While attaining my bachelor’s degree, I often took some of my classes online. In fact, if there was an online class available to me I signed up for it. The online classes I took consisted of reading the text book, completing assignments and using a discussion board to communicate with fellow classmates. However, what was missing was actual face to face interaction with the teacher and other students.

I recently discovered an article that showcased a university that has created a virtual classroom within Second Life. Below is a screen shot of the classroom that was developed by San Jose State University. These virtual classrooms are being created so that students taking online courses can still get what’s missing from not physically being at school.

This got me thinking, would I want to take an online course if I still had to attend class in a virtual world? I actually like the idea. I would still be able to do the work from home and it would make that particular course more personal since I could see my teacher and fellow students (as represented by their virtual selves) similar as I would in a normal class setting.

Although I think a class meeting in a virtual world has some benefits, one point in the article that I don’t necessarily agree with is the idea that having class in a virtual setting would help students overcome real world problems, such as public speaking. Perhaps virtual courses might help with other real world problems, but nothing compares to being physically able to speak in front of a live classroom.

What’s in the future for virtual online courses? Will research discover that this type of learning is more beneficial than the standard online courses? It could be that adding this virtual element will improve the online course experience and create that sense of being part of a class.