Connect@NMC: Leslie Jarmon and the University of Texas Statewide Second Life Initiative

If you did not catch this announcement , the University of Texas recently announced a large initiative in virtual worlds, with a state wide initiative to involve all 16 of its campuses in a Second Life collaborative project. Building Immersive Instructional Experiences and Learning Communities in Second Life is part of the UT Transforming Undergraduate Education Program "that offers a creative approach to undergraduate instruction through the innovative use of a 21st century low-cost online virtual world technology."

In this Connect@NMC session, we will talk to the project director, Dr Leslie Jarmon, to learn more about this initiative and to hear updates on the kinds fo virtual world projects that are in  motion.

This is a high-profile project involving 16 campuses, is the first of its kind in the world, and may serve as a learning model for other statewide systems. Designed for extensive inter-campus, intra-campus, and out-of-state collaboration, the project has IRB-approved research and assessment integrated throughout and takes into account the most current evidence-based research on pedagogy in virtual learning spaces.

As is generally true nationally, the critical need for a pedagogical transformation in undergraduate education motivated the UT System to initiate this preliminary extension into the virtual world environment with a program that emphasizes teaching in the areas of science/ math, international/ intercultural, and health/ medical, among other areas. A focus is to use 21st century technology to develop 21st century knowledge and skills. In addition, however, like many state systems of higher education, the need to reduce (and in some cases replace) brick-and-mortar costs while becoming more energy-efficient also played a role. The project described here uses a low-cost, online virtual world environment for student learning, research, collaboration, and operations. Hosting almost 200,000 students and 7,500 faculty, the UT System has funded the creation of a virtual 49-island archipelago in Second Life (SL), with three islands per campus and one central island for System-wide collaboration and administrative activities. 

The recording of this session is now available:
http://nmc.na3.acrobat.com/p51567441/

See Also

Project Site: "Building Immersive Instructional Experiences and Learning Communities in Second Life"
http://www.tuelearningcommunity.com/

UT System Campuses Join Virtual World (Austin American-Statesman, September 28, 2009)
http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/2009/09/28/09...

Virtual Learning Community Initiative in the News
http://tuelearningcommunity.com/vlci/?page_id=180

See the video recording of Leslie Jarmon's appearance on Metanomics (Oct 2009)