Free Virtual Classroom Construction Software

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to introduce a couple projects that I am working on.

The first project are a series of free creative commons standardized classes for SecondLife. They include:

TEX - Texture Classes with GIMP
PRM - Prim Building Classes
LSL - Scripting Classes
ANI - Animation and Avatar Classes with Poser
SND - Sound editting classes with Audacity

I will try to get the ball rolling on these, but I'm hoping for some contribution from the SL community at large. We will need slides and text, as well as ancillary props like animations, scripts, textures, and objects. My hopes that as a community at large we can set up a certification system.

I will also be providing free virtual classroom construction software to go with these classes. The virtual classroom construction software has the following features currently: (more planned, currently in alpha)

+ ClassRoom constructions - auto builds a classroom theatre to your specifics, with aspects such as sit targets, automatic chair re-positioning (stepwise seating, rountable, line up), teacher podium, and others

+ Presentation management - auto slide, text, quiz, object give, rez with timed delays. It also presents quizes to the students (see next). You can jump back and forth in the slide presentation, as well as other features. Also, an offline slide view exists to provide course notes.

+ Student management - record student attendance and performance on quizes. Handles dependency streams (must take LSL 100 before LSL 101, etc). Let's students view historicaly which classes they have taken versus which ones they are going to take. Privacy will be a big part of this.. Students can "opt out" and not get credited for courses taken but also remain anonymous to the system.

+School / Class editting - Lets teachers and school owners edit / create schools and classes. Create, read, update, delete lesson schools, courses, and lesson_entries. I've made it so school owners can create / brand their own website in case they want to keep it seperate from other schools.

+ Teacher Management - See which classes teachers have done, and how many showed up, how many stayed, how much talking was done by the teacher and by the students, how many quizes were answered (and answered correctly) and a transcript of the class. Again, privacy will require the use of hashes to keep student information anonymous.


+ and quite a bit more planned:

- lesson wikis (so multiple teachers can edit the same courses at the same time with diffs/ revisions/rollbacks/etc)
- For enrolled students, school owners can get an over view of how many classes have been taken,which are popular, general student performance and others
- converting MIT courseware into SL virtual classes

I'll provide updates in this thread as we go along.

Please note, if you are interested in teaching or helping create courses, please IM me in world and I'll set you up with a classroom device.

Some pics:

This is a wonderful conribution. Thank you so much.

Thanks Margaret

I've had a lot of great interest in this, so I have set up a demo.

You can check out the demo at:

secondlife://Dalton/113/239
Simply click on the spinning purple box.

It should

- Clear the parcel of the classroom
- dynamicly reconstruct another class room
- go through the entire class material (slides, text, quizes, and voice overs)

Make sure you sit on one of the seats, otherwise you will not be quizzed.

Have Fun,

Iron.

I have to tell you.. that I think the idea is wonderful... but I ABSOLUTELY HATE IT!

I like the idea of the classrooms and the teaching and the courses.

But, I do NOT like the certification.

Sooner or later, SL or people in SL will start requiring certification for things. I have had enough of that in my real life. I have a PhD. (and it is in education/research) I want to be able to teach here without having to deal with real life rigamarole, redtape, and the rules that such certification always brings along with it. Next thing you know, you will be asking for CEUs (Continuing education Units).

Why does our SL have to mirror our RL so much? Why can't we just muddle along and learn and teach and do whatever else we do and not have to worry about "qualifying" so much?

Well, I doubt certification will ever be compulsory. And it's not my intention at all to make it compulsory.

Really, the idea is that if you're going to get a scripter to do something for you, it might be nice to know that they have gone through the full gamut of technologies that are available.

Also, in order to combat lag, it might be good to know that all scripters in a particular area are up on their anti-lag technologies.

I think of it as just an attempt to add another piece to the puzzle. The worst that comes out of this is that no one uses certification and we all have a lot of cool class material to use to teach in world.

(Editted to comment that for some reason, the smile that was supposed to show up in the message did not come through... so here is me sending a smile. (smile) )

Also, to be very clear, if it did happen (which it might not) it would be a fully community controlled certification process, rather than something run by an individual or even a group.

