PolyU opens Virtual Campus in Second Life

The virtual campus of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) in Second Life was opened on 25 September by Professor Timothy W. Tong, PolyU President, and Professor Suleyman Demokan, PolyU Vice President (Academic Development).

Addressing the ceremony, Prof. Tong said, "PolyU is known for its innovation in teaching, research and applied learning. I am glad to know that we are the first educational institution in Asia with a virtual campus in Second Life. This digital platform readily provides both academics and students with exciting opportunities to enrich their teaching and learning experience."

PolyU has taken the lead in Hong Kong to develop an entire virtual campus in Second Life. The campus contains a range of facilities such as a library, a teaching hotel, an exhibition centre, a medical centre and other areas for educational use. A team of colleagues from the Departments of Applied Social Sciences, Computing, School of Hotel and Tourism Management, School of Design, Educational Development Centre and the Pao Yue-kong Library have worked together over the past two years to develop an extensive facility in Second Life. More than 10 subjects have been taught to over 800 students through virtual tutorials, lectures, field trips as well as virtual assignments and placements.

In addition, SLActions 2009, the world's first 48-hour non-stop research conference in Second Life, was held from 24-26 September. The conference spans across different time zones around the globe, starting with Hong Kong, moving to California and Texas, US, south to Brazil, then across the Atlantic to Portugal and the UK, concluding in Israel. PolyU plays host to the Hong Kong Chapter of SLActions 2009. Synchronized with the conference, the University also hosted a series of local events such as workshops and seminars to encourage academics to make use of the virtual environment in their teaching and research.

SLActions 2009 was a unique and one-of-a-kind event, conducted both in the virtual world of Second Life and on-site in a number of countries throughout the world. Various themes were explored at the conference, from educational research, gender studies, media distribution, virtual branding, advertising and fundraising, to emerging technology applications. As a hybrid online and physical conference, all paper presentations and plenary sessions by guest speakers were held in the virtual world, and projected locally for participants attending physically. Participants could interact with the one another via a local avatar and microphone.

For more details and programme of SLActions 2009 Hong Kong Chapter, please refer to website at URL: http://coresl.edc.polyu.edu.hk/SLActions/HKChapter.html