Key points from PI (Dr. Leslie Jarmon):

• 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, that offers a creative approach to undergraduate instruction through the innovative use of a 21st century low-cost online virtual world technology known as Second Life.

• It is a pioneering effort – first such initiative in the world.

• This is a high-profile project involving 16 campuses and can serve as a learning model for other statewide systems. Designed for extensive inter-campus, intra-campus, and out-of-state collaboration, the project has IRBapproved research and assessment integrated throughout and takes into account the most current evidencebased research on pedagogy in virtual learning spaces.

• Like many state systems of higher education, the need to enrich the learning experience while reducing (and in some cases replacing) brick-and-mortar costs and becoming more energy-efficient are key factors in this virtual learning community initiative.

• Like other large university systems, the UT System is a complex and multidisciplinary organization with 9 academic university campuses and 6 medical and health science research campuses, and each campus will be developing its own SL project plan according to its needs and priorities.

• The creation of the System’s virtual collaborative learning community of students, faculty, researchers and administrators will allow participants to learn, share, collaborate and grow alongside one another. Step by step in this evolving system-wide virtual learning community, all of these players – and especially our undergraduates – will be seen as learners with expanded roles: learners as scientists, learners as designers, learners as researchers, learners as communicators, learners as collaborators.

Key points from Linden Lab’s perspective:

Second Life, by Linden Lab, is a compelling and cost-effective platform to augment an existing curriculum or explore new models of learning.

• Thousands of educational institutions globally have been learning and exploring in second life for many years, but UT is the first system-wide rollout of a Second Life learning environment. Creating the largest virtual learning community in existence.

• Second Life is a safe place to learn; the virtual campuses will be managed and controlled to create safe and secure learning environments.

• The UT project is grounded in collecting data on successful strategies for using SL and sharing the data. This will help ALL educators and similar systems that are trying to successfully leverage SL for learning.

About Second Life, by Linden Lab

Developed and launched by Linden Lab in 2003, Second Life is the world’s leading 3D virtual world environment. It enables its users — known as Residents — to create content, interact with others, launch businesses, collaborate and educate. With a thriving inworld economy that saw over US$360 million in user-to-user transactions in 2008, and a broad user base that includes everyone from consumers and educators to medical researchers and large enterprises, Second Life has become one of the largest hubs of user-generated content (UGC) in the world. Linden Lab, founded in 1999 by current Chairman of the Board Philip Rosedale and headquartered in San Francisco, develops revolutionary, immersive technologies that change the way people communicate, interact, learn and create. Privately held and profitable, Linden Lab is led by CEO Mark Kingdon and has more than 300 employees across the U.S., Europe and Asia.