So, in that way, I think it would be quite different from the RW.

Went to see you Virtual Classroom Demo and though it was great! Any ideas when it might be ready for release? Has terrific potential for a lot of classes.

I'd like to release an alpha version first with some like minded (and forgiving ) individuals for useability / bug testing first. Please IM if you are interested.

I am also working on a research paper as well (though, I just have a BSc) that I hope to publish and would not mind being a co-author of.

The paper will be about how teaching in a virtual space can improve upon self-learning via the web.

Note that this isn't really research, rather it is more of a way to detail my experiences in this area as well as get more people interested in teaching via viritual spaces.

If you have any strong and practical (rather than theoretical) references that discuss this issue that I could refer to, I'd definitely give credit.

I've added another class: "Weapon Building: Intro to LSL"

Please note, I am using Weapon building as it is a popular subject. I hope everyone who takes these classes will use their new scripting knowledge responsibly.

As with the other classes, this one is free for those who wish to use it. It also works such that a teacher does not need to be present for the tutorial to work. Useful in case you missed something and want to go back and review.

Demo is at:

secondlife://Dalton/113/239

Also, for those who have picked up a free virtual class controller, I will be sending out updates soon. I am just finishing off integrating skype (a free voip product) and shoutcast, so teachers won't have to type if they do not want to, plus an ability to have a library of classes stored in world for presentation.

Next free class, will be "House Building: An Intro to Prims"

Very neat.

Iron,

I am quite interested in this project. Have you completed your integration of Skype yet? If you are still interested in having guinea pigs for testing purposes, count me in.

That project blew up into a generalized plug-in for streaming skype to a shoutcast server.

Bit more than I expected

It should be done soon, however.

This project will be quite valuable inworld, but it also has potential for RW connections. At present Campus: Second Lfe has about seven projects in which RW educators are using SL to provide instruction in RW college classes. Some of the support you are planning to offer will be of great interest to these educators. I think particularly of Skype.

If you have not already made the contact, you might want to be sure that your project is known to [email]pathfinder@lindenlab.com[/email].

I've been at work at my own ideas on teaching and this blows most of them out of the water. I the integration of internet and SL is amazing (imagine it combined with HTML on a prim!)

Way to go for all the work!

went there.. it's an underwater gulch! do I have the coordinates wrong?

Apologies.. Main School location is slightly in flux right now as I just rented some land from Hiro Queso.

We have classes set up in different places though. You can find one at the Riverwalk Hillside and the Gold Coast, for example.

Try the one at Ganymede, 19/18 if you'd like to see it in action.

Let me know if you have any questions.

I was very surprised at the voice overs for the classes! Of course any logical discourse with my invited friends was impossible cause we started to fire the guns we'd just made at each other.

Any chance of releasing this somewhere? It sounds awesome!

At present I am using a display system and a home grown text spooler to supplement classes we are doing. Your system sounds a lot more refined and versatile. Is it possible to create your own script and display etc. for your system or is it fixed to only the lessons you have created. There is mention of a certification section. Is this optional and can it be turned off.

Yes, extensive functionailty exists for people to create their own lesson plans. Please see the screenshots in the beginning of this thread.

However - I've been approached by a very large number of people wanting to use what I've done on this for their teaching (especially the voice).

However my over arching goal is to implement measurement and evaluation of students and teachers in SecondLife alongside appropiate teaching tools.

I understand others do not, and I appreciate that, however they would probably be wise to look in other places for their educational software needs..

I am currently developing a proposal for using SL in RL with my eighth grade students. (teen grid or private island-not sure which way we will start) Assessment would be a necessary evil in this plan and you are certainly the first I have encountered to address this piece. As I am a "bottom dweller" in terms of scripting and such, I am incredibly grateful that you have made your classroom development available to educators in SL and RL! Thank you for your vision!
(LATER) I have snooped around to the best of my ability and still cannot find the classroom or the trial--can you help please?

Sounds great! I left you an IM in world. Just let me know what I can do to help

I could really benefit from access to your classroom demo. THanks!