Edina and Second Life

Nikla Tokyoska / Nicola Osborne, Social Media Officer

Edina Taurog / Andrew Bevan, User Support Deputy Team Manager

Nicola Osborne - Social Media Officer & Andrew Bevan - User Support, EDINA Second Life and EDINA – 20th August 2009

Second Life and EDINA

Before We Start...

We wanted to ask a few things:

• Would you object to us filming and/or taking snapshots of today's session? (If we do it will be to use the filmed session for our own reflection and to be able to illustrate how an SL session looks and works to our colleagues in EDINA. We do not plan to share or publish the session more widely than this)

• Are you based outside the UK? (Please give us a wave or a hand up so we can get a rough idea.)

• Have you used any of our services (such as Digimap, SUNCAT,

NewsFilm Online, Statistical Accounts of Scotland, Jorum) before? (Please give us a wave or a hand up for that too, so we can get a rough idea.)


What We Hope to Do Today

We want this to be a discursive session to explore how EDINA could use Second Life (SL) to enhance, support or promote our academic services.

We will start with an introduction (using voice), then move on to text chat for discussion points.

We hope to be able to draw on your expertise through discussion of how we might use SL for: • Extending existing EDINA services. • Training (both information professionals and end users). • Support. • Promotion of services.• Collaboration and feedback.


What EDINA Does

We are...

• a JISC national academic data centre based at the University of Edinburgh.

• providers of around 20 online academic services, free at the point of use, and based around the delivery of either:o Free data and metadata materials.o Resources (maps, film, sound, etc.) licensed for educational

subscription.• an organisation that innovates through middleware, projects and service

enhancements. • a team of approximately 80 people, based in Edinburgh and

Warrington, who provide services, undertake development work and support users of our services.

We aim to ‘enhance the productivity of research, learning and teaching’ across all universities, research institutes and colleges in the UK.


What EDINA Does: Services

What Else EDINA Does: Projects

How EDINA is Funded

We are mainly funded by JISC (the Joint Information Systems Committee) whose remit is to:

• Inspire UK colleges and universities in the innovative use of digital technologies.

• Cater to the present and future needs of the education and research communities in the UK.

• Be guided by its Board and Sub-committees - composed of senior managers, academics and technology experts working in UK further and higher education.

• Negotiate licences and commission services to complement education and research.

• Promote and provide guidance on uses and user expectations for educational technologies.

Additional income is received from EU-funded projects, the ESRC and self-sustaining EDINA subscription services


EDINA and Second Life

• We are at an early stage of looking at virtual worlds. • We are committed to exploring and developing new ways to

communicate and enhance services through social media (including virtual worlds).

• Many of our services are licensed and require

authentication which causes significant complexities in non-traditional environments.

• We are keen to engage with virtual worlds in an effective

way that meets a genuine demand.


Discussion Areas

• What could be appropriate roles for EDINA in SL/virtual worlds?

We have looked at a few key areas in the next few slides starting with... • Should EDINA use SL for service delivery?

o We will show you some use cases for specific services. o We'd welcome comments on other projects/services.


Possible Use Case: Jorum

We run a service called Jorum, a repository for learning and teaching materials that allows sharing and reuse.

• Would it be valuable to have depositors demonstrate their materials to possible users from within SL as an extension to the service?

• Would it be useful for Jorum to hold a repository of learning and teaching objects built for SL (e.g. scripted learning objects)?


http://www.jorum.ac.uk/

Possible Use Case: SUNCAT

We run the SUNCAT Serials Union Catalogue for the UK, this is free to use and open to all.

• Would a copyable object/interactive flyer with attached media for sharing in any virtual institution on SL be a good way to promote this service?

• Would an institution-specific object or widget (which directly links to SUNCAT with your institution pre-selected as a filter option) be of use?


(http://www.suncat.ac.uk)

Possible Use Case: Digimap

We run geo services, including Digimap:

• Licensing would prohibit us from delivering the service, or maps/visualisations derived from the service, in SL.

• We could create tutorials and objects that include links to the web service - would this be a useful training tool?

• We could use geographical features, buildings or topographies in SL as examples and triggers for specific learning exercises using Digimap in the SL web browser.


http://www.edina.ac.uk/digimap/

Possible Use Case: Project Work

We could run webinars and virtual meetings or focus groups, as well as briefing sessions, for development projects:

• Do you think enough people in UK HE and FE use Second Life for community engagement in SL to work?

• Do you think arranged events in SL feel informal for discussions of developments that may or may not ever emerge as fully fledged services? Is there a way to make SL discussions and collaborations feel more informal?

• Has the cost of uploading objects/images (or the time it

takes to create objects) ever been an issue in making participation feel inclusive and creative in your experience?


Using SL for Training

• Is the SL web browser suitable for previewing & training users on complex/high bandwidth services and databases?

• Do enough of your colleagues use SL that training them on EDINA services through SL could be effective?

• Would provision of SL training sessions work as useful components in CPD programmes or induction sessions?

• Are enough of your end users on SL for it to be a worthwhile space for EDINA to use for training service users?

• Would briefing and discussion sessions (on new/changed services, developments, etc.) be useful to you?


Using SL for Ongoing Support Activity

• Would virtual surgeries/office hours be a useful method of support in SL?

• Have you tried doing anything similar?

• How accessible is Second Life from your institution?

• What time of day do you think scheduled sessions would be most useful to information services professionals like you?

• Would the same sessions suit your end users?

• Would mixed surgeries for library staff, academics and end users be appropriate?


Using SL for Promotional Activity

• Would it be useful to create promotional objects for you to display and/or share on your virtual library or academic area in SL?

• Are quirkier objects or interactive/scripted objects more useful than replicas of print materials like virtual fliers, information cards, and posters?

• Would you feel differently about taking part in a more overtly promotional activity in SL versus an SL training event?


Some Final Questions on SL & Academia

• Are there resources or academic services using SL that you would particularly recommend we look at or emulate?

• Is there any specific academic resource (a service; a type of learning object; a training hub; a support activity) that you would like to see in SL?

• Are there conventions in using SL for academic uses? For instance are there conventions/issues around requesting real names & institutional affiliations in SL.

• How can we measure the impact and value (and cost) of any work we might undertake in SL?


Thank You!

Thank you for coming along today... We hope you didn't mind us asking so many questions and that some of you will be interested in keeping in touch with us in the future - our contact details are on the last slide and on the note card about today's session.

We would welcome any feedback you have on our session or ideas and will be happy to share our notes on the session once we have compiled them.


Email:

Nikla: [email protected]

edina: [email protected]

More Information:

Service, References, and Tools:http://delicious.com/nkl.osborne/sl@edina

Also accessible via: http://tinyurl.com/sl-edina

Contact & Further Information


mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

http://delicious.com/nkl.osborne/sl@edina

http://tinyurl.com/sl-edina

http://tinyurl.com/sl-edina

Edina and Second Life

Education

Transcript of Edina and Second Life