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J D

J D

Old Alpha
Joined
Nov 29, 2005
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Melbourne, Australia
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John JD Doe
When it first launched, New Oxford inspired online journalists to write stuff like...

"New Oxford University, where you can attend live classes or lectures by people from real life, and an art gallery where you can view copies of real life artwork to purchase them for your in-game apartment (or you can purchase them in real life and have them shipped to you)."
Click to expand...

Remember that... at the time it was an exciting idea, we even still have an in-game video steamed to us that reinforced that this was about to happen.

As you may have read here on EF, I have been using one of the buildings in New Oxford for its original purpose. The Academy of fine arts, for lack of an actual University is serving my purpose reasonably well and the classes have been really popular.

I think its possible for lecturers to present classes in EU that are either about EU game elements or real world subjects from Dating Tips, Health, Specific Music Style Appreciation to techy stuff like HTML, programing or anything that the lecturer is an expert in.

I would love some feedback and suggestions to develop the concept of us users jumping in and making Virtual Classes a reality.

I would like to set up an actual classroom that can be used by others, let me know what you think of the following options in front of me.


  1. Wait for MA to combine the current event terminals with a building/room in New Oxford that is furnished in such a way that supports. Lecturers could then sell tickets to events if they wanted to (there is already one that has an estate terminal attached).
  2. Wait for MA to bring in an estate rental system.
  3. Keep developing my apartment in Billton into a classroom, furnished with chairs and signs that lecturers and teachers could use to run classes. Lecturers would have to pay me the fees incurred when uploading their information onto the black boards. So it would be more economical for them to either bring their own signs or book the place for a week.
  4. Move it to a completely different area equipped with an events system (like Zychion Citadel) so that people can charge for their classes. Personally I think its better to make them free and if people want to donate or tip the teacher they can do that via the avatar to avatar trade window.
Personally I like the idea of making it work in or around New Oxford.

My Experience So Far


  • If the class/experience is one of quality or benefit to people, they will tip if they can afford it and without solicitation.
  • Using the current in-game communication and (chat feature) is really hard and stress full for a lecturer to get his ideas across while trying to keep track of questions.
    • Turning Globals off helps
    • Being a fast typist who does not need to look at the keyboard would help (that ain't me)
    • Having an assistant on PM would help
    • I have had the most success using a live audio stream that people just need to open a web page (in the background) in order to hear the lecturer. Taking questions can the be handled easily via in-game chat windows. I will be more than happy to help lecturers set that up (its easy and no downloads are required).
  • So many Entropians have interesting and entertaining stories plus overlooked skills that others would love to hear about.
  • It brings the community closer.
So whether you are a potential lecturer, student, supporter or pioneer of Virtual Classes in Entropia... I would love to hear your thoughts, ideas or reservations.
 
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I think class rooms would be a great way to spread knowlege on many subjects. Unfortunately this IS basicly the interwebs and with that comes scandle and greed.

I think for this to be benificial it would need to be "regulated" for lack of a better term and set up in a formal environment similar to a school setting. Having lectures randomly would entice the scammers outta the walls... Sorta like the "EU Diet plan"... or "EU investing for dummies".. or "Earm meelions of ped flipping appartmets that have been reposesssed by MA"

Run with it tho. I would suggest talking with MA now before someone jumps yer claim so maybe you can have EU's first college with your name on it.

+ rep just work out viable details to help those not so fast with the uptake on things at Ma to maybe make it happen.
 
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That sounds like a really interesting idea JD.

Hav eyou hosted any lectures yet, if so what on and what response did you have.

It would certainly be fantastic to see MA introduce lecture halls, or create a full bore university in EU. The range of classes would be endless. The key would be an audio feed system linked to a slide show feed.
 
That`s an awesome idea! I could think of alot of subjects people might be interested in. It would be nice if there were a way to poll prospective attendees narrowed by interest to a specific topic for lectures in addition to ongoing series should they become popular. Perhaps even free and pay lectures depending on the topics. But yes free is always nice too. Tired atm so I`ll look at more replies maybe I have more ideas then.
 
It's the way of the future, EU players rocking into job interviews with their Masters Degree from New Oxford University
 
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Trina Xenophage said:
I think for this to be benificial it would need to be "regulated" for lack of a better term and set up in a formal environment similar to a school setting.

Run with it tho. I would suggest talking with MA now before someone jumps yer claim so maybe you can have EU's first college with your name on it.
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Thanks Trina, I have already started a communication with MindArk and I am prepared to run the actual university as a non-profit organization (that does not mean that lecturers can't get paid).

