Posts tagged build
Types of Island Planning Decisions
May 2nd
A few posts back, I suggested Determining a Build Philosophy as the first step in planning an institutional presence in Second Life. To continue that thought process, we’ve identified a number of other issues and decisions we’re beginning to address. Most of them seem to fall into four interdependent areas which are listed below along with thoughts or considerations our planning & development group have already discussed or at least listed.
An Architectural Plan for common/institutional areas (as opposed to parcels allocated for individual faculty use). More >
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Loading ...Determining a "Build Philosophy"
Apr 27th
In regards to our institutional Second Life instructional project, the first step in the planning process I’m suggesting for the group is to determine what our approach to the build will be. Going into the project, our institution doesn’t have any stated assumptions regarding the layout, design or appearance of the Second Life presence. Without those assumptions or guiding influence, the first step will be to define a particular approach which will guide all aspects of the build. At the moment, I have in mind five general approaches our planning group may consider.
I’m assuming some sort of taxonomy of thought around these approaches has emerged and exists somewhere; if you’re familiar with that work or have specific thoughts on the ideas I’m suggesting, I’d appreciate hearing your comments. More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Second Life for Dummies Event
Mar 27th
Wiley Publishing hosted an in-world event with Intellagirl Tully and Typewriter Tackleberry, the authors of Second Life for Dummies. Although I missed the first twenty minutes or so stuck longer in evening commuter traffic than I expected, it was a good event. The question and answer time was well worth it. There were several take-aways I had from the discussion that are worth mentioning here:
First, Intellagirl commented that SkidzPrimz is an invaluable build tool; I believe I had encountered it before but had not looked at it closely since I’ve not done much building to this point. After re-visiting it, I will likely purchase it based on Intellagirl’s recommendation as I begin building an upcoming project. See the SkidzPartz website for more information.
Second, Intellagirl’s comments regarding the change in Second Life leadership were interesting; if I remember correctly (didn’t save a transcript, see below), the essence of her response was that she doesn’t think it will impact the day to day use of Second Life much in the short term. The impact will primarily be behind the scenes at first with growth coming later. I thought it was interesting that she commented that “all bets are off if they IPO.” I assume the IPO would lead to faster growth and development with the increased capital to support development of the platform.
Third, I know this question has likely been addressed extensively on the SLED listserv, but I’ll post it here again since it’s come up. I asked the Wiley staff about a chat transcript being available; the response I received was that it would not be available because they would need to get permission from each person that participated in the discussion before they could publish it. Is the event not considered a public event? Or, at least, would Wiley Publishing not own the rights to publish the transcript since it occurred at their event and on their parcel?
Finally, the event was well organized with an adjacent parcel housing “balcony seating” for overflow avs. The cool thing about it was “Opera Glasses” which, when worn and activated, automatically focused your camera view on the stage with a perfect view of the moderator, Intellagirl and Typewriter. It’s a useful tool which needs to be socked away in memory for use later.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Lisa Dawley on Instructional Design for Virtual Worlds
Dec 1st
I had the opportunity to watch a recorded archive of Dr. Lisa Dawley’s online presentation from Tuesday, November 27: Persistent Social Learning: An Emergent ID Model for Virtual World Design. Dr. Dawley (SL: Mali Young) is Chair & Associate Professor of the Department of Educational Technology at Boise State University and the designer of EDTECH Island in Second Life. The presentation focuses on what she believes is an emerging instructional design (ID) model for the development of virtual learning environments.
Initially, Dr. Dawley describes potential shortcomings of traditional ID models regarding the development of virtual learning environments and resources; specifically, the literature suggests the traditional models (e.g. Dick & Carey’s model and the more generic ADDIE model) are too process oriented, too static and too linear – leading to games or environments that don’t meet user expectations. I certainly understand the D&C model fitting into that category; I’ve always understood it to have more cognitivist, information processing philosophical underpinnings. The ADDIE model, as I understand it however, does not inherently have a cognitivist orientation; the instructional designer’s philosophy of teaching and learning influences specific strategies within the design phase, so the ADDIE model may be used to guide the development of more constructivist learning resources.
The challenge, according to Dr. Dawley, is to create a virtual environment that is engaging and draws learners in, and we can’t necessarily do that using traditional ID models. I agree entirely with that issue. I do believe there are two issues we, as an instructional design community, must address to meet that challenge. First, we must design and develop engaging virtual environments. Second, perhaps more importantly, we must design and develop engaging learning experiences within those virtual environments. I think the situation is somewhat analogous to an issue I’ve encountered recently regarding the use of iTunes: many colleges and universities are signing on with iTunes, but that’s only the delivery mechanism – the key to effective podcasting is the auditory content.
