Reflections on the Second Life Platform used in the Development of a Virtual University Campus

Abstract

This paper presents the author's experiences building a virtual campus named Deep Think designed to support a postgraduate program named MPhil. The MPhil is a formal and recognized Open University degree delivered to a distance. The virtual campus integrates Second Life, Moodle and several Web 2.0 technologies like Elluminate online conferencing tool, MyStuff e-Portfolio Skype and Ning Social network. This integration between second life and web 2.0 technologies has provoked the enthusiasm of tutors at the Open University which saw the benefit of using DeepThink in their courses. Finally, the author discusses experiences on second life and its limitations.