Tutorial overview

Find out about what there is to see and do on the Web Campus in Second Life.

The Web Campus is a work in progress and we see it growing organically as we receive ideas for how you would like to use it in your teaching. Contact the IS Learning Team if you have any ideas for how you would like the land on the island to be used.

At present when you teleport to the island you will appear in front of the virtual Trent Building. Inside you will find a virtual lecture theatre, complete with video screen, a stage with a variety of backdrops, a flexible meeting area, video and audio podcast zones and general information about the university. Upstairs is a Manuscripts and Special Collections exhibition area.

In front of the Trent Building is the boating lake where you can take a relaxing trip on a canoe or learn about the university's history on the boat trip. A hot air balloon nearby takes you on a guided tour of the island from above.

To the west of the Trent Building is the Sandbox. Collect free objects and scripts here and feel free to practise building your own objects in this area.

To the east of the Trent Building is the Library Garden. Here you can find out about the resources and support available through the university's libraries.

Behind the Trent Building is an Orientation Area for newbies to Second Life. You can teleport to the orientation platform by touching the sign by the fountain to find information about getting to grips with the basics of Second Life.

Developments on the rest of the island show projects developed for schools that have expressed an early interest in Second Life:

The School of English are using the Virtual Performing Arts Studio to allow their students to act as directors and plan performances. This includes placing props, changing backdrops, creating lighting arrangements and changing the studio layout to see how this can change an audience's experience.

The School of Pharmacy, as part of the Pharmatopia project, are using laboratory pods on the island where students can prepare for and carry out mass spectrometer tests and interpret their results. The progress of students and their results are saved externally and can be used in assessment.

The School of Geography's DELVE project have created 3-D photorealistic landscapes in the NW corner of the island. Students use the area while studying wind farm placement, specifically how wind farms affect surrounding areas.

The School of Nursing & Midwifery will soon be using a virtual maternity ward on the island where students will take place in roleplays, acting as either a midwife or an expectant mother. This project is currently in the early stages of development and is due to go live in 2010.

In July 2009 the university purchased a second Second Life island to the north of the original island. Currently this is being used predominately for research projects where developments and experiments are being carried out by researchers from around the university.