Second Life for Learning and DevelopmentVirtual Worlds for

Organization Learning and Communities of Practice

Candace Chou, Ph.D.University of St. Thomas, Minnesota, USA ccchou@stthomas.edu

Types of Learning & DevelopmentTypes of Learning & Development

1.Simulation

2.Demonstration

3.Virtual Meetings

4.Team-building

5.Communities of Practice (CoP)

1. Simulation: Ernst & Young Cookies Factory for Auditors

•A global consulting and accounting company in more than 140 companies with more than $24B in revenue•Experimental training exercise for junior auditors

http://2b3d.net/eymovie.htm

http://www.outsourcing-journal.com/mar2009-acs.html?email011369

•6000 new hires each year•3-D learning better prepared new auditors•Cost-effective alternative to on-site training•Capture the knowledge of retiring professionals•Need proper orientation and computers for staff

2. Virtual Meeting: IBM

•Academy of Technology Virtual World Conference 2008

•Initial investment of $80,000•A saving of $250,000 in travel and venue

http://secondlifegrid.net.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/Second_Life_Case_IBM.pdf

IBM SurveyHow does the virtual world conference compare to face-to-face?

•Content: 96% said the same or better

•Presentation style: 85% said same or better

•Learning: 78% said the same or better

•Networking: 62% said the same or better

Tsunami Demonstration3. Demonstration

NOAA Tsunami

Palomar West Hospital

Palomar West Hospital

4. Team-Building Activities

Crossing the Ravine Tower of Babble

Castle Builder Community

http://socialcomp.com/projects/virtualworlds/

5. Communities of Practice“groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something that they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly” (Lave & Wenger, 1991)

Gronstedt Group’s Weekly “Train for Success”

http://www.gronstedtgroup.com/f_about.htm?s_about_train_for_sucess.htm~sectionFrame

Challenges

•Motivation•Technical difficulties•Controlling avatar•Interacting with others•Finding compelling activities

Bessiére, Ellis, & Kellogg, 2008

Other Immersive Learning Tools

• Active Worlds• Olive/Forterra• Protosphere• There.com • Web.Alive• Thinking Worlds• BreakAway• Virtual Heroes

Cases• IBM Case Study,

http://secondlifegrid.net.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/Second_Life_Case_IBM.pdf

• GE Forced Outage Training, http://www.brandon-hall.com/awards/awards/?p=380

• Simulation, Canadian Border interview at Loyalist College, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCUWcpVPtMM

• Ernst & Young, https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/grid/blog/2009/03/05/ernst-young-s-cookie-factory-for-auditors

• NOAA Tsunami Simulation, http://secondlifegrid.net.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/SecondLife_CaseStudy_NOAA_04.23.09.pdf

• More cases, http://virtualworlds.nmc.org/portfolio/

Places to visit• IBM Business Center (including Green Data Center),

http://slurl.com/secondlife/IBM%20BUSINESS%20CENTER/128/128/0 • Palomar West Hospital,

http://slurl.com/secondlife/PalomarWest%20Hospital/33/127/34/ • NOAA Tsunami, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Meteora/189/36/32 • OSU Medicine testis

– http://slurl.com/secondlife/OSU%20Medicine/83/98/302 • Genome Island cell

– http://slurl.com/secondlife/Genome/150/145/35 • Biome Island water drop

– http://slurl.com/secondlife/BIOME/141/181/34• UC Davis Virtual Hallucinations

– http://slurl.com/secondlife/sedig/26/45/21

References• Collection of bibliography, http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/sl/index.php/Main_Page • Communities of Practice Examples,

http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/educationaluses_page3#profdev• How corporations use Second Life,

http://secondlifegrid.net/slfe/corporations-use-virtual-world• IBM Business Center, http://virtualworlds.nmc.org/portfolio/ibm-center/• Travel with Tom: Workplace-related Places in Second Life,

http://www.slideshare.net/twerner/using-second-life-for-workplace-learning-032509

• Virtual Worlds for Business, http://cleverzebra.com/book • The Immersive Internet: Make Tactical Moves Today for Strategic

Advantage Tomorrow, http://thinkbalm.com/immersive-internet/

References• Brandon, B. (2007, October 8). Give your e-Learning some (Second) life:

Simulation made easy. Learning Solutions e-Magazine.• DeMers, M. N. (2008). Second Life Fireside Chats: Social presence in

online GIS Education. Retrieved May 1, 2009, from http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/educ08/educ/abstracts/a1063.html

• Horizon Report 2007 on virtual worlds, http://www.nmc.org/horizonproject/2007/virtual-worlds

• IBM Virtual Cultural Festival, http://www.vimeo.com/3559281 or slurl.com/secondlife/Native%20Lands/238/26/23

• Tom Werner’s blog, http://brandon-hall.com/tomwerner/ • Tour for enterprise or government clients,

https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/grid/blog • Gartner 2007 Report summary, http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?

id=511370

References• Bessiere, K., Ellis, J. B., & Kellogg, W. A. (2009, April 4-9, 2009). Acquiring a

Professional 'Second Life:' Problems and Prospects for the Use of Virtual Worlds in Business. Proceedings of ACM CHI 2009 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Case Study Retrieved May 9, 2009, from jellis.org/work/vw-chi2009.pdf

• Hudson, K., & Degast-Kennedy, K. (2009). Canadian border simulation at Loyalist College [Electronic Version]. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 2, 1-11. Retrieved May 1, 2009 from http://www.jvwresearch.org/v2n1_HK.html

• Ellis, J. B., Luther, K., Bessiere, K., & Kellogg, W. A. (2008, February 25-27). Games for virtual team building. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 7th ACM conference on designing interactive systems, Cape Town, South Africa.