I would definitely weed out the scammers and undesirable content and stick to MA's guidelines for content. Personally I think it would be best to package classes as a series of lectures with a new theme each month.

I can also handle the Audio Streams and recording of those streams.

I will settle for an Office (with a view) with my name on the Door...
JD » 1st Dean and Professor of "New Oxford University" :laugh:

If you have something you will like to learn, teach or talk about. Send me a PM so that I can start planning the 1st official lecture series.
 
Trina Xenophage said:
I think class rooms would be a great way to spread knowlege on many subjects. Unfortunately this IS basicly the interwebs and with that comes scandle and greed.
Click to expand...

well but still, didnt MA say that the chinese planets (or at least some planet) would have places for education (online classes ingame) in different subjuects?


think I have heard something about that :D
 
J D said:
Thanks Trina, I have already started a communication with MindArk and I am prepared to run the actual university as a non-profit organization (that does not mean that lecturers can't get paid).

I would definitely weed out the scammers and undesirable content and stick to MA's guidelines for content. Personally I think it would be best to package classes as a series of lectures with a new theme each month.

I can also handle the Audio Streams and recording of those streams.

I will settle for an Office (with a view) with my name on the Door...
JD » 1st Dean and Professor of "New Oxford University" :laugh:

If you have something you will like to learn, teach or talk about. Send me a PM so that I can start planning the 1st official lecture series.
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sounds great :) +rep

So if you would have a non-profit organization you would perhaps pay the lecturers with donated cash if you get any? :D

I think that MA should have no problem with this, especially if you make sure to have contact with them at all times and make sure that they OK the subjects :silly2:



Good job :)
 
With the chinese intergration, one of the "selling points" that MA discussed with there new partners, would be that people will be able to "work" from home also, cutting costs of travel and reducing pollution (potentially).

for that to happen though, a lot of alterations will need to be made!

If it were just for classes I would think the best way of doing so would be improving the system, as it is right now its "doable" to host classess etc but not exactly convenient...... and to attract more people to do this it would need to be mroe convenient than using other web services such as online meeting/desktop sharing software etc.

If it we're to be in new oxford, I would think they need to implement some of your ideas JD. Simply create an event terminal (but rename it as Lecture hall terminal or w/e :p) so that people can book slots to host lectures etc. The person booking the lecture room would then have the ability upload images/content on the "fixed" display panels within the classroom and even upload presentations (how many lectures do ppl go to that doesnt involve presentations? lol)

Also including the ability to stream live data (webcam from tutuor, live voice, live desktop viewing or w/e) would be beneficial imo (maybe for an extra cost....eh MA?) Also I would think they will need seating (just to ensure all ppl have adequate viewing of presentations/lecturer etc). It may even be a good idea to provide an in game "notebook" for people to jot down (or type) what they're learning, in there own special way. (wouldnt that enable ppl to go fullscreen more and in turn view things better? ;P)

Distribution material...... with the inclusion (when??!) of factories or w/e I think it would be pretty good to have distribution material for lecturers to then hand out to the participants (wouldnt suit all lectures ofc) A small bok (like BP book in looks etc) which would have many pages to "upload images or documents on". The lecturer could loot/buy/craft/ a template book, upload his material (if word or other is not supported......create images to put into the book) then he could take it to a factory and have them mass produce copies for him to distribute to the class....... (costs of this could be included within the fee to attend charged by the lecturer etc)

Within the lecture terminal, functions could be altered to suit the lecturer, for example :
Turn on/off full chat during lecture
Turn on/off only ask questions at end (stop interruptions and delays)
enable the different (extra charge) features
limit class size
enable class to share notes (from notebook......would need a seperate class FL kinda...pick who to send to etc)
Turn on Class FL
Auto include lecturers avi on class FL's (normal)
etc etc etc

Thats all I ca think of right now but there are so many other things that could both work and be beneficial for ma and the users.

Plus a university janitor (job) would be pretty good to, maybe to ensure things are kept tidy (put back chairs etc lol) or maintain and advertise the lecture hall for new classes etc.

Rip
 
another gr8 idea, +rep JD
 
Ozi said:
Have you hosted any lectures yet, if so what on and what response did you have.
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Thanks for the post Ozi...

I have hosted 4 lectures so far
Introductions to my 'Building Profitable Content Equity Online" Course
Attracting about 50 people in total.

