Building Your Institution’s Presence in Second Life
Summary: Virtual worlds are a subject of great interest and many institutions are trying to establish a presence there. Purdue is a recent entrant in Second Life, and attendees will learn from our experiences how to get started from the ground up. Planning, documentation, licensing, stakeholder involvement, building and technical issues will all be discussed.
Description:
This is panel presentation. Panel Presenters: Rob French, Terry Patterson, Dustin Bennett, George Bergstrom, David Blakesley.
Proposal:
Recently, various groups at Purdue have wanted to establish a presence in Second Life. Their needs varied from instructors wanting basic space to hold office hours to departments that wanted to build elaborate islands devoted to their discipline. Many of them wanted to have an operational presence but did not want to have to worry about land acquisition and management issues. Also, it was desirable to join together to avoid unnecessary land purchases and duplication of effort, and to create a more unified presence. Senior IT management expressed doubt about the educational value of Second Life and insisted that we conduct our foray there in a way that would enable educational effectiveness to be a primary criterion for our continued participation.
We decided to undertake a pilot project involving Teaching and Learning Technologies, the Library and the Professional Writing Department. Agreements were negotiated that allow each of us to share costs and these agreements stipulate that assessments of student progress will be conducted in order to gauge educational effectiveness. The agreements also provide for an oversight committee composed of representatives of the largest stakeholders that will make major decisions and mediate disputes. Our Contracts and Licensing department would not let us proceed with the standard Linden Lab contract, so we began a search for a Second Life land broker from whom we could lease an island and be buffered from legal liability. A broker was found and a contract negotiated that was amenable to both sides. Meetings were held among the primary stakeholders and the basic island architecture and land distribution issues were agreed upon. Small plots of land are being made available to other Purdue faculty at no charge and a web application has been developed that allows faculty to request these smaller plots. Building is supplied by the tenants with TLT building the central landing area and providing additional development services to clients for a fee.
Proposal:
Recently, various groups at Purdue have wanted to establish a presence in Second Life. Their needs varied from instructors wanting basic space to hold office hours to departments that wanted to build elaborate islands devoted to their discipline. Many of them wanted to have an operational presence but did not want to have to worry about land acquisition and management issues. Also, it was desirable to join together to avoid unnecessary land purchases and duplication of effort, and to create a more unified presence. Senior IT management expressed doubt about the educational value of Second Life and insisted that we conduct our foray there in a way that would enable educational effectiveness to be a primary criterion for our continued participation.
We decided to undertake a pilot project involving Teaching and Learning Technologies, the Library and the Professional Writing Department. Agreements were negotiated that allow each of us to share costs and these agreements stipulate that assessments of student progress will be conducted in order to gauge educational effectiveness. The agreements also provide for an oversight committee composed of representatives of the largest stakeholders that will make major decisions and mediate disputes. Our Contracts and Licensing department would not let us proceed with the standard Linden Lab contract, so we began a search for a Second Life land broker from whom we could lease an island and be buffered from legal liability. A broker was found and a contract negotiated that was amenable to both sides. Meetings were held among the primary stakeholders and the basic island architecture and land distribution issues were agreed upon. Small plots of land are being made available to other Purdue faculty at no charge and a web application has been developed that allows faculty to request these smaller plots. Building is supplied by the tenants with TLT building the central landing area and providing additional development services to clients for a fee.
Robert French
Educational Technologist
Purdue University
Educational Technologist
Purdue University
Robert French is an Educational Technologist at Purdue University in TLT's Emerging Technologies group. He is charged with investigating and documenting new technologies and providing administrative support for pilot programs.