The Next Best Thing to Recess: Teaching Biology in Second Life

This session will discuss a nonmajors genetics class held entirely in world in Second Life. Most of the course content is presented through a guided series of virtual experiments. Students can work through activities at a comfortable pace and return to any activity as needed. Small-group meetings in world are used for discussion and skills tutorials. Visitor and object monitoring help to track student working patterns. Students report enjoying the activities, and performance on learning objectives is similar to that reported in other introductory science courses.