A marine engineering course which incorporated a virtual shipyard in the online world of Second Life won an award for excellence and innovation in the use of learning technology by the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education.
The fourth-year course at Memorial University, entitled Marine Production Management, was given by adjunct professor David Murrin in collaboration with the university’s Distance Education and Learning Technologies department.
Students were provided with space on one of Memorial University’s islands in Second Life to build the virtual shipyard. They could meet online and walk through the shipyard to evaluate its functionality. If flaws were discovered, they could then go back to redesign and rebuild it.
“I wanted students to experience and realize the scale of real-life shipyards, and gain a deeper understanding about the importance of material flow and the positioning of materials when building something of such enormity,” says Dr. Murrin.
This is the second CNIE award in as many years for the Distance Education and Learning Technologies department for its innovative use of educational technology. It won the same award last year for a music theory course it helped to develop.
If you are already a Second Life inhabitant, you can use this Second Life URL (SLURL) to visit the shipyard directly:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Memorial%20Univ%201/16/214/23