SL University

Oh cool, I'll take your UI design class Darwin. I'm more of a hobbist "UI designer" (little game projects and utilities) so I've done a bit of it but I'd be interested in hearing what a pro has to say about the topic!

Cool then! Anyone else?

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Attention all prospective SLU teachers
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Please send a note card to Kanker Greenacre with the following information about the class you want to teach:

- Course subject
- Course Goals
- Course Objectives
- Any course prerequisites
- Your experience level in the subject, including classes you have taught
- Any resources you would desire/require (e.g. classroom, virtual blackboard, editable land, grandstand)
- Your availibility

Might I suggest a library? It can be used for both creative writings and for scripts and script snippets.

I think the code snippets would be very useful. They can range from the elementary ("Walk-Through Walls - All about STATUS_PHANTOM" to the more detailed advanced topics like sensors. (Where information bites like "sensors can only detect up to 16 objects at once." and "the order of the sensor results is not guaranteed." can be kept.)

The advantage of a library of this nature is that if someone is working on a project and get stuck, they don't have to wait for a class to get the info the need.

...Just an idea.

Oh Neil Protagonist...

Also, I believe that Coyote Murphy was working on an in-game version of Jake Cellardoor's LSL CHM, although I'm not sure how far he got.

Hi. I am relatively new to SL. found SL about a month ago so I juwst discovered the forums. LOL a lil late but I guess I was out having too much fun.

I would be so interested in helping out in some way with SLU. It seems like an awesome idea. I am not sure what of all good I can be right now. I've learned alot about terraforming and building lately tho.

I lvoe to write too and read. anyway just thought I'd post something.

JM

One side of the new Gray terminal building will be available as a classroom, with chairs or benches, desks, a blackboard, etc.

The "look" of the room is going to be sorta flight school / pilot's ready room, but I'm sure there'll be plenty of time slots to schedule classes on about any subject there.

-- ADM Athos Murphy

Would we need a "librarian"? *volunteers*

Heh, I can *do* but I don't know if I can teach, so I can verify/review/research almost any topic. If there is a library it'd take some of the admistrative load off of....the administrators lol..

Figured I'll give an update and ask a question

I know Kanker wants info about what we can teach, but now that its commit time I don't know if I know enough about something to teach it Maybe I'll attend some classes to see how others do it.

IE: how do you teach an hour long class on sensors? I imagine it would take 10 mins tops... A lot of stuff I could teach I cant see filling an hour, which is why I havn't submitted a proposal yet. Dont take this the wrong way. Hehe. Maybe a good teacher could give me teaching tips

And this was never clarified:
By 'university' is this implying that we'd be expected to teach a certain class repeatedly? I guess it depends on demand.

That can be made longer, for one, by using projects.

"Homework" you could say...although I hate that term since it implies work and a grade..bleh.

Something like "class project" would be better.

But anyway, suggest an assignment for students to implement their own "thingy" that uses sensors...it could be the teacher's idea or the student's own project. And just work with them on it for the remainder of the class time, help out and such.

? I dunno

Chances are if they're taking the class then they want to DO something with the topic, so let them start doing whatever it is during the class....that way you REALLY know that you've helped out.

I would like to offer my services in an admistrative assistant capacity, keeping the calendar, track of teachers, post classes to the forum etc etc.

Ah Garoad, of course That makes sense heh

Heh, I'm going to see about teaching a class about sensors tomorrow (Thursday).

Yeah, I don't think it'll take an hour, but 10 mins is probably too short. I'll be happy if I'm done with the teaching part in 20-30 and then have Q&A after or class quits early.

On the topic of scripting, I went through the drop-down list in the script editor and gathered all the various event handlers. I figure a short class on each group of handlers (ie sensor() no_sensor()) would be nice to have.

Bino - way to grab the bull by the horns.

Madox - as to the length of classes, you might be surprised how long it takes to get a point across, especially if you encourage discussion during the class. I'm hoping teachers find some way to use practical demos and/or diagrams in their classes, which can definitely help fill out an hour. Also, I don't expect people to commit to a regular teaching schedule at this point. We won't know for a while which classes are worth teaching again. I would prefer that people teach what they already know, instead of trying to learn something in order to teach it. Basic rule of thumb: if you wouldn't feel comfortable teaching it on your own, then you probably shouldn't teach it for SLU.

