The Creation of Academic Consulting Environment in Virtual Worlds and an Assessment of Challenges Faced By Learners in This Environment

Abstract

Although there have been theoretical studies on computer games, the inadequency of the studies containing sample applications used for educational purposes has been a problem. In view of this problem, a research including the use of Second Life virtual world environment in consulting services in distance education has been done. Students taking the Operating Systems course from Information Management Associated Degree Program of Anadolu University which is completely online, attended this study. At the end of the application lasting approximately 6 months, within the scopes of the surveys given to the students the problems and experiences of the students were identified. As a result of the survey responses, it was revealed that the learners faced with some problems due to a number of handicaps. These handicaps were about Internet speed, foreign language, hardware etc. The current status of these handicaps faced in 2008 will be set out in this paper.