Three-dimensional virtual worlds are multimedia, simulated environments, often managed over the Web, which users can ‘inhabit’ and interact via their own graphical, humanoid, self-representations known as ‘avatars’. 3D virtual worlds are being used in many applications: education/training, gaming, social networking, marketing and commerce. Second Life is the most widely used 3D virtual world in...

There is a growing awareness of virtual 3D worlds such as Second Life and Sun Wonderland within the general population. Virtual 3D worlds are no longer just for the stereotypical geek. By 2011 it is estimated that about 80% of active Internet users will have an “avatar” and a “second life” in some form of virtual world environment. The current virtual world environment is utilized widely as a k...

We discuss and demonstrate how Virtual Worlds available at the University of Bedfordshire have been used to teach Project Management using a ‘situated learning’ approach. In particular we have a closer look on the aspect of teaching risk management and identify how different aspects of risk are addressed in a variety of implementations of Virtual Worlds, namely Second Life, a Virtual World prov...

3D Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) or virtual worlds have been widely used in educational settings for the purposes of simulation and demonstration of scientific concepts, art and historical events that for practical reasons may be complicated in real-life classrooms. This paper describes an experience of recreating a central event in Norwegian history, adoption of Norwegian constitut...

In order to engage students in their learning experience, a life-like animated virtual tutor enhanced learning module that control learning interactions with students was presented in this paper. This module is designed to presents scientific lectures to students in optimal ways through narrated animations and to provide interactive support to students as they learn science expositions, and to ...

General purpose multi-user virtual worlds, such as “Second Life”, are increasingly being used in higher education institutions. As such, techniques and tools are required to facilitate the delivery of learning material and assessment in these contexts. This paper introduces the early work and preliminary evaluation of such a tool, called the “quizHUD”, which has been developed alongside the SLO...

ABSTRACT This paper describes a simulation framework for sensorbased systems utilizing “Second Life”, a popular virtual three-dimensional multi-user online world. With this platform, the components of a sensor-based system can be mapped to (or, represented by) virtual counterparts. The intuitive user interface of Second Life and its comprehensive visualization support evaluation tasks of ubiqui...

Purpose: Second Life is a user-created online virtual world, which is a place where people with shared interests can meet and be together and share information. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether Second Life communities foster and nurture social capital, whether social capital within Second Life is related to social capital outside the virtual world, whether some characteristic...