In 2008, the LMU Virtual Worlds Initiative was begun as a joint effort of faculty from the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts and Seaver College of Science and Engineering to establish LMU as a vanguard institution in the application of 3D virtual environments to higher education. In the past year, the initiative has expanded to include faculty from the Colleges of Business Administration, and Communication and Fine Arts, as well as administrators from Academic Technology and the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects. The current presentation will describe the goals, history, and current status of the LMU Virtual Worlds Initiative, and provide a visual tour of LMU's 3D graphical campus in Second Life. In this setting. research on the psychology of virtual worlds is being conducted, and the presenters are co-teaching an interdisciplinary course introducing virtual worlds to computer science and psychology majors.

Presented by: John David N. Dionisio and Richard Gilbert

Please RSVP to teachers@lmu.edu or Ext.85866