For some time now I have been following the developments of three particular universities that have established islands in SL. The RMIT island known as Ormond Island, the USQ island of Terra Incognita and the amazingly designed Esperance Island of the Australian Film TV and Radio School.

These three islands are relatively easy to locate by a simple use of the “Place” tab in the SL search window an using the term “University”. For the AFTRS presence searchers need to use “AFTRS”. I feel that AFTRS would benefit in using the term university in their descriptor, as the average person may find locating them difficult.

The resulting 49 hits from a “university” term search will give the sum total of serious contenders on the SL Education market. To date Ormond Island, Terra Incognita and Esperance are the only three Australian universities that have actively sought to allow non-student visitors to explore and consider the options of tertiary education experiences via the SL medium.

This is a vitally important aspect to consider in relation to the global marketing of education. Many Australian universities provide distant education courses yet currently we have only three exploring the provision, practising or marketing of their product via SL.

With the launch of the BigPond islands and the soon to be launched ABC Island, there will be an increased number of Australians exploring this strange, bizarre and somewhat perplexing world. All of these newbies will have one question on their minds: “What is there to do here?”

For USQ, RMIT and AFTRS their answer is simple – come and do a course with us! Without such provision of subsidiary offerings, SL becomes just another form of chat forums for people with ‘interesting proclivities’.

I dropped in to the RMIT island the other day and bumped into the island’s director John Guffey. As the students start this coming week, further development will take off as much of the building and design work will be undertaken by the students themselves. John indicated that access to the island will not be limited to students alone. In fact, they are going to open more space – and there is already talk of another island.

John had an interesting view that “we want aussie unis to clump islands together”. That kind of scenario would be extremely interesting from two points of view.

Firstly, the competition for students and research funding would dictate that “clumping” all Australian University SL islands close to each other sounds to be a curious goal as universities are traditionally seen to be vying with each other.

Secondly, the concept of an SL Archipelago of Australian Universities could attract interest from the global marketplace of students. It would set it apart from other countries with tertiary education presences in SL.

It will be interesting to see how the current Australian Universities in SL respond to this proposal and whether those without an SL presence are prepared to come on board if the Archipelago happens.