The presentation focuses on the first challenge: lessons learned while developing an effective and engaging virtual learning environment – specifically, Dawley’s work with EDTECH Island. For me, the first three phases of her research empirically corroborates the observational data published by Jennings & Collins (2007). For example, Jennings & Collins’ research compiled data regarding the educational institutions’ use of signage, pathways, maps and teleports on land parcels to facilitate visitor engagement and use of the space. Through the first phases of research, Dr. Dawley has collected empirical data validating the impact of those build design strategies; more importantly, her research also reveals the relative importance of building tutorials for learners, information sharing tools, meeting places, social/living areas, and group notices for increasing traffic and engaging visitors. As she summarizes, the evidence indicates navigational pathways and group notices have a definitive impact on engagement with social events and living spaces being less influential.
There were three other notable aspects of the presentation, in my opinion.
First, the data collection tools were new to me. I am familiar with visitor counters, but Maya Realities Second Life Traffic Analysis is quite impressive, to say the least. The metrics very easily evaluate the ROI of an institution’s SL space. I could try to explain it in detail, but it’s much easier to take a look at the presentation starting at the 25:30 mark (roughly halfway on the progress bar) and browse the Maya Realities website.
Second, one suggestion for increasing traffic to certain areas was to “put the milk in the back” – the grocery store notion of placing the highest volume product at the back of the store. That requires visitors to walk past everything else on the way to the high volume product. From a marketing perspective, that principle may work. From an instructional perspective, I believe it will be counterproductive. In any educational environment, we’re not trying to sell product; we’re trying to get learners to engage specific content in certain ways. Placing that content “behind” other interesting content which is ultimately a distractor is inconsistent with instructional and web design principles.
That leads to the third idea. An attendee suggested that we’re beginning to encounter and engage usability and design issues for virtual environments that are analogous to the earliest issues regarding the usability of web-based learning environments. Certainly, observing and participating in the convergence of architectural, game, instructional, and web design principles will influence the effectiveness of virtual learning environments.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Combined Campus & Museum Build?
Aug 2nd
With the number of campuses established in Second Life, is anyone familiar with any that are combined, collaborative builds between a College/University and another organization? Is there a campus that represents multiple organizations? (I’m assuming that the answer is an obvious one to which I’ll respond, “Really!? I’ve been there and didn’t remember that it was a combined build.”)
With our Second Life project temporarily on hold while we revisit funding issues, I began “sketching out ideas” for the layout and design of a Second Life campus for my institution. I didn’t do any serious sketching or prototyping, just dabbling for now until the funding questions are answered. However, as I thought through how to design a campus that addresses a number of needs – not the least of which are marketing/branding and the challenge of designing a single Second Life campus that represents multiple physical campus identities – I kept coming back to the same idea: a local monument and battlefield are the clearest symbols of our institution’s name and origin. My institution is named after a historical battle and battlefield; that historical influence pervades the area and has contributed greatly to the identity of the community over the years. Leveraging that identity in Second Life is important.
Naturally, a monument, museum and historical park occupy the site of the battlefield, and two different groups maintain those facilities and facilitate events and activities related to the history of the area. If including the symbols of the monument and battlefield in our campus build is important, why not engage the museum and historical association to develop a Second Life site that represents the entire area? Rather than simply using the monument as part of our campus, why not collaborate on a larger project that includes our College, the museum and the battlefield in a manner to support formal and informal education along with virtual tourism?
While that adds a layer of complexity to the project and likely extends any development timeline we may have had in mind for our institution, it seems like a worthwhile community collaboration. So, my question, again, “Is anyone familiar with any Second Life builds that are combined, collaborative builds representative of a College/University and other organizations or interests?”
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...NMC Summer Conference – Day 1
Jun 6th
I made the trip from Houston to Indianapolis this morning for the NMC 2007 Summer Conference being hosted by Indiana University & Purdue University Indiana (IUPUI).
I attended a pre-conference workshop offered by Lyr Lobo (RL: Cynthia Cologne) focused on Building a Project in Second Life. Participants offered an interesting mix of Second Life expertise, and impressively, Lyr’s session appeared to adapt to most users in the room, offering something for everyone. Several of the things I learned:
- editing the color of my selection beam
- NSS Noob Be Gone series of videos; I think I’ve seen these before. Lyr used this one in particular to get the session started. Several more Second Life video tutorials are available here, along with a mix of other topics.
