Second Life

Second Life is a very interactive and appealing way to collaborate across distance by immersing the users in a virtual environment. Many universities use Second Life as a teaching tool and it has been shown to be effective.

Overall, Second Life provides an interesting approach to a virtual classroom, but can be distracting and does not have all functionality necessary to fully interact with presentations or to moderate permissions for attendees.

Good Features:

• Very interactive
• Has all the basic needs to conduct a class in a virtual environment
• Remote users feel like they are more immersed in the class as there is the illusion of actually attending

Bad Features:

• Second Life can distract from the objective of teaching with its "game-like" feel
• Requires computers to be capable of 3D rendering alienating those who do not have adequate computers

Missing Features:

• Presentation creation software
• A way for students to directly interact with the presentation
• Regulation of permissions
• Roster listing with capability of grouping students