eLearning for Virtual Worlds

What is SLOODLE?
SLOODLE (Simulation Linked Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment)
is a suite of tools which enhances eLearning support for teaching and learning
in Second Life®. SLOODLE is provided as a free plug-in for the popular Open
Source web-based virtual learning environment ‘Moodle’
(http://www.moodle.org), and which integrates Moodle and Second Life.

Or alternatively... SLOODLE is a free plug-in for the popular 3D virtual world,

‘Second Life’ (http://www.secondlife.com), which enhances the existing
support for learning and teaching through integration with the Open Source
Moodle learning environment.

What does SLOODLE do?

Like other learning technologies, it is ultimately up to tutors and students to
decide how tools should be used in class – but hopefully a list of some of the
key features will give you some idea of the possibilities.

• Web-intercom. A chat-room that brings Moodle chatroom and Second

Life chats together. Students can participate in chats in Second Life
using the accessible Moodle chatroom. Discussions can be archived
securely in a Moodle database.
• Registration booth. Identity management for Second Life and Moodle.
Link students’ avatars to their Moodle user accounts.
• Quiz tool and 3D Drop Box. Assess in Second Life – grade in Moodle. Set
quizzes or 3D modelling tasks in an engaging 3D environment. Review
grades quickly and easily in the standard Moodle gradebook.
• Choice tool. Allow students to vote (and see results) in Second Life as
well as in Moodle.
• Multi-function SLOODLE Toolbar. Enhances the Second Life user
interface. Use a range of classroom gestures, quickly get a list of the
Moodle user names of the avatars around or write notes directly into to
your Moodle blog from Second Life.
• Presenter. Quickly author Second Life presentations mixing slides, web-
pages and video on Moodle. Present in Second Life without having go
through lengthy processes to convert or upload images, while enabling
web-based access to the same materials via Moodle.
A recent user-contribution extends this to enable one-click publishing of
PDF documents to Second Life.

... and more. More tools are being prototyped on a regular basis, with rapid
and regular feedback from the user community.
Installing and Setting up SLOODLE
The SLOODLE plug-in is available at http://www.sloodle.org/, and should be
downloaded and installed by your system administrator. The plug-in comprises a
number of elements – including a Moodle ‘block’ and a new assignment type for
Moodle. Installation on a typical Moodle site should only take a few minutes to
complete.

To use SLOODLE in Second Life, a course tutor needs to add a ‘SLOODLE Controller’
activity to their Moodle course and use the Second Life in-world ‘SLOODLE Set’. The
SLOODLE Set is freely available inside Second Life, from SLOODLE island. A number
of online guides and video tutorials are available and can be found via the project
home page.

Using SLOODLE
SLOODLE is being used by a growing number of educators around the world,
teaching a wide variety of subjects. A published case-study details how Chris
Surridge (Christopher Flow in Second Life), at KAIST in South Korea, used Moodle,
Second Life and SLOODLE to support an international cultural exchange programme
with students in Korea and Dubai as part of an ESL (English as a Second Language)
course. Chris has since used the model with further classes – and more recently has
been using the tools to support the development of virtual quests in Second Life.

At Ohio State University, Dr. Sharon Collingwood (Ellie Brewster in Second Life) has
been using SLOODLE to support her online Women’s Studies classes held in Second
Life. As Dr. Collingwood explains: “SLOODLE fits seamlessly with my own in-house
Learning Management System. I was worried that my students would find all this
technology confusing, but it's really simplifying things. There's the in-house LMS,
which I am required to use, for real names, readings, assessment, then there's
SLOODLE, which is for avatar names, group work, blogs… BRAVO guys, this is
turning out to be easier than I thought!”

SLOODLE on OpenSim
Community members recently began the process of porting SLOODLE to OpenSim –
an open source virtual world platform that is compatible with the existing Second Life
client viewer. The majority of SLOODLE tools have been ported successfully, and the
first classes taught with SLOODLE took place in March 2009. SLOODLE is currently
available on the OpenSim OSGrid and ReactionGrid worlds.
 SLOODLE Online – http://www.sloodle.org

Visit the SLOODLE project homepage. Here you’ll find active forums for users and
developers. You’ll also find links to our Wiki (with masses of documentation for
educators, students and Moodle administrators) and a number of community
produced tutorial videos which can walk you through the process of downloading,
installing and getting started with the SLOODLE tools.

SLOODLE Inworld

You can also get support for SLOODLE inworld – with regular weekly developer
meetings and weekly ‘SLOODLE 101’ classes open to anyone wanting to learn more.
Times and locations may vary, please check the web-site for current details.

About Moodle

Moodle is used daily by hundreds of thousands of students worldwide, and is the

virtual learning environment of choice for many hundreds of schools, colleges,
universities and businesses worldwide. Learn more at http://www.moodle.org/

SLOODLE is funded and supported by Eduserv

SLOODLE is supported by the San Josė State University School of

Library and Information Science

SLOODLE is supported by the University of the West of Scotland

SLOODLE is an Open-Source project, released under GNU Public

License.

Second Life® and SL™ are trademarks of Linden Research, Inc.