Queensgate Island

Overview of Project

1. Background

The proposal is to pilot and evaluate the use of the Second Life environment with Foundation Degree e-learning and MSc Multimedia and e-learning students, beginning in the current academic year and running through to 2008. 

Second Life is an online 3D environment, currently being used by a range of educational establishments, including Harvard University, the University of Newcastle and the Open University. It’s also used for a variety of other purposes, including recreational and social applications and by businesses such as Reuters and IBM.  The need for this project is to ensure that the University of Huddersfield keeps abreast of this development and develops the expertise to work in Second Life, should it prove beneficial to students or a standard feature of a University's offer.

Unlike traditional virtual learning environments, students are represented in Second Life by a figure which can walk around inside the virtual space and converse with other participants. It represents a novel and innovative approach to online delivery and, whilst there are currently over 3 million inhabitants of Second Life, its educational applications are only just beginning to be explored. There remains, therefore, considerable scope for conducting empirical research into its efficacy as a teaching and learning tool. The proposal seeks to explore the potential of the medium and its impact on student motivation and student learning. 

2. Aims and Objectives

The overarching aim of the project is to evaluate Second Life as a teaching and learning tool, in order to help inform future decisions about whether or not to establish and maintain a University presence in this environment.  Specific objectives and deliverables are:

• to create a small University of Huddersfield Second Life campus
• to write a report on the efficacy of Second Life as a teaching and learning tool, based on the findings of this project and related to the work of the Open University CETL
• to aim to present a paper at the ALT-C conference in 2008
• to evaluate the possibilities of Second Life to link to and support a version of the University’s existing simulation tool, “PenfieldHospital” adapted for use in the School of Education.

3. Overall Approach

The overall approach is to create a small number of imaginative builds in Second Life, so that we can evaluate their use with a small group or groups of students.  The focus will be on the unique affordances of Second Life and an exploration of whether there are any novel pedagogies associated with its use.

The main stages of the project will be to:

• ensure the necessary SL access for participants
• purchase an island
• create buildings either through (a) purchase of buildings from within SL (b) self build by members of the project team (c) employing a developer
• conduct team meetings in SL to develop expertise
• design guided induction tours to support new users
• identify issues around introducing students to SL and write codes of practice
• introduce students of the FdA in e-learning and MSc in Multimedia in September
• write up and disseminate findings

The purpose of the project is not to create a fully functioning University Campus in SL that would accomodate all of its provision, but to create a space large enough to evaluate the platform.  Critical success factors will be creation of a viable environment and facilitating enough access to allow the project to be carried out.

4. Project Outputs and Outcomes

• a small University of Huddersfield Second Life campus
• a report on the efficacy of Second Life as a teaching and learning tool, based on the findings of this project and related to the work of the Open University CETL
• a paper presented at the ALT-C conference in 2008
• an evaluation of the possibilities of Second Life to link to and support a version of the University’s existing simulation tool, “PenfieldHospital” adapted for use in the School of Education.

5. Stakeholder Analysis

Key stakeholder groups and individuals that will be interested in the project outcomes, will be affected by them, or whose support/approval is essential.

Stakeholder	Interest / stake	Importance
University of Huddersfied	Support from the University is essential in the form of funding and staff time to complete the project - both have been granted.  Their interest in the outcomes is to see a return on this investment in the form of increased staff expertise and a clearer idea of the potential benefits of this technology to inform future decisions about investment.	High
School of Education	Support from the School of Education in the form of staff time to complete the project is essential.  Their stake in the outcomes is knowledge of a potential new tool to use for distance education and online collaboration, that may be of benefit for in service PGCE students and overseas cohorts in China and Jordan.	High
Cheryl Reynolds	Project Leader with an interest in the evaluative outcomes to help clarify whether this is an appropriate tool to support her students and a broader research interest in the pedagogical implications of this new technology.	High
Liz Bennett	Course leader for MSc multimedia and elearning so need to be upto date on new developments and be able to assess their possilbities to support teaching and learning.   I would like to offer staff development sessions on use of Second Life.	Medium
Sue Folley	Project member interested in whether Second Life is useful as a teaching and learning tool. Project manager for a distributed learning project so interested in the outcome of this evaluation, and any associated issues. Also interested in the pedagogical value of virtual reality technologies.	Low
Shailesh Appukuttan	Exploring use of building tools in SL to support creation of new builds and learning environments in SL	Medium
Sue Clarkson	Exploring use of SL in the School of Art, Design and Architecture	High
Sue Hayward and Steve Arty	Nominated client consultants who can ensure continued access to SL from University PCs	High
Chris Townsend	Network Manager for the school of education who can arrange installation of SL in LS2/16 for teaching purposes	High
Robin Kiteley	Project member working as an IT lecturer in the School of Human and Health Sciences. I am particularly interested in the potential of 'Second Life' and other associated immersive environments for supporting 'non-traditional' students, such as those who are studying via work-based learning routes (e.g Foundation degree in Police Studies), practice-based learning settings (many of the undergraduate programmes in the School of Human and Health Sciences), distance learning (Human & Health Sciences offers many CPD courses - some of which are studied as distance learning programmes) etc. I am also interested in the possibilities for informal learning that networked communication technologies like this might offer.	Medium
Nik Taylor and Tim Moss	Drama lecturers trialling use of SL in their curriculum area	Medium
School of Art, Design and Architecture - Andrew Taylor	Fashion lecturer trialling use of SL in his curriculum area	Medium
Steve Burton	Trialling use of SL with students at University Centre Barnsley	Low
Cath Ellis	Interested in exploring the potential of SL for consultation and synchronous group chats. Otherwise - just interested generally.	Medium
Robert Ward	Conducting at least one session in Second Life with some of his students	Medium

