Learning Innovation will be hosting another seminar on Thursday 3rd May at 12 noon. It will be held at our offices at Coventry University - you can find the address here.
David Burden of Daden will be demonstrating OPAL, which is a new web-based tool created for immersive environments such as the virtual world Second Life. OPAL is designed to support practitioners using, or intending to use, 3D virtual worlds in education. It enables practitioners to easily create and manage learning exercises which students can then experience in a virtual world, for example by:
- Drawing on a library of already-created props or creating your own
- Laying out a 3D environment using a simple 2D type layout tool
- Assigning behaviours to objects; i.e. telling an object to react when a student’s avatar touches it
- Tracking student activity through an exercise in a virtual world, and exporting it to the VLE
The benefits of adopting OPAL is that it can enable students to experience all of the potential benefits of virtual worlds (such as situated learning or collaborative learning) whilst making it easier for practitioners to design environments. This tool can be used across a variety of virtual worlds.
We’re looking forward to being introduced to OPAL, since it was only formally launched yesterday. Anyone is welcome, but please let Gemma Tombs know so that we can get an idea of numbers. Or alternatively, just comment here.
Look forward to seeing you all there!