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Case Study: Loyalist College Massively Improves Test Scores and Training Outcomes Using Second Life

amanda@lindenlab.com — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:22:01 GMT

Border security is a high priority for national security—regardless of which country in the world you reside in. And, when it comes to border security, we all rely on our border guards to keep us safe. But, put yourself in the shoes of a new border guard for a moment. It’s a tough job. You need to be ready to respond to a wide variety of potential scenarios—from the predictable to the hard to imagine. And, if you misread, or incorrectly handle a situation, the consequences can be dire. Ok, now you’re feeling a hefty weight of responsibility and you need help to get up to speed in your new role. Not to worry. Loyalist College, near Toronto, Ontario in Canada, can help.

In this new case study, entitled, “Virtual World Simulation Training Prepares Real Guards on the US-Canadian Border: Loyalist College in Second Life,” we explore how training simulations in Second Life directly result in improved test scores and directly apply to real-world on-the-job performance. The real result? A safer border.

The executive summary reads, “Before September 11, 2001, Customs and Immigration students at Loyalist College spent three weeks closely tailing professional border guards to experience the daily routine of their future job. In a post-911 environment however, this was no longer allowed. Training suffered until the Director of Educational Technology at Loyalist College catalyzed a virtual border crossing simulation in Second Life for Loyalist students. The amazing results of the training and simulation program have led to significantly improved grades on students’ critical skills tests, taking scores from a 56% success in 2007, to 95% at the end of 2008 after the simulation was instituted. The success of the program has encouraged over 650 students and eight faculty to explore Second Life for mixed purposes. It has also generated enough interest and demand from other learning institutions that Loyalist established a Virtual Design Centre that employs former students with Second Life classroom experience to develop new virtual learning environments.”

So, what makes training in Second Life so effective? It’s a sense of presence. You actually feel like you’re in a “real” environment when you are in a virtual world, despite the fact that you’re physically sitting at a desk in front of a computer. Kathryn deGast-Kennedy, Professor and the Coordinator of the Customs Border Services Program at Loyalist College puts it well. She says, “Even though I have been a Border Services Officer for 28 years, I felt the same level of anxiety in the virtual border crossing as I did 28 years earlier. That experience made me a believer that working within Second Life was as real as it could get.”

And, these simulated training environments not only open doors to more innovative and engaging learning, but also produce impressive results. “Second Life is amazing and unprecedented,” said Ken Hudson, Managing Director, Virtual World Design Center at Loyalist College. He continued, “No single technological addition has ever impacted grades at the college in such a positive way. The affordable tools of Second Life allowed us to explore potential applications for education. Loyalist College believes strongly that were it not for Second Life, we would not be involved in virtual worlds whatsoever. The learning in these spaces is amazing, and when we are working with 30% increases in success, there is nothing more memorable than that.”

To learn more, check out this video on YouTube, read this article on the program in the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, or download our case study PDF.

Ok, now you can take your border patrol shoes off and rest assured that higher test scores—due to Loyalist College’s program in Second Life—have helped improve border security.

A Zindra Update: More Land on the way!

jack@lindenlab.com — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:01:46 GMT

First of all a big thanks to those residents who have already filed move request tickets; since the doors opened we have had 700 requests for a move to Zindra and have been working hard to process those as fast as we can. In light of the feedback we've had so far we're going to be making some changes.

The parcel sizes being requested have been larger than expected and many of you have specifically requested coastline, so we have decided to open up more of the Zindra landmass, earlier than planned. Later today there will be an area opening up to the East of the existing Zindra regions and over the next few days another area to the South will become available too.

We're doing this to provide more choice for those with pending requests and to give you time to review your choices we will not be processing the move request tickets for the next few days. So those of you with pending tickets have some time to look over the new areas and comment your existing tickets if you change your mind. If you are happy with the choice you have already made then you can leave your ticket as it is. We are processing the tickets in the order they arrived and you can be assured that commenting on a ticket will not drop you down the list.

Please be aware that the new areas will not be fully finished when they first appear, so you should expect parcelling and smoothing of the terrain to be taking place over the next few days. We will begin processing the tickets once more on Wednesday 8th July so be sure to comment on your tickets by then if you want to change your request.

This means we will also push back the closing date to Friday the 24th July, after which we will no longer accept any new requests for the free relocation to Zindra but will continue to process any requests that are still pending.

