Sloodle-JISC CETIS Nov 07

Sloodlewww.sloodle.org

Daniel LivingstoneUniversity of Paisley

Funded and Supported by Eduserv

Sloodle and Moodle

• VLE (LMS) vs MUVE• Why Sloodle?• Sloodle Tools• Sloodle Community• Sloodle Survey

Learning Support in VLEs

• Document dissemination– Long form/formatted documents

• Management tools• Asynchronous & synchronous

discussion• Coursework submissions• Assessments• Learning object integration• Management tools/tracking

– Gradebooks

Multi-User Virtual Environments

Image: Fleep Tuque (Chris Collins)

What Happened When I taught with SL…• Virtual world too open-ended, lacks

obvious goals, rich social & technical environment

• Students needed support for working towards goals and reflecting on experiences

• E.g. permissions on objects, group work– Students often needed to work together

but failed to set object permissions correctly

Sloodle• Non-prescriptive approach

– Support different pedagogies• Second Life as a Moodle client

– Access Moodle from within the 3D environment

• Moodle to enhance learning support in Second Life– Provide better support for learners in

Second Life• Second Life and Moodle as

complimentary and integrated learning environments– Do something more than using the two

separately

Sloodle Architecture

MoodleDB

MoodlePhp

SloodlePhp

HTTP

Web Browser

Second Life

LSLObject

Moodle/SloodleWeb-server

Approaches to integration

• The 3D classroom– Original conception

• UI integration– The Sloodle toolbar

• The Rich 3D Learning Environment– Learning & assessment built into a

rich 3D interactive virtual landscape

The 3D Classroom

PrimDrop - Digital Dropbox

1. Gathering assignments2. Version control3. Feedback4. Permissions5. Returning

submissions6. Supporting

reflectionhttp://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=VUUnnLm-AG4

Chat: Web-Intercom

UI Integration

Challenges• Authentication• Propagation of roles from Moodle to

SL– Differing roles in SL than in Moodle –

glossary, chat tools– Using Moodle to set SL roles – dropbox,

management tools• Supporting Flexibility

– Adding flexibility adds complexity to many SL objects

– To what degree should Sloodle support flexibility vs. allowing users to modify Sloodle for particular uses

• What can we add to Moodle, to make Sloodle more ‘standard’?

Progress…

• User authentication• User toolbar• Classroom tools

– Chat support/logging/messaging– Glossary– Drop box

• Check permissions• log SL submissions on Moodle

– 3D Classroom– Quiz tool

• 0.2 release in December• Feature request survey in progress

for future development

Community

• Sloodle.org– Forums, resources, links

• Sloodlers– In-world group in Second Life

• Sloodle Village in Second Life– Meeting, chat and learning zones

• Weekly meetings– Developers and Users (Tuesdays,

varying times – see Sloodle.org)• SloodleMoot – Jan 18th/19th

Summary• Providing access to Moodle from SL• Providing new tools for supporting

learners– E.g. Dropboxes for more effective

sharing, submission, markup and return of 3D projects; Gestures; …

• Providing new paths for communication between web and 3D learning environments

• Sloodle is a work in progress– Specific goals: Integrate Moodle & SL– Wider goals: Learn more about the hows

and whys for integrating VLEs and MUVEs

Credit: Janina DewitzChris Surridge

Any questions?

http://[email protected]