The 1st three worked but all the communication was handled in-game via text-chat... while this worked ok for the attendees is was not relaxed from my point of view (as a lecturer). I need to look at the keyboard when my 2 fingers are pressing all the buttons :D

For the fourth lecture I used an optimized audio stream which was really successful because I could relax, watch the screen, refer to notes as I talked and watch the in-game chat for questions and feedback. What was great about the EASY service that I used was that attendees had only to keep a simple webpage open in the background. Because it was highly optimized I even had one listeners that was able to go off and hunt at the same time (a deliberate test). Another listener had his internet throttled and was still able to handle both EU and the Stream. Touch-wood (no-one missed out). Oh and an added feature was being able to record the lecture directly on to the permanent webpage.

Can't tell you how much positive response, feedback and great new contacts I am gathering just from these lectures including a 200 ped donation.

Regardless of what MA and other planets have planned I will be continuing to host lectures and moderate lectures by others in New Oxford. And will consider it to be a independant beta-test with feedback regularly going back to MindArk for use in the development of a great and well tested system from the players perspective.

I have asked them to keep an eye on this post, so if you are reading this and like the idea... Please log your support, interest or concerns.
 
The System used by JD in delivering Lectures is the most effective one I had seen in any online virtual world.It allow him to constantly stream lecture which we can listen and with that he can also read our quires in game and answer them one-by-one.He has created a very effective method of two-way communication system combining text with voice.
 
There were real lectures at NO Uni and I didn't know about it?
Sign me in! I'd like to make use of the University campus as a student! :D

I hope MA does implement the lecture ticket system as well as facilitate lectures with seats, souvenirs and, of course, live web cam/audio stream.

"Lecturer" would then become a profitable service! :yay:
 
I have thought about this and think its a great great idea. I wanted to go to your clases but it has beeen difficult for me schedule wise im gonna see if I can make it to tha last one if its not over yet.

Cheers.
 
desg90 said:
I hope MA does implement the lecture ticket system as well as facilitate lectures with seats, souvenirs and, of course, live web cam/audio stream.

"Lecturer" would then become a profitable service! :yay:
Click to expand...

yeah... and the ability to throw out ppl who are disturbing the lecture :)
 
Don't take this as a negative response, because I've always hoped that people would find things to do with EU aside from clicking their mouse all day, but...

I have a friend who is a professor and only teaches online. She is quite successful at it and is now presenting lectures to other university professors on how to move toward that environment. So, it can be done.

The problem with having online classes in a virtual world as opposed to using Net Meeting or something similar, is that the virtual world does not add anything to the experience, but creates many distractions and tends to reduce the overall effectiveness as you have been finding out.

In order to make this work well, I think that MA would need to create an interface where the students would sit down and click a button as they do for spaceships. Then, an app with streaming audio and video should take over. A real bonus would be if it could link in to a real world app, so that attendees would not be required to log into EU first.

Anyway, those are just my thoughts. I think that the best thing you can do for your project is to make a list of everything that EU adds to the experience and everything that it takes away. Then try to maximize the good and eliminate the bad. Don't beat your head against the wall trying to force your project into the EU environment if the environment is going to prevent you from effectively presenting your material.

Maybe, you could present the classes in a web-based format external to EU, but use EU to advertise the classes and to meet with the attendees before and after each lecture.

Best of luck. We're pulling for you.
 
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I love this idea but as it's already been suggested, more integration to deliver lectures within the game effectively would be needed. For something I'd like to teach, would require more than just lecturing like web design, fine art or 3d modeling to name a few subjects. Jumping back and forth from in-game to some other app or interface wouldn't be very productive in the learning process in my opinion.
 
Rumsponge said:
Don't take this as a negative response... I think that the best thing you can do for your project is to make a list of everything that EU adds to the experience and everything that it takes away. Then try to maximize the good and eliminate the bad.
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Excellent advice Rumsponge

I will take your system on board and do exactly what you have suggested.

I agree the system will fall over if you want to actual teach something like "Creating a Web2.0 Button Photoshop" and I will try to get some lecturers signed up to help test a system where we advertise in Entropia and then send them to directly to a partnered platform that supports video and screencast.

That being said, I think my current system of a single audio stream to all students would work best with field trips (departing from New Oxford) teaching Entropia related concepts; Mining 101, Efficient Hunting, and mentoring multiple disciples or leading/directing a beacon run!

