As part of its Transforming Undergraduate Education Program, the University of Texas System has initiated a statewide Virtual Learning Community of students, faculty, researchers and administrators. This Initiative offers a creative approach to undergraduate instruction through the innovative use of the online virtual world technology known as Second Life. It is a pioneering effort and the first such initiative in the world with the creation of a 49+ island educational archipelago in Second Life.

Designed for extensive inter-campus, intra-campus, and out-of-state collaboration, the VLCI has Institutional Review Board-approved research and assessment integrated throughout and takes into account the most current evidence-based research on pedagogy in virtual learning spaces. When fully implemented, it is hoped that this first-in-the-world project will make a significant contribution by helping the UT System extend its operations into virtual world learning environments, increasing student access to quality higher education, reducing instructional costs, and serving as a model for other public statewide systems of higher education.

We are all learning, so the overall approach for the year is an exploratory, open-learning approach. Based on the research, we encourage project-based (inquiry-based; problem-based) learning explicitly grounded in a course’s learning objectives. Mindful of the growing carbon footprint created by delivery of instruction in the physical world, our overriding theme is sustainability: reliability and efficiency of resource use.

It will be the degree of collaboration with one another across the 15 campuses and with other educational institutions and knowledge workers in the virtual world that will truly impact the level of success of this initiative.