Virtual worlds: An exploratory study of undergraduate behavior

Studies suggested that electronic social sites are popular with undergraduates. Virtual worlds, one of the emergent facets of the Internet, are also seeing tremendous worldwide participation. Of interest to educators is the applicability of this new technology as a learning tool. As a result, this study was untaken to empirically examine undergraduate familiarity and interest in virtual worlds as compared to electronic social networking. Student surveys were utilized to measure participation and importance of virtual worlds and social networking. Findings reveal that with regard to students, virtual worlds are in their infancy. While nearly all students visit social sites, only two percent of students participated in virtual worlds and only six percent indicated that virtual worlds were at least somewhat important to him/her. Moreover, gender does not appear to be a factor. Females and males indicate similar levels of participation, social activity, and degree of importance.