Creating an online course in second life?

[Alexilio]

Hello there. 

I want to create an online course for customer service students and I want to decide whether second life is good for the job.
 

The material  will be just presentational videos followed by user interaction for practice as a gamification process.


 

[Alyona Su]

My day job is with a B2B Training company. We've looked at SL for this purpose back in 2006 (and revisited every year since.) and it's just not a viable training platform, mostly with the hurdles the students must get through just to get online then once in the world, get to your training venue and all the rest. Not to mention the "Adult-rated" distraction that will constantly be in their faces.

You're a lot better off with WebEx, Zoom, or any of the dozens of Webinar/Web-meeting services.

Edited January 15, 2020 by Alyona Su

[Alexilio]

Thank you very much for your answer Alyona. 

[Staceybee Nikolaidis]

I used to teach a course in Second Life in 2007.  The learning curve was way too steep for the content.  I did not want to TEACH Second life, I wanted to teach the content within Second Life.  But my students (even though our first two sessions were F2F) had so much trouble just navigating the world,  it made it frustrating for them, and nearly impossible for me to teach them.  The platform got in the way of learning.  

Just an FYI, many schools have tried to do this.  You might check with the Lindens to see if they have kept records.  Just off-hand, Harvard and the International Society of Technology Educators taught classes in SL, but no longer do.  

[Elena Blossom]

I actually came to SL because my collegue was offering some classes here, but I'm afraid it did not work.

There are so many teleconference systems in the market right now, that I wouldn't suggest using SL for this specific purpose. As Alyona mentiones, Webex is a great tool, as well as Anymeeting or ClassOnLive

[Staceybee Nikolaidis]

I ended up using Moodle for my online classes- it is great that there are so many options for online education now.  My philosophy- don’t make them(your learners) think*. Meaning the framework you use should be so intuitive it should be practically invisible— don’t make them THINK about where to go or how to do inside your tool.   The learning should be about YOUR CONTENT.  

[Alyona Su]

17 hours ago, Staceybee Nikolaidis said:

I ended up using Moodle for my online classes- it is great that there are so many options for online education now.  My philosophy- don’t make them(your learners) think*. Meaning the framework you use should be so intuitive it should be practically invisible— don’t make them THINK about where to go or how to do inside your tool.   The learning should be about YOUR CONTENT.  

Ditto. The company I work for also uses MOODLE - it's an excellent open source platform specifically built from the ground-up for educational institutions (though anyone can use it for anything). We use MOODLE for our web-based course management and WebEx for our live instructor workshops. @Alexilio - you may want to have a look-see if you aren't already: https://moodle.org

Edited January 17, 2020 by Alyona Su

[Alexilio]

On 1/17/2020 at 3:56 PM, Alyona Su said:

. @Alexilio - you may want to have a look-see if you aren't already: https://moodle.org

I have worked with Moodle for a bit, few years back, thanks for the info.  

What I am looking for, is a platform to create online interactive, NON- web conferencing courses. I want the user to watch some representational videos and then do some takes that would require him to click at objects, drag and drop objects, answer some questions and receive  relative feedback. 
 

[Alyona Su]

1 hour ago, Alexilio said:

I have worked with Moodle for a bit, few years back, thanks for the info.  

What I am looking for, is a platform to create online interactive, NON- web conferencing courses. I want the user to watch some representational videos and then do some takes that would require him to click at objects, drag and drop objects, answer some questions and receive  relative feedback. 
 

Definitely MOODLE. We do all of that, exactly what you are describing. We are too small a company to manage the server, but there also is a MOODLE plugin (free) and allows you to do conferencing from directly in MOODLE, and I mention that only to example how far it's come, development and feature-wise.

[Alexilio]

I am assuming I need to know some basic coding skills right?

[Staceybee Nikolaidis]

Not at all- it is like using Word Press-- just a jump in and go package.  It is very user friendly with a big user community.  

[Alyona Su]

2 hours ago, Alexilio said:

I am assuming I need to know some basic coding skills right?

Zero coding skills. Though if you have them, you can use them. Also, the system is amazingly scalable, it works great "right out of the box" and default settings, but the amount of granular control is revealed in steps. The deeper you go, the super-fine-tuning you can do. And there are a lot of free resources like plug-ins and design themes, a-la Wordpress, thought WordPress is a FisherPrice infant's toy in comparison (yes, really).

MOODLE is what is called a "Learning Management System" (LMS) and MOODLE stands for "Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment".

That "Modular" part is what makes it so amazingly flexible. The "Dynamic" is all the interactivity you can put into it. The "Management" part is what allows you (and your students) to keep track of what's going on and how well they're doing. I'll stop here, go check out their web site, read the system requirement on their download page. You can run a copy on a local computer for experimenting, etc., or on a web host to be accessible from the Internet. Most web hosts that offer C-Panel apps will have MOODLE as one of the selections to install.

Edited January 21, 2020 by Alyona Su

[Alexilio]

18 hours ago, Staceybee Nikolaidis said:

Not at all- it is like using Word Press-- just a jump in and go package.  It is very user friendly with a big user community.  

Thats great to Know Stacey, I design websites on WordPress, so this sounds familiar. :-)

[Alexilio]

15 hours ago, Alyona Su said:

Zero coding skills. Though if you have them, you can use them. Also, the system is amazingly scalable, it works great "right out of the box" and default settings, but the amount of granular control is revealed in steps. The deeper you go, the super-fine-tuning you can do. And there are a lot of free resources like plug-ins and design themes, a-la Wordpress, thought WordPress is a FisherPrice infant's toy in comparison (yes, really).

MOODLE is what is called a "Learning Management System" (LMS) and MOODLE stands for "Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment".

That "Modular" part is what makes it so amazingly flexible. The "Dynamic" is all the interactivity you can put into it. The "Management" part is what allows you (and your students) to keep track of what's going on and how well they're doing. I'll stop here, go check out their web site, read the system requirement on their download page. You can run a copy on a local computer for experimenting, etc., or on a web host to be accessible from the Internet. Most web hosts that offer C-Panel apps will have MOODLE as one of the selections to install.

Alright, I will check it out, looks like I have stuff to read :-)

Thanks again for your valuable input on the subject, much appreciated.