 7. Risk Analysis

<List factors that could pose a risk to the project’s success, assess their likelihood and severity, and how you will prevent them from happening (or manage them if they if they occur). Cover the types of risks listed and any others that apply.>

Risk	Probability (1-5)	Severity (1-5)	Score (P x S)	Action to Prevent/Manage Risk
Staffing - potential lack of staff time to complet	3	5	15	Clear, staged project plan and negotiation with managers to free up time should the plan fall behind schedule.
Organisational - it will be challenging to work across schools and to ensure effective communication and collaboration on the project.	2	4	8	Use of online collaboration tools such as this wiki, the project blog at http://eduspaces.net/secondlife/weblog/ , email and regular meetings will be used to ameliorate any potential negative impact
Technical Incompatibility with University systems - including ongoing access to Second Life, installation and upgrading on staff and student machines, quality of graphic cards and memory size are all likely challenges to the success of the project.  will it be possible/necessary to develop the necessary technical expertise to to build and run the project in the allocated time? Linden Labs are constantly updating their software and this is a problem in terms of the need for an administrator to download and install on many machines	5	5	25	Client Consultants Sue Hayward and Steve Arty have been nominated to provide support to ensure continued access to SL from University PCs   Chris Townsend will support the project in terms of ensuring installation of SL in one teaching lab in the School of Education (LS2/16)   Cheryl Reynolds will test access to SL in these labs once the installation has been completed to ensure PCs are a high enough spec to support SL   Contingency plan to support students accessing SL off site on their own PCs, macs or laptops, should access from the University Campus prove too problematic   Updates from Linden labs mean that facilitating one induction session for students in September at the University is the short term goal.  Subsepquent sessions will be in SL only so that administrators will not need to update the installation.    Shailesh Appukuttan, Cheryl Reynolds and Nik Taylor working on developing building skills to see if self builds will be achievable.
External suppliers are we going to employ SL developers to build the campus, are we going to buy the buildings in SL or are we going to build it ourselves? We are reliant upon Linden Labs for the ongoing maintenance of servers and access to SL.	3	3	9	Given current progress with building, the current intention is not to employ developers, but this to be reviewed in light of developments       It's unlikely that SL will fold because it is currently hugely successful but  it might prove challenging for them to meet the server space requirements of rapidly increasing traffic.
Legal DDA means we need to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that any users with disabilities are not disadvantaged in the course of the project Is there a danger of litigation if staff or students suffer because of negative experiences in SL? Is there a danger of fraudulent activity in SL that might result in the loss of University monies?	1	5	5	Research into use of SL by students with disabilities - provide guided access or alternative activities to students who cannot use the interface effectively because of their disability.   Consult with University legal department re the risk of litigation?
Avatar identity  Will students be distressed if they form relationships with others online based on the avatar identity, which might  be quite different from the real life identity of the user (age/ gender)	2	3	6	Provide clear indcution infromation and floolw up guidance that explains the use of avatar identity in SL for potential users

9. Technical Development

<Indicate how the project will follow best practice for technical development?

Technical support is necessary to facilitate:

• Access to SL through the University's firewall
• Installation of SL on enough machines to facilitate induction and dissemination
• Development of technical expertise in the use of SL - e.g. building, using streaming video, survey tools, web links and other features of the SL interface.

10. Intellectual Property Rights

<Indicate who will own the intellectual property created by the project List any intellectual property owned by third parties that will be incorporated into project outputs, when/how you will obtain permission to use them, and any implications for project outputs after the project ends.>

 Creative Commons licenses are recommended to participants of the project on all content, materials, reports and papers produced as part of the project.  There are various levels of creative commons, from reserving all rights, to allowing others to re-use and adapt content.  

Project Resources

12. Project Management

• Project managers - Cheryl Reynolds and Liz Bennett
• Participants - Sue Clarkson, Sue Folley, Shailesh Appukuttan, Robin Kiteley, Nik Taylor, Tim Moss, Andrew Parker, Sue Hayward, Steve Arty
• Decision process - participants are free to develop their own content independently within their designated areas of the island.  Any building outside designated areas to be agreed with the project managers or to be deleted before logging out of SL. 
• Enrolment of new residents of SL to be implemented by Cheryl Reynolds - send new avatar names to c.reynolds@hud.ac.uk
• Sessions with students to be booked through the calendar available on this wiki
• The project will be monitored through team meetings once per term, either in real life or Second Life

14. Budget

  

Item		Cost
Provision of a University area in Second Life		£1,500
Developers’ fees?	10 days @ £200 per day	£2000
Registration at ALT-C 2008 for two people	2 @ £500	£1000
Travel to ALT-C 2008	2 @ £100	£200
Travel to the Open University CETL	2 @ £130	£260
Total costs		£4960