New Media Consortium (NMC) has conducted its second annual survey of educators in SL, which provides a yearly snapshot of the demographics and activities of educators who are active in SL.
A link to the survey was sent to by email to individuals within the NMC’s SLcommunities and to the SL Educators Listserv (SLED). 358 individuals responded to the survey, a 170% increase from the number who answered last years survey.
Quoted below are a few highlights of NMC’s own comparison to the 2007 survey:
Educators are moving from exploration to use of Second Life for teaching and learning. More respondents report being involved in an educational-related activity in Second Life (increasing from 54% in 2007 to 71% in 2008). More than half report that the organization they are affiliated with owns a sim (up from 36% in 2007) and 74 individuals report in 2008 they own their own sim. This year 29% of survey participants report holding virtual office hours in SL; 37 of them (12%) have taught a class entirely in SL (up from 14 or 8% in 2007).
Educators are expanding their Second Life social networks. This year recorded an increase in the numbers of people educators maintain as contacts. In 2007, 53% reported 10 or fewer contacts while in 2008 , this percentage dropped to 32%. The most common range for the size of their contact list in 2008 was 11-30 and the number reporting more than 100 contacts doubled from 2007 (4% to 8%).
This year’s educators are much more experienced in Second Life. The percentage who have been in Second Life for 1-3 years increased from 30% in 2007 to 56% this year. However, the demographics of this group are about the same; in terms of game experience most self-classify as “Pac-Man” generation. More than two-thirds are between 36 and 55 years old, and more than 75% do not play console games or MMORPGs. Also similar to last year, about half of the respondents find time for Second Life by watching less television.
You’ll find the survey summary and results as pfd-files at the bottom of this page.
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