- using copy selection with keep tool selected option in the build menu to center copy and rotate copy
- z-ordering: which object is in front or on top? If two objects overlap, the flickering texture is created by the lack of clarity regarding which object texture takes priority.
- how to build a wall with a window, a 1-prim scripted door, a 1-prim fountain, a 1-prim stool, a 1-prim lamp with shade.
- how to select and modify the texture, color etc of just one face of an object
- Ctl-Alt-D: the debug menu creates two additional menu options. Viewing the world as a wireframe is interesting and can be useful when reviewing script functionality
I learned a great deal more; this is what I managed to note during the session. If you’d like to know specifics regarding any of these ideas, contact me in world @ Topher Zwiers. I’ll share, explain and demo in world as much as I’m able.
After the session, it was back to the hotel to check in and then back to the Conference Center for the opening reception. The opening reception was an incredible opportunity to meet and network with fantastic individuals and educational professionals. Near the close of the reception, there was an informal meetup of SL’ers attending the conference. I had the pleasure to meet, in RL for a change, Lyr Lobo, Fleep Tuque (still amazed at the job she/they did on the SLBEP conference!), GunnyP Mayo, Ann Enigma, Farley Scarborough, Brett Bjornson (briefly), Professor Beliveau, CDB Barkley and others. This is truly an amazing educational community.
If you’re interested in the goings on at the conference as well as the portions of the conference made available to a remote, SL audience, be sure to check out the NMC Campus Observer blog and the Conference wiki. There’s also an NMC Campus Flickr stream. I hope to blog again tomorrow about Day 2, if I’m not melting down from information overload! ;-) Oh, and NMC Summer Conference 2008 is scheduled for June 11-14, 2008 at Princeton University.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...SLPBE. Fleep Tuque’s Observational Survey of Educational Institutions
May 26th
Chris Collins (SL: Fleep Tuque) from the University of Cincinatti presented preliminary results of research she has conducted: An Observational Survey of Educational Institutions in the Virtual World of Second Life.
Wanting to identify “what was out there” Chris (and colleagues?) began identifying and locating institutions with a SL presence. They started with the 186 institutions listed by the SimTeach Wiki with the goal of locating the presence of each institution to discover common, best practices for Campus builds. They were able to locate only 76 of the institutions listed in Second Life, and they found many institutions in Second Life, using SL search functions, that were not listed by the SimTeach Wiki. As they reviewed the various campuses, they observed how many institutions are implementing their SL presence and discovered a number of what they believe to be best practices.
- Traditional Learning Spaces to Exploratory Builds. Not many campuses are breaking the mold. Many of the learning spaces represent familiar learning environments including the replication of actual, RL campus venues. The interesting builds that divert from established norms were by institutions that had been in SL for a longer period of time. Educational institutions appear to engage an incremental building process. They begin by replicating the familiar: buying a little plot with a building and a sign. After a period of time, they expand and explore more.
- Naming of Land Plots. Label and name plots of land with recognizable, commonly understand name(s) associated with the institution. “Nothing stymied the research more than the name of the plots and islands.” Chris used her own institution as an example; the University of Cincinatti’s area is labelled UCit – the department for which Chris works. That name is meaningful to those within the institution, but non-UC SL residents interested in finding the University’s SL campus likely will not search for UCit, and searching for Cincinatti does not help find their SL campus.
- Signage & Information. Not all institutions clearly identify or mark their campus, and in many instances, they could not determine if or where classes were being held, judging by the assets available on the land site. They discovered that footpaths may be important to provide visual cues directing visitors where to go and what to do. Greeting note cards were common at campus entry points and provide useful information describing the space and the projects on the campus. Informational signs are important throughout the campus.
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One of the most useful signage and information strategies I’ve personally seen, but not mentioned by Chris, is the Guided Tour Chair. EduNation and The Gene Pool both have the resource, and both are incredibly useful to visitors.
—– - Leverage Existing Resources. Not many institutions provided links in SL to existing web-based assets. A few linked to their campus newspaper or perhaps the institution website, but many did NOT link to press regarding their SL campus.
- Navigation. While it did not exist on most campuses, the presence of teleport buttons, systems and menus throughout the campus certainly provides a more usable space for residents.
- Sandboxes. “Everyone” has one.
