Thinking about Second Life for Your Course? Here's What to Consider:

Low Hanging Fruit

• Studying Second Life as a "text" is a great way to get your (and your students') feet wet without investing a lot of time up front. You can use free avatars and explore the rich and complex world without a big investment of time or resources.
• The social aspect of Second Life is in some way its most exciting feature. Make assignments that take advantage of your students meeting together in-world as well as meeting with other users in formal and informal gatherings. But remember--this is still the internet, and anyone can be behind that avatar!
• The architectural metaphor lends itself to creating exploratory environments. Having students create these environments themselves can be both fun and intellectually rewarding--kind of like making a 3d outline.
• Web links are a great way to supplement in-world content. Don't waste time importing images of texts unless there is a real reason to do so (like wanting to have slide shows available in-world.)
• Consider posting lecture notes and review slides in-world via a web link. Yes, students could look at them on the website alone, but they can also gather in-world around the content and discuss it.

Tips for Successful Classroom Use

• Encourage students to do the "getting started" stuff outside of class--it can eat up all the available.
• Encourage students to fill out the "First Life" info on their profiles so you know who you are talking to online. Also consider having them post their avatar names in Blackboard. You can always have them create second avatars for intentionally anonymous experiences.
• Encourage group work for construction projects--someone can be a designer, another a programmer, another a content expert. They can also support each other when the going gets rough.
• Building spaces in SL can be very rewarding. You will want to think carefully about your goals for the activity, however, especially if it is going to be graded -- and if it isn't going to be graded, don't assume everyone will jump in with equal enthusiasm!

Some Limits Know About Upfront:

• Most laptops can run SL, but some older ones have trouble. It is a high-graphics application so have a backup plan for students.
• The Second Life client requires frequent updates. This can be a challenge in a lab setting, where images aren't changed frequently, so consult with the MPS Studio or the Library about whether it can be installed there.
• Using SL with wireless can be sketchy. It works, but for the best experience use a hardwired connection. If you are going to have students all log in at the same time in a lab environment, test it out as much as possible before relying on it for a whole class period.
• Importing content is very limited. You will mostly be constructing content in-world. This can be frustrating to users who are familiar with 3d modeling from other applications.
• On the plus side, c onstructing content in-world is a lot easier than your typical 3d modeling app. The tools are relatively intuitive and fun. You do need to make an investment to grasp how to make stuff look good (as opposed to just making stuff).
• Getting objects out is almost impossible. You can do snapshots and movie captures from in-world, but you can't export your objects (though you can package them up and tranfer them to the inventory of an ongoing avatar). This is fine for ephemeral activities but it means that you are investing in this platform, which does have some ongoing costs associated with its use.
• More than 40 people at an event can lead to problems. Some big in-world events have to cut off the number of attendees or the environment slows down for everyone. If you have a big class, consider breaking them into smaller groups for online activities.
• You can only have one video stream per parcel. You can either subdivide your parcels to show more streams, or use a viewer to allow the user to switch among streams. These are still a bit kludgy at times, however. Note that your streams have to be quicktime format.
• Scripting is a whole new layer of complexity in this environment. Don't expect to be able to script things like structured tutorials easily. You are better off using architectural elements to guide the user than hoping to have NPCs give different prompts at different stages of development, for example.
• Some user tracking is possible, but it is limited and challenging. Again, having a RL person doing the work is considerably easier to implement.
• For a closed, professional looking space, other tools might work better for your needs. Open source solutions like Croquet and Project Wonderland offer great potential. Web-based environments under development might also serve the casual server in the future as they are developed more fully.

Getting Started Guide