Second Life takes a toll on the campus administrator community. In an unmistakeable sign of linear project its members believe that the future will be 3D. Second Life, a increasigly unwielidy environment, victim of its own success, cannot be the solution to future digital developments in higher education. The solution are smaller lectures, more interactive class formats and more student involvement in their own education…
More than 70 universities have built island campuses in Second Life, according to Stuart Sim, CTO and chief architect of Moodlerooms, which builds structures in virtual worlds and offers course management software. Sim said his company is currently developing tools to help universities better manage students and courses delivered in Second Life. That way, universities can have an application to control adding or removing a student avatar to the island campus, he said. The project is dubbed Sloodle.com.
Gerri Sinclair, executive director of the master’s degree program for digital media at the Great Northern Way Campus in Vancouver, Canada, said her group is building a Second Life virtual campus alongside its physical one. “Our students are digital natives, and they don’t want to be reached in traditional ways. So we’re creating a virtual campus as we’re building our real campus,” Sinclair said.