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ABSTRACT
Second Life is a three-dimensional (3D) electronic environment where members can socialize, hold virtual meetings, or conduct economic transactions. Utilizing virtual environments like Second Life is believed to provide educators with a new medium for teaching and information dissemination that bypasses the normal boundaries associated with traditional online and face-to-face interactions. This unique platform not only provides educators with traditional online teaching conventions but also allows for simulated social interactions, which are essential to student-teacher relations in the classroom. This paper presents a series of field trials and focuses on one recent case study of the integration of Second Life into an introductory computer course. The benefits, lessons learned and effective practices of integrating the technology are provided. The case study findings are supplemented with results from student surveys. The study found that the integration of Second Life activities improved students' learning experience. Furthermore, students participated in the Second Life activities in the case study showed higher learning motivation and better performance. Limitations of this study and future research directions are also provided.
Keywords: Multi-User Virtual Environments, Second Life, Virtual Education, Learning Experience
1. INTRODUCTION
Over the past few years, Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs), which provide graphical spaces for social interaction, have attracted the interest of a number of researchers, especially for those interested in learning. Second Life (Linden Lab, 2008) is one example of a MUVE, which has gained a lot of exposure recently. According to an estimation published by Gartner Group (2007), 80 percent of active Internet users will have a virtual presence in the form of an "avatar" in at least one virtual world by the end of 2011.
Following the same trend, the number of academics using some form of a MUVE as a platform for learning has grown at a rapid pace due to the success of Second Life (Livingstone and Kemp, 2006, 2007). For example, the University of California (UC), Irvine started an experimental distance learning initiative for the purpose of supporting courses so that they can use it as a platform for computer design projects; under supervision of Service Learning Projects with San José State University's Master of Library and Information Science (SJSU MLIS) program, a hybrid course in Second Life is offered at UC Bavis,...