The final project of our Marketing & Sustainability course, which is one of the elective courses at our university, was carried out on Second Life, the virtual world platform. Our students were divided into four groups to cover four different themes related to sustainability. These themes are: Marine life, sustainable agriculture, sustainable lifestyle, and wasteland. Within the scope of the course, each group held various activities on our virtual campus in areas built for these themes. Within the scope of the final project, each group built an area for their own themes on the second life platform and made their presentations in these areas. The Whole Brain Health team from the USA provided technical support to our students in the construction of the fields. With this project, our students had the opportunity to improve their technical skills by using different tools simultaneously in presentations, as well as getting to know virtual worlds.
The presentations first started with the theme of marine life. Our students, who made presentations with this theme, drew attention to the importance of marine life, the role of corals in marine life, and the problems that sea pollution will create for life. Our students, who made presentations on the themes of sustainable agriculture and sustainable lifestyle, made a presentation on the importance of sustainability, its ecological dimension and what should be done. Finally, our students, who made a presentation with the theme of wasteland, explained what could happen if precautions are not taken, and drew attention to the importance of sustainability and the need for urgent action.
After the presentations a concert was organized by Whole Brain Health.
Within the scope of the course, our students caught an interactive learning environment in the virtual world with the platforms built for four different themes on our virtual campus. The presentations made in the virtual world within the scope of the final project, on the other hand, enabled our students to both gain technological skills and gain experience of making presentations on a platform with participants from different parts of the world.
This learning method, which attracts the attention of our students, provides both to recognize and learn today's technologies with the use of virtual worlds, and to make the lesson more fun and to make the information more permanent. For this reason, it is planned to develop and continue such learning methods.