Guidelines and Framework for using Virtual Environments

As in the real world, good and bad will be found in virtual worlds. You will need to
exercise good judgment as to how to react in these situations including whether to opt
out or proceed. It is also important to remember that virtual worlds are public,
software-based, open societies in which having a dialogue is similar to having a
discussion or meeting in a public place, such as a hotel lobby or an airport. You should
operate on the assumption that all actions, communications and data can be seen, heard
and recorded by anyone. Be mindful that all of your actions will be public and may be
visible for a long time.

Virtual worlds give you the ability to create the way in which you want to represent
your digital persona visually. This can be anything from a reasonable likeness of the
actual person to a fictional creature. Avatar customization, clothing and all aspects of
appearance and behavior are among the forms of innovation in virtual worlds. In
general, your digital personas appearance is up to you.

Choose your name wisely. Pick a name that is easy to type, easy to spell, and easy to
remember. Nearly everyone experiments with who they are in the beginning. Consider
the possibility that someday you may actually want to meet one or more people you
have encountered in-world, face-to-face, in Real Life. You might develop genuine
business relationships, and friendships in the virtual world that can be as real and as
deep as anything you have experienced before. However, it is not advisable to reveal
much about your Real Life until you have had a chance to get to know the people you are
interacting
with.

When using virtual worlds as teaching medium, lecturers should have the necessary
expertise and skills to use such tools. In addition, support capabilities should to in place
to assist with unforeseen problems.

Students enrolled for courses using virtual worlds, should also have the necessary
knowledge and the ability to use these tools. It serves no purpose to use virtual worlds,
if the users themselves are unsure of what is expected from them.

Virtual worlds do not conform to conventional classroom setup, hence the method used
to deal with disruptive students are no longer applicable. Some sort of
punishment/accountability system needs to created, to limit student disruptive
behaviour in the virtual classroom.

Make sure that the module can actually be taught in a virtual world. Using virtual
environment to teach something that requires real world involvement defeats the
purpose e.g. demonstrating to students how CPR should be performed on a patient
needs to shown in person.

Since virtual worlds allows for the collaboration from people across the globe, language
barriers and typing skills of all involved needs to be considered.

Employ a tutor in-world, who can offer support to students and help them settle in this
new environment.

Ensure that the necessary processing, graphic and bandwidth requirements are met in
order to use virtual worlds. These resources should also be made available students
outside stipulated lecture times, allowing them gain exposure and needed skills to
complete any course related tasks.

20 Things every newbie should know before starting Second Life

1) Nobody can kill your avatar. If you happen to be in one of the rare damage-enabled
zones, the only thing that can happen if your avatar loses all health (which it only has in
those rare damage-enabled areas) is that you will be teleported to wherever your Home
location is set.
2) There are unsafe, mature, and PG areas ("sims") within Second Life, one can see the
unsafe/mature/PG classification of a sim on the map, or by reading the details of a place
on the description
3) If anyone tells you they are a Linden or that they work for the Lindens or for Second
Life, unless they have the SURNAME of Linden and their profile (right-click on them
and select profile) has, under the Account section, the words Linden Lab Employee
they are lying. Impersonating a Linden is an Abuse-Reportable offence, so if someone
makes this claim (especially if they are threatening you with it) and they are lying, rightclick their avatar and select Report Abuse from the pie menu or you can choose Report
Abuse from the Help menu of your viewer.
4) If you feel at all uncomfortable, then simply teleport away. Same thing if you are being
hassled or griefed: simply teleport away. If, for some reason, you cannot teleport (such
as you are getting an error message because the area is busy or teleports are down) then
log out and log back in at your Home location, or any other location.
5) The first place you teleport to after leaving Help Island when you first arrive will be the
place that is set as your Home location, until you change it. You can only set your Home
location at a Linden Lab info hub, or to certain areas in which you are a member of that
group .e.g. being a member of the Nexted Group allows us to set the Nexted Island as
home.
6) Following on from #3 and #4, the quickest way to teleport to your Home location is the
keyboard shortcut CTRL + SHIFT + H.
7) The mute button is your friend. If someone is harassing you, either right-click on their
avatar and select mute or search for their profile and click mute on that.
8) That said, do not be afraid to abuse report people who are harassing or griefing you. The
worst thing you can do in these situations is retaliate, as often a griefer will hassle you to
try and get you to retaliate, at which point he will abuse report YOU.
9) Be wary of offers that you receive for items and group invitations, especially those that
are sitting and waiting for you the minute you first appear in Second Life. The only offers
you should consider accepting at first are ones that are clearly from people such as the
Help People! institute, official Second Life Mentors. Use your common sense. Some
people think its fun to grief newbies by offering them something that will do something
stupid.
10) A relog (logging out of second Life and then back in again) will fix any griefing
problems. If you are being griefed somewhere (such as a sandbox) and relogging only
sends you right back there, then open up the Edit > Preferences menu (top left) before
you log in, and under the General tab, check Show Start Location on Login Screen. It

