The Virtual World Club supports foundation (bridging or enabling) students with project work. The School of Foundation Studies has switched to project-based delivery. Most students in the club are following a pathway into nursing.

1. Building bridges for nonengineers: virtual world
support for project based
delivery
Merle Hearns
School of Foundation Studies
Manukau Institute of Technology

2. • The use of virtual worlds for education
• What virtual worlds can offer foundation or
bridging education
• How virtual worlds can be used to support
project-based delivery in a foundation
studies or bridging programme
• The activities and influence of the Virtual
World Club
• A brief look into the future of virtual world
education at MIT

3. Virtual worlds for education
• Virtual worlds:
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3D environments
persistent
immersive
scalable
participants represent themselves as
avatars in a social space
• Second Life:
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Linden Labs, launched 2003
educational use peaked 2007-2009
still widely used
today an increase in range of worlds
alternative educational platforms

4. Foundation/bridging education
• Aimed at students who have a strong desire to
pathway into tertiary education but lack the
prerequisite skills or knowledge
• Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT), South
Auckland - one of the largest foundation
departments in New Zealand (over 500
students) – over 60 ethnicities represented
• Since 2009 MIT foundation students have been
active in virtual worlds
• Recent change to project based/theme based
curriculum delivery - focus on learning how to
learn

5. Virtual World Club
• Started in Semester 2, 2012
• Aims: to develop digital literacy & to assist in
project work
• Voluntary & after normal class time
• 1st semester: activities for Level 2 (common
projects for all students) & for Level 3
(projects varied for cohorts: Health, Social
Sciences, Business, & Engineering
• 2nd & 3rd iterations: only Level 3, mainly
Health cohort

8. Level 2 Projects
SL Activities
Level 3 Health
Projects
SL Activities
Our Journey
Personalising my
avatar
A future in
healthcare
Health Information
Island
-how can I show who
I really am?
-biological me plus
health care providers
-worksheet & meet
the professionals
Fashion design in
SL
Infection
Genome Island
-understanding
infection & its control
-investigating cells,
including viral cells &
bacteria
Nutrition & Mobility
Virtual Ability Island
& wheelchair house,
Danish Visions sim
- focusing on the
students as
individuals & their
study pathways
Cult Couture
-designing a garment
from recyclable or
natural material
MITe Chef
-creating a healthy
snack
Water
-why do we need
water?
-creating an outfit
from full perm
clothing for a
competition
Ohio University
Nutrition Game
Centre for Water
Studies
-guest lecturer Jack
Buxbaum, followed
by a trip to the CWS
sim
-what we need &
what happens when
things go wrong?
Holistic Wellbeing
Te Wāhi Whānau
-an ideal treatment
environment for a
health condition
-an ideal birthing unit

11. The present & …
• Student feedback survey on BlackBoard – a
positive learning experience & knowledge
gained helped with projects
• Interesting, colourful, fun, and “better than the
textbook” (S3)
• “I highly recommend using SL for whatever
subject a student may be studying towards.
Awesome idea and love the concept of it” (S14)
• “We should have the club in class, not in our
own time. It’s fun in SL. I like working and having
fun at the same time” (S5)
• Minor negative technical issues reported

12. …the future
• An increased enthusiasm for the use of virtual
worlds from both students & staff
• An increase in the use of virtual worlds for
project support in normal class time: holistic
wellbeing project role-play assessments (MIT
& Glendale Community College); the predegree engineering cohort visits to the Areva
Nuclear Power Plant, the Ellinogermaniki
agogi virtual portal & the Etopia
EcoCommunity; Level 4 BioScience students
working on Genome Island
• New initiative: literacy game in Kitely – funded
by MIT & Ako Aotearoa

14. Thank you for listening!