The Virtual Classroom
February 4, 2009
Last summer, I took an abnormal psych class online. The material was interesting, but the class structure was boring. The teacher e-mailed assignments and posted questions to a discussion board where students had to write their responses and then respond to at least one other classmate’s observations about readings, etc. There wasn’t a lot of interaction between the professor and her students or even just among students. Once students posted their comments on a discussion board most of them never returned to follow up. Of the few students who did return to the discussion board some thought-provoking conversation was taking place that all of the students in the class would have benefited from.
The abnormal psych class online would be a great candidate to become a class that incorporates the virtual world. All the students in the class could create avatars in the virtual world. Each student would be assigned a type of abnormal psych disorder (Bipolar, depression, schizophrenia , etc.) and would create an avatar that acts out the symptoms (if possible) of the particular disorder. The multiple users would interact with one another in the virtual world at given times. However, if students wish perhaps another assignment would be to interact with other people in the virtual world who are not a part of the class and to record their reactions to the avatar’s disorder. Another feature could be a discussion board where students discuss the symptoms of each avatar to come to a conclusive diagnosis.
