Sloodle is a virtual learning environment that integrates the 3D virtual world of Second Life with the learning management system Moodle. It allows for teaching and learning activities like disseminating course materials, submitting assignments, online assessments, and collaborative activities to take place across these two platforms. While early experiences with teaching in Second Life found it too open-ended and distracting, Sloodle aims to provide more structure and goals for learning. It includes tools like a virtual drop box, quiz chair, and presentation area to support educational activities within Second Life linked to a Moodle course. Sloodle has been used in a variety of subject areas by hundreds of teachers internationally and continues to develop its features and community.

1. Into the
Third Dimension
with
SLOODLE
Daniel Livingstone

2. Daniel Livingstone

3. Teaching & Learning with Moodle
• Document dissemination From
• Coursework submissions Space
• Management tools/tracking
– Gradebooks
• Learning object integration
• Asynchronous & synchronous
discussion
• Online Assessments To
• Collaborative learning activities Place

4. Learning in 3D MUVE
• Informal Learning in MMOGs
– Social interaction and coordination
– Planning, problem solving
A Virtual
• Various MUVEs
– Shared ‘Presence’
World is a
• Exploration, discovery Place
– Synchronous work … for
• Shared experiences, discussion
– Identity exploration education?
• Playful learning, shifting roles
• Second Life (and a few others…)
– User generated content

5. Teaching in SL: My first experience
• Virtual world too
open-ended, lack of
obvious goals, rich
social & technical
environment
• Students needed
support for working
towards goals and
reflecting on
experiences
– Second Life can be
distracting,
confusing, hard to
navigate

6. SLOODLE Concept Diagram

7. In the beginning…
Oct ‘06: Original SLOODLE concept by Jeremy Kemp
SLOODLE chat-logger by Paul Andrews & Daniel Livingstone

8. Three Views of SLOODLE
• Community
• Product
• Research

9. • Web-intercom
Product
• Registration booth
• Quiz Chair
• Virtual Drop Box
• Choice
• Toolbar
• Presenter

10. Community
• sloodle.org
– Forums, resources, links
• Sloodlers
– In-world group in Second Life
• SLOODLE Island in Second Life
– Meeting, chat, learning zones,
classrooms for community use
• Weekly meetings
– Community Meetings (Weds)
– SLOODLE 101 (Tue)

11. ALT-J SLOODLE Paper

12. Approaches to integration
• The 3D classroom
– Original conception
• UI integration
– SLOODLE toolbar
• Individual tools
– Set of utilities used as required
• Rich 3D learning landscapes
– The goal?

13. SLOODLE Architecture
Web Browser
Moodle
Php
HTTP Second Life
SLOODLE
Php
LSL
Moodle Object
DB
Moodle/SLOODLE
Web-server
Peter will be talking about the architecture later…
we hope you can come along!

14. Virtual Dropbox
• Gradebook
Integration
Presenter
• Multi-media
presentations
inside SL

15. Web-
Intercom
Quiz Chair
Registration
booth
Choice

16. Blogs and Postcards
• Toolbar allows blogging to
Moodle from SL
– Creates hyperlink SLurl to location
in SL
– Manually add images later
• Freemail plug-in for Moodle
allows users to email blog posts
– including images
– Second Life lets users send email
‘postcards’
– Some dependencies

17. ‘Skinnable’ tools
in Second Life

18. Setting up a SLOODLE class
• Add ‘SLOODLE controller’ activity
to Moodle course
• Get the SLOODLE ‘Set’ in Second
Life
– Create an instance of the set
• Click on it to configure
– Enter Moodle URL
– Follow dialog link to log in to Moodle
– Click again in SL to download config
data

19. Setting up Various Tools
• Click on Set to ‘rez’ the tool (menu
driven)
• Click on tool to configure
– Again prompted to login to Moodle to
authorize & configure
– We don’t trust Second Life objects
without this!
• Click on tool again to download
configuration
• Alternatively…
– This can be ‘notecard’ driven
– Use dialogs in Moodle to generate
configuration data to drop in

20. Who’s using SLOODLE?
• To an extent we don’t really know…
– Need to develop registration ‘nags’
– Many hundreds of tutors have been
‘trying out’
– Unknown number actually using
– Many international community members
• Some tutors have reported back
and/or completed surveys
– Survey responses positive
– Range of subject areas

21. Today…
• SLOODLE 0.4
– Roadmap to SLOODLE 1.0
• SLOODLE is in active use
supporting classes around the
world
• Growing community
– Since January significant growth in
activity in forums
– Increasing amounts of
contributions

22. Subject Areas
• ESL • Second Life
• English skills
• Education • Programming
• Ethics • Women’s
studies
• Fashion
• HCI
… class sizes
from 6 to 120+

23. SLOODLE Island

24. BlueWall Slade
OSGrid
Christopher Flow
ReactionGrid

25. 3rd Party Contribs: Practical
Michael Callaghan & Kerri McCusker
Intelligent Systems Research Centre
University of Ulster

26. SLOODLE for Moodle 2.0
• Major re-write
• Web APIs for Moodle 2.0 might
simplify a lot of our
development work
• Limitations of Second Life http
functions will likely still force a
lot of custom engineering (or
hacking)

27. Observations
• Making SLOODLE easier to install, to
set-up, to use – version 1.0 is coming
• Moodle integration lends legitimacy to
virtual worlds in education
– And yet many educators in SL are
unaware of LMS/VLE platforms
• 3rd Party Hosting available
– Free and commercial
• International Users & Support
– Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese,
German

28. The Future
• SLOODLE Roadmap
– 1.0 Due August 2009
• Long term?
– Many institutions are only now really
coming to terms with VLEs
– Virtual worlds are some way behind
• VirtualWorldWatch.net

29. A Virtual World is a Place
If students came to your class
when you were not there, what
would they learn?
What would they do?

30. Thank you!
http://www.sloodle.org/
daniel.livingstone@gmail.com