- Office Space. Virtual office space for faculty and staff were common across a lot of institutions. The survey revealed a variety of uses for virtual office space typically falling into two categories: (a) personal introductions such as pictures, personal information, and interests or (b) resource distribution center for common, static materials like FAQ’s, HowTo’s, and tutorials.
- Social Spaces for Learners. The research team didn’t expect to find and was not originally recording this element; however, they discovered Dance Clubs and other social spaces on many campuses.
- Alumni Outreach. They found a good number of institutions reaching out to Alumni: even soliciting donations. Campuses create a social space for alumni to keep in touch with one another and faculty.
- Sporadic Media Use. Currently, most media use is nothing more than music on parcels for aesthetic purposes. Instructional video is not common, and when it is available, it’s typically about using SL or a marketing video of some sort.
All of the information Chris presented was incredibly useful, and it was a fantastic presentation given that all of her preparation time was dominated by organizing the conference itself. I am looking forward to seeing the data and results, in particular the institutions they found, land coordinates, and contact information.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...SLBPE. Kenny Hubble’s (Loyalist College) Keynote.
May 26th
Ken Hudson (SL: Kenny Hubble) of Loyalist College in Canada presented the first keynote of the conference. I believe the archive of his address may be available at SLCN.TV, and it’s worth viewing. The session was FULL; the main room was standing room only, and from what I understand there were fair crowds at the overflow venues as well. (more pictures here)
Ken provided a fantastic overview of Loyalist College’s experience, to this point, in Second Life. There were several things he described which I believe are informative to other institutions perhaps beginning to establish their Second Life presence.
First, Loyalist College started with a 1000 square meter parcel that Ken set up rather quickly at EduIsland. He quickly seized an opportunity to use a smaller piece of land on a larger, educationally related development. This allowed an initial presence which they announced via a press conference, attracting national attention in Canada, and they were able to do conduct their first instructional use of the space as well.
Having a campus in Second Life is one thing; it’s entirely another thing to have real live students using it as a learning platform.
Loyalist College began their build by replicating campus buildings; they utilized student groups from the college (particularly architecture students) to begin creating a learning space: Loyalist College Amphitheater. This clearly represents a traditional learning space right down to the included “hand-raising” chairs designed to enable learners sitting and raising/lowering their hand to ask questions. I’ve been rather vocal about recreating such traditional spaces in Second Life. Even their initial goal, as he described it, is one that I’ve cautioned against: Twenty journalism students would use SL for small group discussions that used to happen in WebCT. HOWEVER, as Ken continued to describe the instructional activities engaged by their faculty and learners, Loyalist simply used the traditional space as a jumping off point for faculty and students. While the first several sessions simply recreated traditional learning interactions, by the time the course was over, they had guest journalists, researchers and editors join them in world, and one of their students garnered an internship with the Second Life News Network. That’s quality use of the Second Life environment.
Soooo…. I’m beginning to think that building a traditional space as the first College venue may be a good step; it provides familiarity and continuity for residents when first using Second Life. And, ultimately, such traditional uses of Second Life may begin the institution’s SL presence, but it doesn’t have to summarize it.
If you litter in Second Life, you’re littering. If you shoot someone in Second Life, you shot someone. If you have sex in Second Life, don’t do that in the classroom.
Loyalist College has and is willing to share a list of the basic skills they believe learners neeed before they will be able to fully engage the SL environment. This only confirmed my assumption that this is a necessary activity, despite a debate to the contrary on the SLED Listserv. When I have access to Ken’s slides or training materials, I will make information/links available here as well.
Other Loyalist notes and projects of interest:
- started marketing through SL. An international student established a Study in Canada pavilion and offered sessions describing the opportunities at Loyalist College. Within a week or so, they connected with 80 individuals across 26 different countries and received one application to the College.
- created a partnership with Brown University – highlighting the opportunity for inter-institutional collaboration via SL: Open Source Museum of Open Source Art.
- currently in the process of building Loyalist College Island.
- developing for the Fall semester a Youth Detention Facility Simulation: a twelve person detention center for role play within their criminal justice program. A similar project is underway within their Mental Health program.
- developing a Podcast Cinema, a movie theater type venue, which will allow learners to scroll through and watch College related podcasts: tutorials, course content and marketing materials.
- recreated, and improved in the process, a student lounge area called the Shark Tank Pub; while it takes the same name of their RL campus venue, the SL version is an underwater venue surrounded by sharks. dance floor included of course.
I sincerely hope to have the opportunity to get back in touch with Ken in the future as my institution plans to establish its SL presence.
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