The potential for Student Services in SL

Interesting requests as of late, in reference to the opportunity and/or potential for student services in virtual worlds (vw). I am wondering if the real question is...What advantages and disadvantages do vw environments provide for student services in comparison to traditional online and do the benefits outweigh the costs?

In my experience I have found SL a natural transition for student services support in the arena of academic counseling and recruiting. Our Education Career Specialists (ECS) or academic and career counselor for vTSTC has used the environment as a communication conduit pointing to our traditional online financial aid and admissions forms. She has also provided registration support as well as academic advising through the SL platform. One challenge we have found is the lack of integration with SL and our college database system. We still rely on a person to do the data entry work on behalf of the student to get them registered with the college and for courses. This is something we are currently working through and will most likely resolve over the next year.

Although we have not had occasion, as of yet, to provide crisis counseling we have had contact with others in SL that serve in this manner. One example was of a diverted suicide attempt by a resident in which a counselor used SL as the communication medium to diffuse the attempt. The counselor not only talked the person in need out of further attempts but provided continued counseling support through SL.

To answer the question...”What advantages and disadvantages do vw environments provide for student support online in comparison to traditional online and do the benefits outweigh the costs?” Overall, I would say the advantage for vw student support services lies in the synchronous real time interaction the platforms provide. The ability for the millennial generation and even younger generation to receive immediate interaction and feedback is crucial. The next generation of learner has grown accustom to not only wanting this type of feedback, but to expecting it!

The biggest possible disadvantage will be how the environments are implemented and used. Of course this is the case with any tool, but is even more evident when we discuss establishing the ground work for a system that is in it's infancy. The sheer ramification of poor implementation could do serious damage in relation to acceptance and adoption timeline of the environments into education.

Basically, what we do today has a dramatic effect on how the platform will be used in the future. This is as true for student services as it is for vw’s as a whole in relation to being used as a valid teaching and learning environment. In other words it is in our hands, as early adopters, to make it what we will. This of course does not mean we do not continue to move forward, but we do so understanding the gravity of responsibility we get the opportunity to carry. Scarry yes, but scarry wrapped in a big warm blanket of excitement.