Project Leader
Diane Carr

Project Team
Martin Oliver
Andrew Burn

Project Details
Funded by the Eduserv Foundation, June 2007 to June 2008

Keywords
learning, teaching, virtual worlds, multiplayer, MMORPG, Second Life, World of Warcraft 

Project website

Project Aims

Learning exists in social worlds and games - but what does it look like, how might it be documented, and how is it supported? To investigate these issues, Diane Carr, Martin Oliver and Andrew Burn will research and theorise learning in two different online worlds, Second Life and World of Warcraft, and test these theories by teaching MA classes in Second Life.

Key details and themes

Our aim is to develop theoretical accounts of learning in immersive social spaces and, based on these findings, to develop and test practical recommendations for teaching. In the process, we will engage with methodological issues relating to learner activities, and difficulties associated with defining Second Life itself. 

We are focusing on three central questions:

1. How do people learn in online social worlds?

2. How do people teach in online social worlds?

3. How might cultural contexts (gender, convention, genre, expectations etc.) impact on learning and teaching?

Our methodology will build on approaches devised during our previous research into learning and gaming cultures. Data collection will combine in-game participation with player observation and post-play interview.

Our methods will include the reflective analysis of the researchers' own experience of ‘learning to play' Second Life, and World of Warcraft.

Second Life screenshot: www.secondlife.com 

We will undertake a critical analysis of game-structures and in-world representations. We will video-document sample learners in ‘training areas' and ‘instances', and conduct post-play interviews. We expect to interview members of existing ‘guilds' about mentoring and communal learning. We will record the taught sessions, and integrate student feedback.

Project outcomes will include an analysis of learning in social worlds, a report of tried and tested teaching strategies within Second Life, and reflections on the methodologies employed throughout.

More information is available at the project blog which is online at http://learningfromsocialworlds.wordpress.com/