Exploratory learning in the ViStA immersive environment

Virtual Worlds have been used for teaching for several years but many issues of usage and evaluation still exist. In our Virtual St Andrews (ViStA) world, we aim to embed students within a virtual environment which is a duplicate of a real university to allow for an easier orientation to university life and a mechanism for reducing acclimatisation stress for (overseas) students. By allowing a multiple of learning approaches, including self-directed and constructive learning, our world grows organically as student groups develop areas and scenarios for future students and educators use the world for developing student skills. A variety of academic schools and English Language tutoring encourages student engagement and input. Further, Administrative and Support units within the University have been encouraged to support students by donating information or scenario scripts to be built by dissertation students. Effectively, VistA has become a cross-university educational and support system for a variety of potential and current students.