The Story of My “Second Life”

My friend and colleague Ken Hartman told me about an article he read in the May 18, 2007 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education. The piece, entitled “Case Western Reserve U. Builds Virtual Campus to Woo Prospective Students,” talks about the university’s use of SL to create an environment for prospective students. The article, which requires a paid subscription to read, tells about Case Western’s experience with the design and use of the facility. Fortunately, there is a nice video here that does a nice job explaining everything – in some ways, better than the article:

http://chronicle.com/media/video/v53/i37/secondlife/

As a parent with a daughter in high school planning to attend college in 2008, and someone who has been touring college campuses for about six months, I can understand the desire of schools to use SL as a means to woo students. The video explains CWU’s design philosophy, which strives to closely mimic RL, right down to the views one might experience when looking out a window. The article reports the buid cost at $30,000 and is optimistic in tone even though traffic to the sim has been light. As the article notes, some students were impressed by CWU’s even having a presence at all, since so few colleges now do.

Some reactions…

First, I wanted to find the campus so I could grab a screenshot, but SL’s woeful search capability stymied my every query. No joy! Nothing worked. Extremely frustrating! Finally discovered that the admissions department provides instructions. Ah! Ok. Joined the group, teleported and looked around, didn’t expect to find anyone at 5:30AM EDT, but did manage to check out the faithfully recreated diner. I didn’t see enough of the campus to get a very good feel, and need to go back to explore when I have more time.

Second, it seems to me that the best way for this space to positively impact enrollment would be for prospective students to interact with current ones and with admissions staff (which the article mentions they are doing). I could see my daughter becoming interested in a school because of the personal connections she could make in SL. Getting to know someone in SL is a very real experience, and spending time there would be a nice precursor to a RL campus visit. I doubt it would ever be able to take the place of one, however.

Third, it’s clear that CWU is on the leading edge of technology by embracing SL, joining the ranks of a select group of other institutions with a presence (click here for the full list on the SimTeach wiki.) Considering the small investment ($30,000 doesn’t really buy you all that much in terms of print or other media these days), they are, most importantly, present, exploring, learning and promoting their institution. In so doing, they are establishing the foundation of a learning community that may one day actually have a measurable impact on admissions and, who knows – perhaps even the university as a whole.

-kj-