Learning through Interdisciplinary Pedagogies

Introduction

Higher education institutions across the United States are facing budget crises and enrollment management issues, and educators are being challenged at the basic core of instruction. Leading institutions have turned to non-traditional learning environments to address the educational challenges of 21^st Century learners. Faculty members are being charged to develop quality instructional strategies that encourage student engagement and maintain retention while keeping instructional costs low. Additionally, demand for educational content with multi-media is at an all-time high (Atkins, Bennett, Brown, Chopra, Dede, Fishman, & Williams, 2010). Integrated with cutting-edge technology, collaborative learning may improve educational quality and create a more student-centered approach to the learning environment.

Although not initially intended for educational purposes, Second Life, a 3-Dimensional (3-D) virtual world designed and developed in 2003 by Linden Laboratories, allows educators to teach in an immersive visual environment (Linden Laboratories, June, 2013). With an emphasis on social interaction, Second Life encourages instructors to rethink not only how they teach but also how they deliver instruction. “The fact that virtual worlds combine technology, social learning, role playing and games make them a ‘sleeping giant’ in education, despite concerns of cost and widespread acceptance” (Alvarez, 2006, p. 1). The creation and use of a unique and interactive environment provides access to users through Second Life settings, using real time interactions in a unique 3D multi-user educational environment (Bignell & Parson, 2010). The emergence of 3D virtual environments to facilitate an immersive educational experience has become more commonplace in higher education due to the ease of use and technological support (Bowers, Ragas, & Neely, 2009; Inman, Wright, & Hartman, 2010).

With over one hundred regions used for educational purposes covering a plethora of subjects, faculty and researchers in Second Life favor the interactive capabilities versus traditional distance learning teaching methods. Currently, over 300 universities around the world teach courses and/or conduct research in SL, and new educational institutions are emerging operating exclusively within the Second Life environment, taking advantage of the platform to deliver low-cost content to a world-wide audience (http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Second_Life_Education/Resources). The modification in learning environment stems largely from a set of socio-technical transitions such as wider access to broadband, the development of powerful Web 2.0 technologies, platforms and computer graphics capabilities, the emphasis upon social and experiential interactions, and advances in the uses and applications of the internet. In the Second Life virtual world, residents can explore environments, meet and socialize with other residents (using voice and text chat), participate in individual and group activities, and learn from designed experiences. Built into the software is a 3-D modeling tool, based on simple geometric shapes that allow anyone to build virtual objects. These objects can be used in combination with a scripting language to add functionality, allowing for a range of options in the context of education for enhancing teaching and learning (De Freitas, Rebolledo-Mendez, Liarokapis, Magoulas, & Poulovassilis, 2010). Combined, these forces have led to greater challenges and opportunities for the learning and teaching communities that may broadly be categorized in terms of social, pedagogic, institutional and technological advantages.