Learning System for Virtual Environments

Using Sloodle:

Dubai-Korea Virtual Cultural Exchange

Using Sloodle to support learning and teaching

We look at a class taught across two institutions in Korea and Dubai,illustrating how Sloodle can be used to enhance learning and teachingactivities that are using Second Life®. Second Life (and Sloodle) formedonly one component of the class – and we see how Second Life/Sloodle maybe used alongside a range of other communications technologies indesigning and supporting engaging learning experiences.

Second Life® and SL™ are trademarks of Linden Research, Inc.Sloodle is funded and supported by EduservSloodle is supported by the San Jos÷ State University School of Library andInformation ScienceSloodle is supported by the University of the West of ScotlandSloodle is an Open-Source project, released under GNU Public License. Moredetails at http://www.sloodle.orgIn the following case study you will see the following symbols used:

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This is a note, and may indicate an alternative use of Sloodle or otheraside.

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Good practice tip – a tip which might make running a class withSecond Life and Sloodle go more smoothly.

Dubai-Korea Virtual Cultural Exchange

The Dubai-Korea Virtual Cultural Exchange program, which took place inthe spring of 2008, was a unique program which utilised a wide range of modern information and communications technologies to bring togetherlearners from two distant nations.Chris Surridge at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology(KAIST) and Nicole Shammas at Dubai Women’s College (DWC), designedand deployed a seven-week course where students were able to worktogether in international groups to learn about each other. The studentsinvolved at both institutions were learning English as a second language –and working together with other students where the only common languagewas English helped the students experience a motivated, meaningfulcommunity of practice.To support both student interactions and provide support for learning a widerange of technologies were used – the Moodle web-based learningmanagement system, podcasts, video conferencing and the virtual world of Second Life. Moodle formed a single point of entry for all the varied classactivities, integration with Second Life being supported by ‘Sloodle’ – anobject-oriented dynamic learning environment for Second Life.

Setting Up

Preparations for the course includedsetting up a small, dedicated, Moodlesite for the class. This includedplacing links to appropriate SecondLife tutorials in prominent positions onthe front page – one benefit of havinga dedicated class Moodle being thatthe front page matter could bespecific to that one class.The Moodle site used the ‘Kubrick’ theme, which has a less formal andfriendlier feel than many of thealternatives.

Getting to Know You

At the start of the session, the classes at KAIST and DWC were each splitinto five groups, which were then paired with a group from the otherinstitution. The first challenge for each pair of groups was to find out a littleabout each other. For this activity the groups communicated via pre-recorded audio files, co-ordinated by placing the audio files in a Moodleaudio forum (using Moodle plug-in module “Audio Recorder 1.1”). This