Online Campus

Online universities have become a very popular subject as of late, and it is claimed that, by attending these online courses, one could receive an education and prestige equivalent to that of going to a college of similar prestige without the full costs. While I find group conferences and instant messaging perfectly appropriate for planning parties and discussing life with friends, learning from such a chat session is something that I don't think could be done. There are simply too many distractions, trolls trolling trolls in the middle of a class for instance, will still have an effect on the overall learning experience before they are moderated. The lack of direct supervision at least in classrooms means that a student could be farming in WoW while pretending to listen to a lecture, and cheating on tests also become infinitely easier.

So what can we do about all these distractions? We provide school appropriate distractions of our own.

There are already powerful "virtual world" software out there, the most prominent of which is probably Second Life. If we hire a bunch of ITs to create and maintain an online campus which is an exact mirror of the real one, the virtual world will have many distractions to keep the students mind occupied and on the topic of school. Instead of ads for Russian women they will see banners for student clubs and study groups. Students can see the virtual avatar of the professor while in class and feel a sense of direct supervision. Peer pressure would be reduced seeing as how online interactions means that a user can change appearances at will. Students who have been to the mirror campus in the real world will feel a sense of familiarization, students who have not been to the real campus will feel a sense of exploring a new world just as new students, and would also want to visit the real campus. The benefits are too man for me to list.