Ball State University (BSU) Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts and Animation Cinema Arts Program has been named the winner of Blackboard’s first $25,000 Greenhouse Grant for Virtual Worlds. By leveraging the interactive technology of Second Life with the Blackboard course management system, BSU's program will extend instruction to an e-Learning community that would otherwise not have access to the expensive equipment and labs needed for the university's standard course of study.

The Blackboard Greenhouse Grant for Virtual Worlds was developed in 2007, to foster and promote the integration of virtual worlds into everyday teaching and learning. "We wanted to encourage and support our clients who are constantly creating innovative learning environments for their students and the global e-Learning community," said Craig Chanoff, senior vice president of Blackboard Client Success. "Programs such as BSU's cutting-edge cinema arts course will offer unique educational opportunities for student engagement and skill development in Blackboard's secure learning environment."

BSU's IDIAA Cinema Arts Program will combine Blackboard's course management tools, particularly the Adaptive Release feature, to automate and control access to virtual facilities in Second Life. By combining virtual equipment and lab capacities with access control, students will have an exploratory learning environment with enough structure to make the Second Life experience comfortable and productive.

"Blackboard and Second Life will provide virtual studio and laboratory based learning environments to a remote distance education audience and leverage our success in real world new media arts into virtual worlds," said John Fillwalk, director of IDIAA and associate professor of electronic art at Ball State University. "While our students will be the initial benefactors of our Ball State University cinematography class, the technology that bridges the gap between Second Life and Blackboard will be available to the Blackboard community so other schools will be able to create and deliver their own immersive learning environments."

Through the use of Adaptive Release, BSU instructors will be able to control, monitor and create assignments according to their evolving student assessment and criteria. The IDIAA Cinema Arts Program will use the Second Life platform to teleport pupils to specific spaces and assignments within the learning environment through the use of the website's "Holodeck" tool. The virtual equipment available within the learning space will not only mimic real-world models in detail, but will also enable students to work individually and collaboratively on a variety of projects in ways previously impractical. Additionally, a student union, a large studio and a lounge area in Second Life will provide arenas for students to discuss course issues with peers and faculty, and present their artifacts.

The IDIAA Cinema Arts Program was chosen by a panel of academics currently using virtual worlds to improve online learning, including William Brinkman, assistant professor of computer science and systems analysis at Miami University; Bill Moseley, adjunct professor of computer science at Pepperdine University and Bakersfield College; and Theodore Ubhaus, information systems manager at Berkeley College.