You can help us process your ticket faster by making sure we have all the information we need, including a clear description of the Adult content and where on your parcel we can find it (if this information is not there now, you can add this information by adding a comment to your existing ticket). Also, make sure we have the SLurls for both your current and requested parcels. If you're unsure of how to make a SLurl, see this article.

Remember, as we said previously this first phase of migration is for commercialized Adult content: parcels that sell an Adult product or service. To identify whether the product or service you provide is Adult, please see this article.

So to summarise:

We are adding more Land for people to choose from.
To give everyone a chance to see the new areas we will not process any more requests until Wednesday 8th July.
If you do decide to change your request, please add a comment to your existing ticket with the new choices as SLurls.
The closing date for new requests will be moved back to Friday the 24th July.

Second Life Birthday News & Review

communities@secondlife.com — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:14:11 GMT

In this post:
—Second Life Birthday Survey Released
—Thanks to you all
—Some Event Statistics
—Teens Crash-Land New Region at SL6B

—Gates Remain Open til July 6th

— We have a short survey online where you can tell us what you thought of the Second Life 6th Birthday celebration. It's only 10 questions, but it will really help us make things better next year. Your comments on a similar survey last year were very helpful as the Resident staff prepared for this year's event, and we hope that those of you who made suggestions last year were pleased to see some of them implemented in 2009.

Please tell us what you thought here.

— Thanks so much everyone, for your amazing participation. Thanks especially to the Resident staff, who together put in a truly terrifying number of hours to organize this event. There were at least 50 of you. (I think I'm missing a few infrastructure builders— let me know if so.) And thanks also to all the exhibitor/builders without whom there would be no reason to celebrate! The Lab is proud to have been a partner, and pleased to be able to donate the land.

— First Week Event Statistics:

Resident Staff: 50+
Mentor/Greeters: 68
Exhibitors: 300+
People who helped build those exhibits: 899
Futurist & Android Stage DJs: 103
Main Stage Live Musicians: 100+
Regions: 20 (plus one from the Teen Grid)
Scheduled Events: 815
Unscheduled Events: LOL
Unique visitors: 17,712
Hours spent: 23,662
Countries represented: 140
Advertising kiosks placed: 698
Event Calendar page views: 23, 260
People who caught Alien Gift Thieves: Only 94!
Most Aliens caught by one person: 139

— If you haven't yet noticed, the industrious people on the Teen Grid have sent an entire region across the age gap for our amusement. The Region is named (appropriately) SL6B Teen. It has appended itself to the side of the main event, and can be reached by a causeway from SL6B Polaris. It's a lovely piece of work, and the Teens are undoubtedly the Future of Virtual Worlds. Come see how they are going to knock you off your pedestal, gramps.

— BUT WAIT!
It's not over yet! The gates will remain open at the SL6B regions for your further exploration and reflection. If you haven't managed to see it yet, do drop by The Paradox for a journey across "Dallier's Hope". The regions will remain open til around July 6th.

KB2Wiki Pilot Launch!!!

communities@secondlife.com — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:45:08 GMT

It’s here!

The Knowledge Base to Wiki Pilot is up and running!! For those of you that missed our previous news, this is a pilot which will be testing the Second Life Wiki as the new home for our current Knowledge Base. Our plans are to use the Wiki as a place where you, the Resident, will not only get more accurate information, but also participate in the collection and dissemination of that information!!

Most of the Knowledge Base Beginners' articles on the Wiki will be editable. We have added a review system using Flagged Revisions, which will allow you to update our articles with useful, new, and up-to-date information. We have selected some Residents to act as reviewers based on interest and commitment to the current Second Life Wiki. The articles will appear as their reviewed version to all Residents when looking through the Wiki, but will still be available for updates! Every Wiki page has a complete revision history. Destructive changes can quickly be undone, not only by Linden Lab employees, but by fellow Residents.

A few pages, such as our legal and policy articles, will continue to be protected, and won't be editable by Residents. These articles will appear in the namespace "Linden Lab Official" to differentiate them from the other articles.

If we deem this Pilot test to be a success based on your active participation and the data we collect, we'll begin transitioning the entire Knowledge Base to the wiki.

During the pilot, Knowledge Base Suggestion tickets will be unavailable. For all other ticket types, see "Support Tickets Explained". Your participation will be key during this pilot process, so please feel free to comment and provide us with feedback from your Wiki experience!! Enjoy!!!

For updates please check out this page.

Your KB2Wiki Team!!