FOR THE first time ever students graduating from the University of Edinburgh have been able to attend their graduations online.

Virtual ceremonies have been held through the Second Life Web Community, for graduates of MSc in E-Learning, a Masters programme delivered fully online by the University.

The event took place last Thursday with four virtual graduates logging in from as far away as Tokyo, Paris, Devon and Fife. The 21 guests at the ceremony included university staff, current students of the course and visitors from universities in the US, Oxford and Ulster.

Live streams from McEwan Hall were shown on the web and students were able to download robes for their avatars to wear. After the ceremony students were even invited to meet in a virtual bar to catch up with course friends.

Dr Sian Bayne, a senior lecturer on the course said that online graduations were a ‘really good solution’ for people who for whatever reason could not attend the ceremony in person.

“There is a growing niche for high quality teaching online and distance learning. These virtual ceremonies are a fantastic idea and there is a lot of potential for more online ceremonies.”

University of Ulster visitor Kerri Macchi fully supported the idea, telling The Student: “I think it is fantastic and something we should be doing at the University of Ulster”

The Masters programme has already broken new ground with Twitter tutorials, online learning and new forms of digitally-enabled assessment.

Youenn Leborgne, a student on the course, said “Holding the ceremony in Second Life is a great idea, especially on a distance learning course. This kind of innovation is what I’ve loved about studying at Edinburgh.”

Other students were clearly pleased with the event, which was set up by Fiona Littleton of the department.

Wendy Jenkins was somewhat overwhelmed with the experience: “Thank you, this really made my day and the whole thing seem real, I’m choking up in real life - thanks for setting this up guys! It made the day very special!”

However Dr Bayne was quick to point out that virtual ceremonies would never replace real life graduation ceremonies at the University but were simply a way of opening access to students who wanted to attend.

Graduations are constantly oversubscribed and getting extra tickets for family and friends is proving more difficult with the increase in student numbers. It is hoped that live video streaming of graduations online will give students and friends a more authentic experience if they cannot attend in person.

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Photos from this event Fiona Littleton (129.215.70.xxx) 2009-12-08 15:59:56 Photos from this event are available: http://www.flickr.com/photos/flittleton /sets/72157622913184972/ Reply 0   0

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