FURTHER EXPLORATIONS
ON SUPPORTING LEARNING
IN VIRTUAL WORLDS WITH
WEB-BASED LEARNING
ENVIRONMENTS
Daniel LIVINGSTONE
The University of the West of Scotland
HOW CAN WEB-BASED VLES SUPPORT
LEARNING IN VIRTUAL WORLDS?
Three broad categories of ways to use VLE and VW
together:
 With access to the VLE from within the virtual
worlds (web-embedded in the virtual world)
 Providing guidance external (and separate from)
the VW learning experience
 By sharing data between VW & VLE about
activities taking place in the VW
WEB IN-WORLD
ACCESSING THE VLE (WEB IN-WORLD)
...OR WORN BY AN AVATAR!
SUPPORT FROM WEB
SUPPORTING VW ACTIVITIES
FROM
WEB
Simplest form of linking is to provide hyperlinks
from web-pages from within the VLE
 Modern VLEs are often used as a course’s ‘home’
online
 Natural to exploit this to provide guidance and
support for VW activities:



Instructions, help, FAQs, discussion boards, etc.
Simple lessons:
Providing links to the VW at the start of a set of
instructions will result in many students not reading
the instructions!
 Attention split between VW/VLE

SUPPORTING TUTORIAL GROUPS (OPEN
UNIVERSITY)
CONNECTING VW & VLE
With SLOODLE
SLOODLE

SLOODLE is a plugin for VW (OpenSim/Second
Life) & VLE (Moodle)

Data sharing & integration
Identity
 Activity



Variety of tools supporting range of learning
activities
SLOODLE is an open-source project (GPL)

Developed in PHP (server) & LSL (SL/OpenSim)
MIRROR ACTIVITIES IN VW & VLE
Web-intercom (text chat)
 Glossary
 Choice
 Presenter
 Quiz (not shown)

CLINICAL SIMULATION – SUPPORTING
REFLECTION (IMPERIAL)
TRACKING PROGESS IN VW ACTIVITIES
(ULSTER & UWS)
RESOURCES

Set of video tutorials & supporting materials
Virtual world basics, installing SLOODLE, using
SLOODLE tools, example lessons (Model PC & CPU
simulator)
 Developed by partners at University of Ulster


Available from:
 http://virtualworldsandvles.jiscinvolve.org/wp/
SUPPORTING REUSE AND OER
MEANWHILE... SLOODLE 2.0
Edmund Edgar (Avatar Classroom) leading the
development of SLOODLE 2.0
 Current:

Moodle 1.9.x & Moodle 2.x Compatible
 New Classroom Rezzer: Save & load groups of
objects, including postions& Moodle settings
 Awards: Infrastructure to support GBL


In the works
Moodle 2.1 quiz compatibility
 Full OpenSim port
 Functions to enable sharing scenes

#SLOODLE_NEWS
WWW.SLOODLE.ORG
#dlivingstone
[email protected]