Jeremy Kemp, San José State University School of Information lecturer and assistant director for Second Life campus, has been honored for his paper in the Novática information technology journal in Madrid, Spain. His article “Integrando entornos de aprendizaje basados en Web y 3D: Second Life y Moodle se encuentran” was judged Best Paper for 2008 from a set of over 50.

The award will be presented the morning of November 13, 2009 in Madrid during a Software Quality event organized by the Spanish Ministry of Industry and Novática publisher ATI.

The article was published in issue 193 of Novática (May – June 2008), and is a translation of “Integrating Web-Based and 3D Learning Environments: Second Life Meets Moodle” published in the June, 2008 issue of UPGRADE: The European Journal for the Informatics Professional. Kemp co-authored the article with Dr. Daniel Livingstone of University of West of Scotland.

Paper abstract:

There has been a recent explosion of interest from academics across a wide range of disciplines in the use of Multi-User Virtual Environments for education, driven by the success of platforms such as Second Life. As these platforms are used more often as environments for teaching and learning, there is increased need to integrate them with other institutional systems, Web-based Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) in particular. In this paper we outline the open source Sloodle project, which is working on integrating learning and teaching across Second Life and Moodle, a popular open source VLE. We review the history and current status of Sloodle, and present results from user surveys which highlight the benefits educators hope to reap from this integration.

Fridolin Wild of the Open University’s Knowledge Media Institute, editor of the Novática issue, said, “It is wonderful to see that exactly this paper is being awarded for its synthesis of two worlds: the reality of learning environments and the virtual reality of Second Life!”

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