will appear at the bottom of the viewer, under the place where you type your name to
login. Change it to Home, or type in the name of any sim in Second Life. When you login,
you will be at whatever location you chose. Please remember, this setting will persist
until you change it. Home will always log you in at your home location, My Last
Location will always log you in where you last logged out, and <Type Region Name> will
log you in at the centre of the region/sim you choose.
11) When youre getting changed:
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Find the items you want to wear in your inventory. Right-click and select wear.The
new item will replace whatever you are currently wearing in that place. And you can
do this anywhere, without ever making an unseemly show of flesh

12) If you come across red lines saying NO ENTRY or you are bounced away from
somewhere or are sent a blue dropdown flag saying you have tried to enter a banned
area, do not take it personally. People value their privacy in SL, and can set their land to
bar entry to everyone except themselves or their friends if they wish.
13) Its very likely that, at some point, you will receive the following message in a blue
dropdown menu, completely out of the blue:
Fangs [Thirst::Bloodlines] 2.8: (Avatar Name) would like to give you a Vampire
bite. This will register you with The Thirst::Bloodlines system, and you will get a
FREE pair of bite marks. If you accept the bite, you do not have to play, and if you
are bitten, you do not have to drink a potion to undo it. Say Yes to accept!
You do not have to say yes. Bloodlines are a pyramid role-play scheme. The vampires
use a HUD that scans an area and tells them who has not yet been bitten. They tend to
hang out in welcome areas, since new users will not understand the offer and are more
likely to click yes. If you are bitten, then you are not automatically a vampire. You do
not have to play along. You especially do not need to buy any kind of potion to heal
yourself.
If you do not want to be a potential victim, there is a free garlic necklace that you can
obtain in world, wear it once, and then discard. This will add your avatar name to a
database disregarding you as a potential victim.
14) There is no get rich quick scheme in Second Life. You will not be able to earn enough
money to give up your real life job. There are very, very few people in Second Life in that
situation. People with click me for free lindens hover text above their heads, or the
earn lindens fast! websites are mainly scams. Use your common sense. If it seems too
good to be true, then it probably is.
15) Lag is a part of Second Life. There are alternate viewers you can use, and tips and tricks
you can try that will reduce the lag a bit. Search the official forums for hints about those.
16) A yellow dropdown flag is a money debit warning. If you receive one of these, think
twice before clicking yes, as doing so will give whatever object it came from permission
to take money out of your L$ balance.

17) Not everybody wants a massive friends list. If you get talking to someone, do not just
send him or her friend offer unexpected. Ask them first if they mind being your friend,
and do not be offended if you are rejected.
18) Do not be surprised if the female avatar you really fancy turns out to be played by a man
(or the male avatar you fancy turns out to be played by a woman). People gender-swap
in Second Life more often than you might think. So do not assume anything.
19) You do not have to move your avatar to get a closer look at things. Use Camera
Controls from the View menu and practice with them until you have got them
mastered. It is a much faster way to browse big walls of stuff in stores.
Probably the most important thing to remember when using second life:
20) Behind that, other avatar is a real life person. A human being with

feelings and emotions just like you!

Reference list
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Not possible in Real Life

http://npirl.blogspot.com/2007/12/what-every-second-life-newbie-should.html
(Accessed on 1/4/2010)
http://npirl.blogspot.com/2007/12/more-advice-for-newbies-but-first-time.html
(Accessed 1/4/2010)

Social Media Guidelines and Best Practices

CDC/NCHM/DeHM Draft Virtual World Requirements and Best Practices (Accessed
1/4/2010)

101 Uses for Second Life in the College Classroom

Retrieved from CMC 2010 CD

A Second Look at Second Life: Virtual Environments and Education

Dr. Abbie Brown, Google Scholar (Accessed 1/4/2010)