Managing a Class in Second Life - Final Class

My final class was Monday, and I am really glad I registered for this class. I’ve formed some SL friendships and have a great resource in Brian, our instructor.

We reviewed and teleported to the Music Academy Online where we listened to a guest speaker, Stacey Fox from KU, who is a classically trained musician and techie. Plus, they were tapping a live show for SLCN-TV with composer Amen Bhatia. Yes, Google him, and you will learn he is well received in SL and RL. The interview format was conducted by the CEO of Music Academy Online. Music Academy Online is associated with KU. Stacey provided these tips for acceptance of SL especially with higher administration at your institution. Next to each tip, I’ve provided my ideas for using SL in the OAD program.

• Show quality and promotional use of SL: OAD recruitment piece available for potential students and employers
• Show international component: OAD140 has an international project. OAD260 could address the international component because we discuss the global environment.
• Emphasize the presence of Reuters news: OAD260 current events
• Have a virtual party at end of semester: I like this idea for any class using SL
• Leave activities for students to accomplish between classes: this is just homework but I believe it must be focused.
• Do you take attendance? Stacey states she conducts a couple classes face-to-face and listens to the sound of their voices. Then when she does an audio roll call, this dissuades anyone from having someone else log in for them.
• Conduct interviews because many organizations have a presence in SL: OAD260 portfolio project could find these organizations such as Manpower, IBM, Best Buy, etc.
• Have a usage policy for SL that students sign: Most likely current student code of conduct and computer Acceptable Use Policy would apply. However, there is a session at the upcoming SL conference about the syllabus, etc. Verbiage needs to be included about SL in the class syllabus.

Brian's suggestions:

• He shared the Salamander HUD with us and recommended sloog.org. This helps to tag locations. He gives this to his students.
• Survey: Brian distributes a short survey to all his students and then after they complete it he gives them their first allowance. We received $50 Lindens. I think this is a good idea. The survey is similar to the one-minute assessments from Angelo and Cross. Some additional tips from Brian who stated SL is like “organized chaos” at times.
• After students create their Avatar, Brian asks them to write why they made the choices regarding their Avatar, has them take a photo and send to him.
• Next, he assigns an exploration activity in SL.
• Students create a personal blog during the course. Brian communicates a lot using the blog—giving assignments and milestone activities. He mentioned that you can add reference tags on the course blog that will open the students’ blogs. This makes it easier to review the students’ blogs without keying individual urls.
• Backup plan when SL down. There are many free video conferencing options (Brian will share). His college uses Adobe Connect (there is a fee for this one). I attended a session at the League’s CIT last November on Adobe Connect, and I recall it’s expensive. He informs his students when they can’t get into SL to check their e-mail because he will notify them and post an announcement. Not that this happens a lot, but one needs a backup plan when class meets one day a week.

Brian said we are welcome to observe his classes this semester: 8:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. T H (Central) and 6:00 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. (Central) T. The evening class won’t be in SL until a couple weeks yet. I plan to do this. Plus, our class blog will continue as long as people are contributing. There are some great ideas and slurls provided in this blog that I plan to use. Great class for $150!