The Perfect Online Campus: What’s Missing
By Lisa Ramsey-Simpson
July 27, 2008
About the author: I have had the opportunity to take both online and face to face university classes. My first experience was over 10 years ago as a student of San Francisco State University. Although the campus and classes were great, I left San Francisco State University after four years with no degree and moved to South Lake Tahoe. More than ten years later I enrolled as a student with University of Phoenix and completed my Bachelors degree in Business Management with University of Phoenix, Online Campus. Now I am in the process of completing the Masters of Education program at California State University East Bay.
As I take a walk on my college campus, I stand in awe at the many architectural nuances of the science, business and creative arts buildings. I am surrounded by students of all shapes, sizes and colors socializing while moving from one class to another. I visit the student union building and see fliers announcing concerts, academic and social clubs, and roommate requests. There is a positive hum about the place and I revel at the many opportunities for friendships, partnerships, and overall learning. I grab a bite to eat at the bagel shop located in one of the basement levels of the student union and meet up with friends before the next class. I feel I am part of my campus, a level of bonding with my fellow students and a sense of kinship with my university. Now that more students are joining the online community is it possible for a virtual campus to exist where students bond and interact even outside the classroom? Oxford Dictionary defines campus as the grounds and buildings of a university or college, school, hospital, or other institution. Obviously the physical components of the campus will not exist in the virtual world, but what about the campus life aspect? Campus life provides a sense of community between the students and the university. Authentic community binds the students, teachers and school through shared values, ideals and goals (Rovai, 2004).
Due to life’s many adventures, I left behind the traditional campus and did not return to pursuing my Bachelor’s degree until more than 10 years later. I lived in an area that did not have a university, was married and had one small child. I chose to finish my degree via an accredited university offering online courses. It wasn’t an easy experience, but very fulfilling. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management in 2005. I believe my story, as an online student, is pretty typical these days. As I pondered where I wanted to go next in my academic adventure, I decided to learn more about how online education. This brought me to where I am today, pursuing a Masters of Science in Education, Option in Online Teaching and Learning through California State University East Bay. Through my graduate studies in Education, it slowly became evident that the concept of campus was severely lacking. Looking back fondly on the days I went to my college campus several times a week, I realized the online campus has barely existed for the last two universities I attended. Only the constructs of the online course allowed for online socialization opportunities, but each class seemed to be an entity unto itself. The sense of kinship with my university and students is far less than my experience at a physical college.
Online campus life has become secondary to some schools, who consider text based message boards the full extent of creating a campus community. The original business need was to provide an alternative form of course delivery to service a wider range of potential students, but as we continue to learn about the importance of socialization and community to the educational and professional process, I believe more schools will be exploring new ways to create online campus communities. As our alumni become more and more geographically dispersed, it will be in every school’s best interest to create a sense of community among current and former students. The best form of marketing is happy, networked alumni who are willing and able to contribute to both the college and the professional reputation of the college.
The graphical virtual campus offers one route to creating campus life. A university could use Second Life or Lively (Google’s answer to Second Life) to develop a graphical replication of a campus, with courtyards, coffee shops, bookstores and classrooms which contain links to courses. People who happen to be visiting the virtual campus, or going to class, could bump into each other, chat or take a walk to a coffee house or pub located within the virtual campus and have some real time bonding. Academic clubs could hold regular social meetings on the virtual campus.
This type of campus is not a new concept. 3-D virtual worlds have already been developed by Linden Lab’s Second Life and Google’s Lively. People can freely create a graphical representation of themselves known as an avatar and discover, meet and greet new worlds. Schools currently using Second Life include Both Harvard Extension School and San Jose State University as an extension of campus and courses, but school representation in the virtual world is still minor.
One challenge that exists when using such graphical representations is how to appeal to the widest demographic. Those who may find themselves comfortable in such an environment are most likely those who have grown up playing games in virtual worlds such as the Star Wars Galaxies or Sim City. An older demographic may find it “silly” to interact in such an environment.
Another challenge for instructors and institutions is how to use the virtual environment most effectively with their student population as it relates to education and socialization. One has to think differently about how to incorporate learning and student engagement when constructing the campus and course work. We have to start approaching the online campus with the mind of a creative game developer, determining creative design methods that retain engagement, provide continual learning and socialization opportunities.
So what will the future hold for online campus life? It will be up to two entities, the schools themselves and what students demand from their educational experience. Online education has become increasingly competitive place to survive in. I won’t be surprised if within the next twenty years the most successful universities will be the ones who have figured out how to merge high academic standards with the latest creative, easy to use and engaging technologies.
References
AustralianIT (2008). Second life goes to school. Retrieved from http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,23797536-15318,00.html on July 27, 2008
Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard Law. (2008) CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public Opinion. Retrieved from http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cyberone/course-materials/second-life/ on July 27, 2008.
Lively by Google. http://www.lively.com/
Rovai, A., Jordan, H. (2004). Blended learning and sense of community: A comparative analysis with traditional and fully online graduate courses. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. 5(2).
Second Life. http://secondlife.com/