Staging Second Life in Real and Virtual Spaces - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 227

Figure 6. Live student actor interacting with the T-Rex avatar on stage

technologies. Similarly, of the 14 respondents, 13
(92.8%) stated they never use 3D virtual worlds
such as Second Life , with only one student (7.2%)
claiming to sometimes access 3D virtual world.
This was particularly surprising to us given 10
(71.4%) of the students are enrolled in media arts
related programs and therefore pursuing careers
in which they may well be designing for such
platforms.
Table 2 shows student responses to the three
questions relating to the effectiveness of social
interactions in Second Life. The average rating
overall for these questions (based on a scale of 1
representing strong disagreement, 3 representing

a neutral agreement and 5 representing strong
agreement) was 3.25. The criterion with the high-
est rating 'The learning offered opportunities for
interaction and communication in Second Life '
received a rating of 3.62. The lowest rating was
given to the criterion 'I felt as if I was communi-
cating with a real person in Second Life' (2.92).
Student ratings of the nine criteria relating to
the effectiveness of learning activities in Second
Life are shown in Table 3. The overall rating of
these criteria was higher than for the criteria relat-
ing to social interactions (3.47 compared to 3.25
for social interactions). The criteria that received
the highest rating 'I was willing to put in the effort

Table 2. Effectiveness of social interactions in Second Life

Statement (1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree) Mean

I felt as if I was communicating with a real person in Second Life 2.92

I was able to be expressive in Second Life 3.21

The learning offered opportunities for interaction and communication in Second Life 3.62

Average for all criteria 3.25