VWEC Second Life Student Challenge: Serious Simulations in the Metaverse

Posted on by Webmaster

 

VWEC is pleased to invite you and your students to join us for the

First Annual Fall 2023 VWEC Second Life Student Challenge – Serious Simulations in the Metaverse!

 

Similar to a programming challenge (aka Hack-a-thon), we hope this building challenge will give you one more Virtual World tool to engage your students with your content.

This event will be open-ended enough to let you fit it into your content, but will include a rubric to inform your students with best practices for building and teaching in Second Life.

It will run for 2 months, beginning on Oct 1, will be judged on our rubric, require a presentation and it will have VW prizes!

Builder’s Brewery will be assisting with basic building lessons, and we have an area where students can build, if needed.

 

Key Dates:
  • September 30 – Kick-off event for instructors and student teams. Tour building site, get questions answered
  • October 1 – Challenge begins.
  • Dec 2 – Presentations, Judging and Awards – December 2.

 

The goal for this first Challenge is that students have a supportive opportunity to use a Virtual World to create a build while they find deeper understanding of the content they are learning.

 

We hope you will be a part of this exciting Second Life Student Challenge!

VWEC Second Life Student Challenge:

Serious Simulations in the Metaverse

 

Programming challenges (aka Hack-a-thons) are a popular way to quickly create content and applications in the fast-paced world of technology innovation. These events are typically run through academic institutions or high visibility technology companies like Google and Meta.

These events usually run between 36 hours and 1 week, with most around 36 or 48 continuous hours. The final products of these challenges are typically prototypes that the schools or companies can use as proof of concept which may be taken up for fleshing-out later on.

 

VWEC was approached to sponsor such a challenge but instead of being a continuous number of hours, it will run for 2 months, which would allow participants who are new to Second Life enough time to gain proficiency with the Second Life interface, building, and scripting.

 

This first annual challenge itself will be centered around educational institutions that maintain a presence in Second Life. They can open space on their regions for students to build an educational experience or they can use the area that Linden Lab has given VWEC for the purpose of allowing student teams to build these experiences. It will be somewhat open ended to support any educational content as long it addresses the judging criteria.

 

The Challenge will start October 1, 2023 and continue until December 2. On September 30, there will be a kick-off event for instructors and student teams where the building site will be toured and questions can be addressed. On December 2nd, there will be an inworld event where students present their entries addressing the criteria and qualified judges will grade each experience and rate them based on a preset rubric provided. The goal for this first Challenge is that students have a supportive opportunity to use a Virtual World to create a build while they find deeper understanding of the content they are learning.

 

Each institution is encouraged to form teams of students, each of which will design and implement the educational experience for the competition. We are also working with Virtual Ability for courses and videos on how to address accessibility in Second Life and Builder’s Brewery for Absolute Beginner courses the first week in October and an intermediate course around October 29th. We are working with both organizations to determine whether videos can be posted of the instructional events. In addition, a list of good examples of educational builds will be published so students/instructors can visit.

 

Who can participate:

  • Professors & Instructors with their class
  • Sponsor Professors/Instructors already in SL and interested students at their institutions. (Not necessary associated with a particular course at their institution)

 

The judging Criteria is based on a rubric where student teams can get between 1 and 5 points, 5 points being the highest.

  • VR Challenge RUBRIC:
  • Authenticity/ Accuracy of Content
  • Balanced Sides-without Bias
  • Accessible/ Aesthetic Appeal
  • Interaction and/or Immersion
  • Presentation

Awards/Prizes will be based on the points.

 

Prizes have been generously donated by New Media Arts and include:

  • 1st: 1 Year Premium Membership for school + $100.00 paid in Lindens;
  • 2nd: 1 Year Premium Membership for school + $50.00 paid in Lindens;
  • 3rd: 1 Year Premium Membership for school + $25.00 paid in Lindens;
  • Most Authentic L$ 2,000 (Lindens);
  • Most Interactive L$ 2,000 (Lindens);
  • Best Presentation L$ 2,000 (Lindens).

 

Important Dates:
  • Registration: Opens August 15th – Closes September 25th;
  • Opening Event: September 30th;
  • Closing Event: December 2nd;
  • Student Exhibits taken down: January 31, 2024.

 

Website available: August 1

              VWEC website with additional information will be available by August 1st so that instructors have time to create curriculum if needed.

              More details on build sizes and prim counts will be available but may change based on number of teams registered.

 

Contact Information:

Discord Channel: VWEConsortium #vr-challenge: https://discord.gg/nvVdpCnC6E

Website: https://www.vweconsortium.org/

 

Inworld Avatar Contacts:

Amvans lapis

Elli Pinion

Valibrarian Gregg