2019 #VWEDU: #DTA: An online school needs a digital campus. Not just for classrooms, but for many of the services currently offered on a physical campus

An online school needs a digital campus.  
Not for classrooms, but for many of the services 
currently offered on a physical campus

A digital campus can look and function much like a physical campus.  It can provide some of the services that could be lost in the shift to digital education.    This article is explicitly licensed Public Domain (CC0).

Universal campus (Kitely)

• The digital campus described here is hypothetical.
• The elements exist, but maybe not in integrated form.
• Any educational institution could assemble them into a digital campus.
• The entry could be on a web page, where visitors could enter with no planning.
• Web-world on your web page: Bringing OpenSim and web-worlds together
• A web page is much easier to get to than a physical office:
• No driving, no parking, no walking.  Just a few seconds on a browser.
• The Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) for MUVES (virtual worlds): Summary

Where can you get a digital campus?

• Why I specifically recommend Kitely for hosting a virtual campus (MUVE)

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Benefits of a digital campus

For the institution

• Promotes the institution as innovator
• Augments online offerings
• Supports increased enrollment without increased space costs.
• Increases the opportunities to interact with parents and alumni.
• Allows the use of digital assistants at negligible cost.
• Creates easy meetings between alumni and students

For the faculty member

• Gets institutional support: Tech help, library services, etc.
• Let the institution handle class registration, campus access.

For the student

• The off-campus student enters a digital campus.
• The digital campus probably looks a a bit like the physical campus.
• A welcome coach (DTA) offers a tour of the digital campus.
• A digital welcome coach can be available any time.
• The digital coach can give answers to common questions.
• The digital coach shows the location of campus amenities:
• Library, student commons, private and group study rooms, employment counselor (a digital with live supervision at office hours). 

For the parents

• The parents can also visit the campus, with the student or alone.
• (Remember, this is a free trip taking about 20 seconds.) 
• Parents can talk with the faculty, staff, an alumni.  
• The school would probably arrange mixers to bring everyone together. 
• digital refreshments are not good attractions, but schools produce attractions.
• Music, concerts, dance, theater, edutainment, student products. 
• Student-based presentations show what students are doing.
• And give students practice in doing it.

For the alumni

• Sure they could hang out with friends they met in school.
• But they can also network with the faculty, staff, and current students.
• And they can do it easily from a laptop.  At work or at home. 
• Students will be glad to network with alumni: there may be a job there.

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DTA content pages

• DTA content pages: The plan: Initial DTA content on the web here

DTA basics for beginners

• Firestorm settings for beginners. A DTA content page
• Newcomer welcome coach (1): Basic skills needed promptly
• Basic skills needed for attending a meeting or class in a virtual world. DTA content page

DTA travel for beginners

• Travel tips for the Hypergrid. A DTA content page
• Ingrid (within a grid) Travel tips for OpenSimulator . A DTA content page

DTA social for beginners

• Develop your contacts list. DTA content page

DTA for projects and inquiry

• Search tips from a digital coach: DTA content page

Other DTA articles

General

• A Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) in a MUVE (virtual world): What would it do?
• A digital teaching assistant (DTA) in a virtual world. Can it be done?
• Digital coaching is needed for the DTA: Do we have the technology for that?
• Online education, sure. But why a virtual campus? Why in a virtual world (MUVE)?

Development considerations

• DTA content pages: The plan: Initial DTA content on the web here. Can be used from here or copied for use elsewhere
• The digital teacher assistant and FERPA: there are security issues
• Will the Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) need artificial intelligence?

Possible services, education

• Magnolia gardens of knowledge . A demonstration of introductory training on the parts (of anything)
• Edpuzzle offers DTA features and could serve as a module in Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA)
• We can reduce barriers to educational uptake of virtual worlds. Assessment of the situation
• The DTA as search coach: How does that work? Especially for project-based learning
• The Digital Teaching Assistant fits with the practice of blended learning
• F/Xual Education Services: Occupational Medicine Simulation. A HUD is a Digicoach without personality
• Error based learning in writing. Combine project-based learning with test-based learning. And maybe get a useful product out of it.
• Digicoach can support collaborative homework and study sessions
• Digicoach can support homework in virtual worlds with JIT learning, immediate feedback
• Digicoach for project-management in self-managed teams: (Note: skills to be learned in doing these tasks)
• David Lee - Design Thinking in the Classroom: How-to for project-based learning

New century education

• A professor built an AI teaching assistant for his courses — and it could shape the future of education
• MOOC2019 Digital classrooms in the sky. And how a Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) could fit in.
• Learn to be a self-starter. Self-managed learning, libraries, learning communities
• Coding and virtual worlds: a marriage made in computers. The DTA could officiate
• Learning Made in Second Life - CNDG
• Schools need 3 levels of edtech--Matt Harris, Ed.D. And how does the Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) fit in?
• Once you hear lecture about swimming, you never forget what you learned about lectures. Talking is not teaching
• Student-thinking versus breadwinner-thinking versus entrepreneurial thinking: coming of age in school
• Just-In-Time (JIT) learning in virtual schools, maybe with DTA coaching. Language as an example
• Why a reading assignment is like a treasure hunt. And why it is not
• Suppose the real objective in school is to pass multiple-choice tests. Can a digital TA handle test-based learning?
• Immersive Technologies (Heritage Christian Online School)

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Visit me on the web

• Drop by my web offices Weekdays: 12:-12:30 pm Central time (US)
• I am available for free consulting on any topic in this blog.
• Cybalounge and 3DWebWorldz (Orientation room)
• I will be in both places, so you may need to speak to get my attention.
• Web-worlds, 3D virtual worlds running in a browser. Summary
• And we can visit the Writer's Workshop on the Web
• Don't register -- enter as guest.  

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License

• Original text in this blog is CC By: unless specified public domain.
• Use as you please with attribution: link to the original.
• All images without attribution in this blog are CC0: public domain.
• Second Life, Linden, SLurl, and SL are trademarks of Linden Research Inc.
• Annotated screenshots made with Jing
• This blog is not affiliated with anything.   Ads are from Google.
• Selby Evans in Kitely and hypergrid, Thinkerer Melville in Second Life.