The Benefits and Unanticipated Challenges in the Use of 3D Virtual Learning Environments in the Undergraduate Media Arts Curriculum - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 243

Figure 5. Twenty teams of approximately five students per team were provided sky platforms

large class size students were broken into teams of
approximately five students per team and twenty
sky platforms were created (Figure 5) on which
shell 'holodecks'; hollowed out cylinder shaped
rooms of 35 metres in diameter (Figure 6) which
they textured to create a 360 degree simulated
environment (Figure 7). All the required scripts
were supplied and students were required to
customize the scripts and interface to fit their
chosen theme for the game. An example game
based on a dragon theme was created (Figure 8).
Students were able to view and play the game,
and items within the game such as the heads up
display (HUD) were made available for them to
experiment with in preparation for the design of
their own games.
Students were given the option of completing
the course entirely off-campus or attending prac-
ticals and lectures on-campus. All lectures on-
campus were simultaneously conducted in Second
Life enabling students who were unable to attend
classes, the opportunity to still participate in the

course. Twelve students chose to attend lectures
externally via Second Life and of those, four also
attended practicals virtually as well.
Peer review of the games was undertaken dur-
ing the final lecture time during class. While most
teams created working games, various technical
hitches experienced during the semester with
Second Life such as server outages and lag issues
when too many students were working on their
games at the same time meant that none of the
teams could complete their games to the level they
had planned. The various teams showed creativ-
ity and originality in their game concepts with
themes including a haunted castle, Tarzan game
set in jungle, space odyssey and desert island.
Most students also chose to create custom avatar
skins and costumes to be in character with the
theme of their game, even though this was not a
requirement of the assignment.
Student assessment incorporated a grade for the
project overall (group score) as well as a percentage
assigned to each individual team member based