My Students Raised $72,000 Linden!

Last night one of my four student groups enrolled in INF315e held their VirtuaL Work Team Project in Second Life. Taken from the Syllabus the project is

Virtual Work Team Project
To demonstrate your ability to work effectively in a virtual world team you will create a simulation or produce a community event in Second Life. The event may be a concert, training session, tour, charity event, sporting event, or other event approved by the instructor. Teams of four people will be grouped together for this project. I will provide additional information as we progress through the semester. The project will consist of five pieces that will total to 40% of your grade

Proposal– 5%

Project Management Plan – 10%

The event or Product – 15%

Virtual team analysis report– 10%

The G3s (student groups name) choose to host a charity event in Second Life as their final project. To do this, students networked with various non-profit groups looking for a cause they supported while also looking for a group of people they would be comfortable working with. The students selected Habitat Trust for Wildlife located in Second Life on Commonwealth

The students also needed to find a place to host their event and arrange for entertainment. One of the students in the group had already found Happy Clam Island. Happy Clam was a place he had been hanging around outside of class time and he had already become a member of their group. The student arranged to host the fundraising event there and Happy Clam graciously donated their venue and club DJs for the event.

A key component of the project is the project mangement plan. Bluewave Ogee (Leslie Jarmon) presented Bluewave's 7-steps for effective project management to my class in the middle of Ocotber.

Based on her 7 steps, each student group wrote a detailed project management plan which included goals, tasks, contacts, calanders, roles etc... They followed this plan as they worked in their team of 4 for several weeks.

Alas, the event. At 7SLT last night 11/16/07 the students started Iming their friends, contacts, and groups inviting people to their event.

During the semester we had talked about the viral nature of virtual worlds and the importance of tapping into the social networks within Second Life. Within a few minutes of sending invites the students had over 30 people dancing at the Happy Clam.

They kept a consistent attendance of 30 people throughout their shceduled event. They peaked at 42 avatars which caused the sim to lag and led many people to leave. No doubt they could have had close to 60 people if it weren't for lag. The first hour the students raised 32K Linden and finally completed the event with 72,000L (around $300 USD).