Tiger and Garoad - I'll ping you in-game to talk about your library ideas, when I get a chance.

Pituca - we can use as much help as anyone wants to give. I'll contact you in-game when I get a chance.

Everyone else - please keep those note cards with class descriptions coming

Cool Kanker - I feel I know about the stuff I want to teach well enough but was doubting my abiltiy to teach it. Still looking forward to being able to share stuff I've learned with the world

Ananda's got the nearly-ready "campus platform" ... and there is now a training room in the Gray Field terminal building.

-- Athos Murphy

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Attention all prospective SLU teachers
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Please send a note card to Jay Powers with the following information about the class you want to teach:

- Course subject
- Course goals & objectives
- Course length (single session or multiple sessions, or total number of hours it will take to cover your topic)
- Any course prerequisites (skills or knowledge students should have before taking your course)
- Your experience level in the subject, including classes you have taught
- Any resources you would desire/require (e.g. classroom, virtual blackboard, editable land, grandstand)
- Your availibility

Thanks!

Where is this stuff located again? Where's the campus gonna be?

The library sounds like a good plan. There is a LOT of stuff that advanced scripters need to know but isn't covered in the SL-reference.

I have encountered some problems which I learned from, for example:

-llRezOBject with a big object and/or high velocity causes the script to pauze (linear to size&velocity).
-When changing to another state listens and timers from the old state will call the events in the new state too.

Anyway I was thinking we could script a library where we can enter a list of commands on a notecard and users can comment on it and there will be a more accurate description of each function call.
For each function (or topic) there can be one notecard on the virtual library object (we can also make it from A - Z or something). I think the LSL is now complete about the databaseserver/notecard system so I think I can make it.

[Edit] too bad it doesn't seem like you can actually WRITE anything on a notecard with scripting (or are they working on that?)

Nah you can't write to notecards yet (unless it made it into 1.1 but I haven't heard about that.) That's a very requested feature.

I don't think there would be a problem with having a system like that but (correct me if I'm not understanding you entirely) that seems a little more complicated/hard to use than what I'd do. I'd just have a copyable "book" (well mainly a notecard form, any book object would just be for fun...but not practical if you have to take it out of your inventory to get the information). And of course books/cards could be organized into sections/categories, etc etc. We could write a little script to have a book object "open" when it's clicked and offer you a notecard when it opens, lol. We could get a little creative with that stuff.

But of course, there's always room for multiple systems of doing this stuff so the method you describe could still be used even if another is used as well. Kinda like how libraries have both computers and books now. ...I probably don't understand your idea completely.

I'd imagine that the function of the "librarians" would be just to review/add content to the SLU library, build/manage/upgrade the library itself, and do some quality assurance that the submitted content is in fact accurate. They could create different methods of content storage, in both practical and "cool" forms.

Doing all that could be a little bit of a work load (if it's done right) but if there's a few people that don't feel comfortable or whatever else with teaching (like myself) they could fill librarian functions like this.

Does that make any sense?

Hey all =) Well, it looks like interest in SLU kind of sputtered out, what with not many people offering to teach, and us not having a building to do it, etc, etc. I'd like to start things back up again. ^_~

I have been working on an SLU building, located in Gray (87, 60) with the help of Lynnix Muse. It still needs to be fleshed out (my first time building anything), but I'm hoping it will be ready for use by winter break (about a month from now). I will be available to teach classes at that point, including advanced scripting topics.

I have asked that we hold a meeting this Sunday, at 7pm PST. It will be held at the new SLU auditorium in Gray. Please try to make it, if you still have interest in this project, or if you are curious and would like to see what its all about. I'm hoping to get some help finishing up the building so I can concentrate on the scripting side of SLU, such as getting teaching aids ready for use.

Is Sunday at 7pm PST good for most people? Please let me know what you all think, and I hope to see you there.

Xylor

I'd love to teach, something like uhm, astronomy? I really like it way up high in the SL sky, and I hope to teach about and show students the world above SL...

Xylor, I'd be happy to go- if it were on Saturday..? I have alot of things going on on Sunday, and I don't know if I can make it...

Sounds like a very good idea, once you get it started i'd like to enroll.

Sounds good!

And I'll take a look at the building, see what I can do to help finish building it if you like. If you let us know what you two are already planning to do with it, I can make sure I don't step on your toes with something I put up.

My offer still stands to help out with landscaping...