Subject Matter Content Creation for Second Life Delivery - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 430

visual and kinesthetic learners. Because there is a
substantial learning curve I suggest that teaching
the necessary Second Life skills be done in small
pieces, during short time intervals, adding a bit
of instant gratification by making them fun, and
finally by immediately having the students apply
their newly acquired skills to the content-based
learning object. While it is desirable to consider
extending the use of Second Life to a project
based learning approach (Jarmon et al., 2008) one
might want to think about building that project
from such incremental and manageable modules.
Whether your domain is environmental sci-
ence, art, cinema, business, planning, or any disci-
pline that incorporates tangible objects or interacts
in real environments one can readily conceive of
these settings being reproduced inside MUVEs
like Second Life. Taking the recommended incre-
mental approach the course designer can develop
boxed environmental models, encourage students
to use the building tools to create artworks and
experiment with different shapes and textures,
create single scenes of a movie, or set up a small
shop. Each of these can eventually be expanded
to create whole environmental scenarios, student-
created art museums, or whole movies. The slow
transition approach takes longer but it allows for
the course designer the time to learn the tools of
the MUVE, to experiment with small learning ob-
jects and select those that work. As the number of
learning objects increases, the way in which they
can be incorporated will often present itself. I have
found the approach successful in my discipline
and, because MUVEs are the future of education
for the neomillenial student, this approach is one
that should be adopted by those online course
designers who share this realization.
To expedite the process of course design
in Second Life I began, as many do, using the
standard and often freely available teaching tools
for presenting lecture and providing chat spaces
for discussion. The development of “boxed”
exercises provided me with ample time to create
content in small amounts that took advantage of

my own growing Second Life skills. Moreover,
the students began to feel comfortable with the
routine of coming to a preselected location, at a
predefined time to both review for exams and
to retrieve their next exercise. Routine helps the
students know what to expect and reduces their
anxiety level. I found that those who came on a
regular basis tended to complete the exercise.
A final word of caution is appropriate here.
Even for small learning objects such as what I
have developed for my course, it is important to
recognize that it takes more time than one might
expect to complete the work. As the student's
Second Life skills improve, their ability to com-
plete the exercises in a timely manner improves.
To adapt to this I would suggest four things. First,
make sure that your first few exercises are short
and require the least Second Life Skills. Second,
prior to each exercise, provide a skills exercise
such as the trampoline example I provided, or
a review exercise if they have been taught the
skills before. These skills are not acquired easily
and some may have serious difficulty and may
need substantial additional help. Third, encour-
age students to work collaboratively. This last is
important because it encourages them to be in
Second Life because they are not alone. It also
allows the students to share skills that they have
learned through their own experiences. Finally, be
there with your students as they build whenever
you can. Not only will you add a sense of social
presence to the experience, the students will also
get a strong sense of your interest in their learning.

ReFeReNCeS

Antonacci, D. M., & Modaress, N. (2005). Second
Life: The educational possibilities of a massively
multiplayer virtual world (MMVW). Kansas
Technology Leadership Conference . Retrieved
December 2, 2007 from http://www2.kumc.edu/
tlt/SLEDUCAUSESW2005/SLPresentationOut-
line.htm