We are now developing a separate island for Health & Bisoscience – UEL HABitat which includes the original activities but also has a polyclinic for use by health care students (physiotherapy and herbal medicine initially) to diagnose and treat virtual patients. In conjunction with our developer Gemixin Ltd we are aiming to produce an editable virtual patient system to which academics can add cases to suit particular learning needs. This system will be independent of Second Life and its application could extend beyond patient scenarios to other problem base learning situations. Other such systems already exist but by all accounts are not very user friendly. Our aim is to produce something that anyone can use after a very basic introduction. One of the biggest issues with developing learning activities in Second Life (or other virtual worlds) is the reliance on specialist skills which are beyond the reach of most educational budgets. We hope that some sustainable solutions of value to the wider community will emerge from our current investigations for which we are very grateful to have some one-off internal funding.

The prototype VP should be in pilot in Semester A 2009/10.

We started in January 09 by creating a building on UEL’s main island on Second Life with a virtual laboratory for PCR and electrophoresis experiments as well as a crime scene house (apartment) for use by forensic students. This video provides an outline of the first phase including evaluations of the student experience.