JISC

'We need to ready ourselves for the wider spread of learning in immersive worlds and identify and develop the best methods for use, evaluation, validation and accreditation in institutions.’ Sara de Freitas, report author The Serious Virtual Worlds (SVW) report explores the ‘serious’ – as opposed to the leisure-based – use of virtual worlds for educational purposes.

The report has two principal aims. Firstly, with the wide choice of available virtual worlds posing a challenge for practitioners, it provides an overview of many key sites to help the education community identify which is the most relevant to support a given learning context.

Secondly, it explores how learners themselves are becoming a more central component in the use of immersive worlds, creating and enriching their own learning experiences and adopting more exploratory and collaborative modes of learning.

Sara de Freitas, report author and director of research at the Serious Games Institute, Coventry University, says: ‘The use of virtual worlds has accelerated exponentially over the last two to three years. In that brief time, users and learners have already been engaged by the opportunity to take control of virtual worlds within social groups.'

Two prime examples of JISC-funded work in this area were showcased at JISC’s Online Conference 2008, and at 2008's international Online Educa conference in Berlin. They are:

• Open Habitat  A JISC Emerge project investigating the usefulness of Second Life as a multi-user virtual environment for art and philosophy students
• MOOSE The modelling of Second Life environments for more productive knowledge exchange and to investigate their usefulness for teaching and learning

Author de Freitas concludes: ‘Virtual worlds have the potential to enable more learner-led approaches no longer based on knowledge acquisition but on very practical engagement and social interactions with realistic contexts, and role plays that facilitate, for example, different interpretations of historical events.’

The report will be of interest to anyone using or considering the introduction of a virtual world element into their teaching, learning or research programme, whether for academic or social purposes.

Serious Virtual Worlds report