Sam Saccone / Staff Photographer / ss324006@ohiou.edu

David Dersine (center) and Kim Vandegrift learn how to play Second Life. There will be Second Life Training every friday from 2 - 4 in the Stocker Center Lab.

With its brick walkways and detailed buildings, the Second Life Ohio University campus bears a striking resemblance to the actual university — until a group of students fly over College Green.

Many people have heard of Second Life, but they don’t know how to use it and find the concept confusing, said Meghan Louttit, an OU senior and design assistant for Ohio University Without Boundaries.

This is why Ohio University Without Boundaries will be offering Second Life orientations this quarter, she said.

Second Life is an online virtual world for collaboration and creation where users are represented through customizable human-like images called avatars.

Since May 2007, there have been about 16,000 visitors to the Second Life OU campus, said Christopher Keesey, project manager for marketing and learning applications for Ohio University Without Boundaries.

Numbers aren’t important though, he said. The bigger reasons for the orientation are to increase student involvement and input in the Second Life campus.

The orientations will focus on the basics — attendees will learn how to download the program, make an avatar, communicate and move around with the virtual world, Keesey said.

Knowledge of Second Life could help students when interviewing for certain jobs, Louttit

International businesses and major software companies like IBM are starting to use Second Life, so to go into an interview with the knowledge of the concepts would be a plus, she said.

Eventually, Second Life could supplement or replace online classes, Louttit said. There are now voice capabilities on Second Life, so students could see and hear lectures, she said.

Also, being in a Second Life classroom would allow students to interact with one another, something that does not usually occur with online classes, she added.

No OU classes are offered exclusively in Second Life but some professors have used it as a learning tool, said Chang Liu, assistant engineering professor.

Engineering students have used Second Life to test theories in 20 or 30 minutes that would normally take several years, Liu said, adding that they can learn from mistakes faster this way.

Keesey hopes that the orientations will promote Second Life’s learning opportunities beyond
engineering majors.

“We want to expand our reach to all parts of the university,” he said.