Rumsponge said:
Don't beat your head against the wall trying to force your project into the EU environment if the environment is going to prevent you from effectively presenting your material.
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I've been beating my head against the EU wall for so long I am rather attached to it now :D and I'm only interested in pioneering this in Entropia, if only to provide MA with enough data to create an awesome enhancement to the creative potential between the players and EU.
 
aye

everything j d says, is true and works. I have sat uplink and very bad ping time currently, everything worked great.
 
where is this website of yours JD?
 
Sorry I missed the class today, miscalculated TZ (d'oh!) and didn't end up getting home until two hours late :laugh: I will try, again, to make the next one...

EDIT: Ooh lookie, next class is at 1 AM for me ;) I'l stay up for it :D
 
Hey.

I can teach spanish to the Entropians at the university.
Now all I need is a Blackboard UL.

Excelent idea man. Te lecture was great and easy to follow.

+Rep. This time it worked :D
 
Some feedback from the last lecture.


  1. Being Outdoors
    Students really enjoy the openness of being outdoors and learning in open spaces. Since we have a VIRTUAL universe, there is no sense conform to the concept of stuffing rooms and existing architecture. Currently we are using the Steps of the "Academy of Fine Arts" » What I imagine is would be floating disc like lecture theaters that break the laws of gravity but structure the class into audience and stage under an open sky, surrounded by gardens and green gardens.
  2. Being on the Radar
    It was great to have someone stumble into lecture as it was starting last night. The idea that you can turn up to New Oxford and stumble into a class or something happening, lies at the heart of trying to make this concept a reality. So until we start getting pestered by annoying drop-ins... being on the radar is currently a plus. I hope to see a time when there are small gatherings and meetings happening all over New Oxford.
    "Hello My Names JD and I'm an Alcoholic" :smirk:
  3. Audio
    Streaming Audio is a must (one way is fine), I am currently using "Adobe Flash Media Encoder 2.5". This encoder provides much higher quality at lower bitrates and then streams it to a free flash media server like ustream.tv which also makes it easy to record and host the lectures for later viewing. This makes it crucial to read the questions before you answer them.
  4. Video and Multimedia
    Because I am trying to retain the integration of Entropia as the visual element of these lectures, it currently offers no real value to my lectures except that it feels familiar and better to be looking at EU Avatars sitting around, sharing the experience in a familiar 3D environment. I will experiment with ways to record the live screen capture (inside entropia) along with the audio.
  5. Screens, Blackboards and Videos
    I have experimented alone and found that by manipulating the priority of slides loaded up to an EU Sign, I could actually present a slideshow as I talk. But the cost of uploading media to these would not make this currently viable unless I had a profitable lecture that I could rinse and repeat each time. Meaning that I a lecturer could reuse the sign again and again. Not going to experiment with Video any time soon :rolleyes:
  6. Being on the Move
    I think the concept of combining a one way audio stream could work really well with stuff like strategic Hunting Trips, Land Grab (yes you can secure a stream with a password), Rig Raids, Training Mentors, and TP runs. While all my attendants (even with bad bandwidth) have had no problems yet, I am yet to test the current system while everyone is engaged in high lag activities.
 
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Nevermind, was an hour early :laugh:
 
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Excellent! Great information in the class JD.

+Rep!!! :)
 
Wow, loved the class. Took some notes in notepad throughout (tend to forget what I hear after 1 AM :laugh:) so I won't forget. And finally, New Oxford is getting used the way it was made to be used :D +Rep for the intro class, and I will try to plan out what I will do over the next few days.
 
Kinda made me remember why I chose New Oxford to be my city of birth (where I spawned). :)
 
I attended the intro lecture today and it was very informative, the audio from JD was crystal clear and it was nice to actually be using EU for something 'different' attending a lecture :D

Well done JD on a fine initiative.

Cheers, Nobleone :beerchug:
 
Nobleone said:
I attended the intro lecture today and it was very informative, the audio from JD was crystal clear and it was nice to actually be using EU for something 'different' attending a lecture :D

Well done JD on a fine initiative.

Cheers, Nobleone :beerchug:
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Seems sweet, contiguous with what is the eventual progression of VR.

I wonder how IP will be apportioned under the current EULA, not that I'm being territorial just more inquisitive.

Superb initiative and as Mr Rumsponge touched upon a specific EU/function portal dedicated to the approach seems of great merit.

Set core subjects and development of these may be something to consider in interface with EU professions/skills; perhaps MA might like to look at this and or even more advanced approach.

I know one LA is currently fertile ground for a university who owns it so it can go further no doubt :)

Excellent initiative:yay::yay::yay:
 
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