First week of the ITL 313 - Virtual Worlds – Int. Student Project course was held online coordinately through Zoom and SL platforms.
On the first week of the course, the students and the instructors have met. A presentation was made by course coordinator Assoc. Prof. Dr. Murat Gülmez about the introducing the virtual worlds and the content of the course. Within the scope of the presentation, the definition of virtual worlds and their usage areas (education, communication, business, entertainment) were explained. In addition, it was emphasized that adapting to the fast changing technology is crucial in today’s world. Then, the content of the course, the way it is taught, the platforms used (Zoom, Second Life etc.) are explained and examples of the projects realized within the scope of this course in the previous periods are given.
It was announced to the students that the course will be conducted jointly with the University of Technology in Ireland and Whole Brain Health from the USA. On the other hand, within the scope of the final project, a joint project with the main theme of 'Sustainability' will be carried out on the Second Life platform.
In the later parts of the course, creating an avatar and entering the platform through the Second Life application, which is a kind of virtual world platform, are explained step by step. Concepts, such as adding friends, teleporting, and using the basic menus were explained to the students who entered the Second Life platform by creating their avatars. Students then teleported to our previously built virtual campus within Second Life and toured the campus.
