The Advantages and Disadvantages of using Second Life in Online Education

     Second Life has the potential to be an extraordinary asset to online education. It can be used for a variety of purposes such as building community between a group of learners, creating simulations that contextualize learning, reproducing historical and cultural artifacts that would otherwise be inaccessible, and providing novel ways for learners to develop new content. (Warburton, 2009, p. 421) Creating instruction in Second Life would engage learners at multiple levels by involving sight, sound, and personal interaction with others. Immersing learners in a 3-D world allows them to experience new situations and solve problems that would otherwise be impossible for them to comprehend, such as setting up role-playing scenarios for career training.

     Although there are many benefits to using Second Life in an online learning setting, there are also a number of disadvantages. Some of the biggest disadvantages revolve around time issues and the need for high-end technological resources. Using Second Life takes up a lot of time for the instructor, the student and the technology department of the university or school using the website. Second Life is a very complex program and it takes expertise and a lot of work to create a new “world” for instructional purposes. An instructor would need to go through training to properly design instructional content. Once a virtual world has been set up, the learners also need time to figure out how to navigate their new “world”, create new content, and collaborate with others. This can be a frustrating and “isolating” experience for users. (Warburton, 2009, p. 423) The technology department at the learning institution would have to have the time and resources to make sure that equipment at the school would be able to handle the high demands for bandwidth and processing speed. The IT department members would also need to be able to address technology-related questions that faculty and students have about running the program.  Finally, if learners don’t have access to adequate technological resources they won’t be able to experience the full benefits of Second Life and may even lose interest if their computers are slow or if they don’t know how to use the program correctly. (Petrakou, A., 2010, p. 1020) As a result, a lot of thought needs to be given to whether or not Second Life can be used as part of an online learning experience. The instructor needs to weigh the benefits and the disadvantages of using Second Life to make sure that it will enhance the course before jumping in and using it.

Warburton, S. (2009). Second Life in higher education: Assessing the potential for and the barriers to deploying virtual worlds in learning and teaching. British Journal of Educational Technology.  40 (3) 414–426.

Petrakou, A. (2010). Interacting through avatars: Virtual worlds as a context for online education. Computers & Education. 54. 1020–1027.