Assessment in Second Life

Jace Hargis, PhDUniversity of the Pacific, USA

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Nil Goksel Canbek, MAAnadolu University, Turkey

Agenda• What is SL

• Literature

• Major Players

• Main Objective is to explore assessment instruments & analyze interactions by focusing on specific examples

• Examples

• Top Education Sites in SL

• Advantages of SL

Second Life

• Avatar-based virtual community[avatara is Sanskrit, symbolizes the conception of a human (Snow Crash, 1992)]

• 3-D representation of a person using SL

• Expressive of real identity & self-conception (Wolfendale, 2007)

• Millions of avatars on different islands

• Constructive, self-regulating interactive

Brief Review of Literature

• Informal Learning - museums, zoos, aquaria, Internet; internal motivation, variable content, un-sequenced, attendance voluntary, objects, all ages & diversity

• Information Processing - code, STM-LTM, retrieved

• Constructivism -autonomy, inquiry, dialogue, divergent, higher level questions; reflection, abstraction and an integrated thought process

• Self-Regulated Learn-self-observation; judgment; response

• Formative Assessment - redirect concepts; part of instruction; needed to adjust teaching & learning; (rubrics) (think/pair/share, one minute paper, SRS, concept map)

Major Players

• Linden Labs

• SLED

• NMC

• ISTE

• Open University

• Ivory Tower of Prims

Linden Labs

Founded in 1999 by Philip Rosedale to create a new form of shared experience known as Second Life®. The Grid™ provides the platform where the world resides and offers tools for educators to develop a virtual presence. Headquartered in San Francisco, Linden Lab has over 330 employees across the world.

Education in SL

SL for Educators (SLED) https://lists.secondlife.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/educators

• Linden Lab's Learning Inworld Blog

• Second Life Researchers List

• Virtual Worlds Ed Roundtable every Tuesday

• Educators Archives

• Calendar of Educational Events

SL for Educator Calendar of Events

New Media Consortium

International Society for Tech in Ed

• “advances excellence in T&L through innovative and effective uses of technology;

• Improving T&L learning by advancing the effective use of tech.”

Open University• Initiative for open learning apps in SL;

• Contributing to quality, accredited education in South Africa;

• Launched in 1997 for educating teachers;

• Expanded into a business;

• Model of customer service and support;

• Over 60,000 learners in 15 years.

Ivory Tower of Prims

• Modules explaining how to build

• Easy to understand

• Useful note cards

Main Objective

• Explore current assessment instruments within the scope of learner-course owner interactions and analyze cyber interactions by focusing on specific samples on SL

• Non-existent, although need is apparent.

• Currently, only a handful of methods to help students assess progress in higher ed islands

Higher Ed Assessment Ex

"Assessment" in SL produced 39 results in July 2010. By Sep, number was only 41.

• Transforming Assess, U of Adelaide

• The Assessment Group

• EDTC 6325, grad students, U of Texas

• EDUCAUSE Virtual Worlds Group

• Central Higher Educator Cooperative

• Global Learning Forum

• Teaching and Learning Online

• Assessing Technology in Biology Ed

Central Higher Ed Cooperative

• Experimental arena for assess of SL apps

• Think tank of experiments and risk-taking, which foster other risk and ultimately lead to open source material

Ensemble Pavilion: Ed Co-op

• Actively teach & research in SL, articles from a variety of disciplines & approaches.

• May assist skeptics of SL & other non-traditional venues for learning.

Other Examples• Use-ability Lab

• Science School

• Genome Island

• American Chemical Society

• Classic Greece

• Globe Theatre

• World Language

• Sistine Chapel

U of Central FL Useability Lab

• Students virtually walk up, respond to questions -provides responses, assistance and further questions

Science School

• Formative Assessment

• Large Molecules

• Manipulate objects

Genome Island

• Mendelian inheritance

• Gene pool

• Prokaryotic/eukaryotic genome

• College biology

• Hundreds of interactive objects

• Forty experiments generate analyzable data

American Chemical Society• Quizzes

• Interactive

• Games

Classic GreeceCompare past/present architectural structures

Globe Theatre• Be an actor in the time of Shakespeare

• Theatre scene changes are instantaneous

• Rehearsals, playbills, tickets…

World Languages• Authentic learning of world language with

native speakers

• U of the Pacific has created a maze, where students respond to questions in Chinese to open doors.

Sistine Chapel

Summary

• 3-D multicultural source providing cyber interactions

• Virtual close connection, digital groups construct own meaning

• Effective interaction for virtual/communal collaborative learning

• Informal learning & user engagement

• Andragogical & communicational design for positive interaction

• Literature & resources on assessment tools in-world

• Highly interactive, constructive learning environment, allows engagement, reflection & self-regulation

• Empowers creation of dynamic environments

• Explore assessment instruments & analyze interactions

Advantages of SL

• Offers universal, global access

• Ideal for distance learning

• Create scenarios not possible in real world

• Very Green

• More than just delivering learning

• Creates a base for high quality education

• Applicable to a wide range of education

Thank You

Dr. Jace Hargis

Nil Goksel Canbek