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On my travels in Second Life I am constantly on the lookout for new, preferably innovative, commercial or educational islands. Often I find places so new they are not yet worth discussing, as the build has barely started, but sometimes I find places that have been around for a while, yet exist in some kind of virtual backwater. One such, and one I find interesting from a business model point of view, is »EduNation«. a private island sim owned by the real life company The Consultants-E. The aim of the island is to provide educators with an opportunity to explore the application of Second Life in education, and education in Second Life.

The Consultants-E, aside from a strong preference for puns, is “a leader in online and distance education and is an innovative company of consultants specialising in online learning and teaching in higher and adult education.” They work with both commercial companies and higher education institutions in the use of IT for course design and delivery. They also will “train the trainer” in the use of online training techniques, and evaluate existing online courses. They are a core team of 3 people, with an extended team of around 20 freelancers across the globe.

As to the island itself, it is themed as a tropical island — plenty of sand and palm trees — and is divided into a number of distinct areas. These include:

• Class Spaces — designed for more free-form classes and meetings. This area includes a pavilion and an exterior space with social seating. There is also an open-air auditorium with a large video screen and presentation facilities.
• The Seminar Room — for seminars and powerpoint presentations
• The Podcast lounge — for audio and video podcast sessions
• The Videocast Lounge — for streaming video presentations
• The Social Breakout — occupies the centre of the island and is intended for relaxation between sessions. There are pool and bar areas, with extensive seating and options for streamed video. Nearby there is a small sandbox for the use of course attendees, with a 3-hour return policy.

Audio is provided using Ventrilo.

There is also a shop, offices and a gallery, among a number of other features. The shop provides a variety of free tools for educators in Secondlife — and is worth a visit once you have got the goods from the ICT Library at InfoIsland. A sizeable slice of the island is parcelled up for rent to appropriate companies and organisations, for running educational projects.There is a minimum rental period of 2 weeks.

For new arrivals, an automated guided tour will take you around the island, while if you want more information there are plenty of notecards and weblinks to be picked up throughout the island.

I spoke recently with Dudeney Ge, a lead consultant from The Consultants-E, about »EduNation« and its apparent anonymity. First he told me about the organisations currently using the island: “[There is] the home of the Webheads — a large (over 600) online Community of Practice dedicated to exploring the uses of technology in teaching. They meet regularly on the island. Next door we have a German e-ducator just setting up, and along from there we have the home of Study.com… here we also have a Dutch online learning consultants and… the University of Vienna educational faculty.” The work is all private, and has required no advertising — hence the apparent anonymity. According to Dudeney Ge, they make enough money in Second Life to cover their island costs.

As regards The Consultants-E themselves and their use of the island, Dudeny continued: “So really the island is quite low-key, We have quite a bit going on, but it’s usually private contracts. And the knock-on effect in RL has been great for us, in terms of business. Usually I meet someone on the island… we get talking… they ask why we give the island to educators for free (the resources) and then we move on to talking about our RL work. And eventually a lot of people contract some kind of services from us — from Moodle hosting to online materials development, to SL training, or whatever. Basically having the island makes us a fair bit - it pays for itself a few times over, Which is great - so we’re not forced to become landlords to loads of people and we can keep the island lag-free - which I think is one of its major charms.”

Right now The Consultants-E are working with the British Council, to prepare an area that links in with the IATEFL Annual Conference, to be held 18th-22nd, April in Aberdeen, Scotland. Daily summaries, in the form of videos and audio, will be available via podcast, and some in-world meetings and discussions are planned. Secondlife is just one electronic channel being used to support remote participants. They are expecting over 10,000 remote participants on a Moodle site, which puts the Secondlife numbers into context. In practice the SL attendees at EduNation cannot sensibly exceed 50 or 60.

So there you have it. It may not be the newest RL site in SL - but in my view, it is one of the more interesting; an island that is (quietly) making a valuable contribution to the success of its owners.

Aleister Kronos appears by kind permission of Ambling in Second Life.