User:MSB/Onboarding Process

=Onboarding Process= The Onboarding process in order to inform the new students about the course, requirements, timings etc. involves the following stakeholders and steps:

1 Get the Student List from Moodle

In the Moodle Course you get the Student List and Email-Adresses of all participants.

2 Prepare Studentlist

As soon as the lists are complete, create a document on Google Docs and create fields for: Surname/First name, E-Mail address, Matrikelnummer, SecondLife Username and create a column for each session (as soon as you know the dates) as well as a column for the introduction sessions (to checkt the attendance). Note: Especially Email addresses are crucial. You will see that the email addresses you get from the student office are not correct in many cases. So be prepared to change the lists you get and chase up recent email addresses.

3 Organize Introduction Sessions

A very important part of the course is to make sure that every student is able to use SecondLife without technical problems. Therefore you should make sure to "meet" every student before the course starts at least once in a introduction session. Some students might be able to get along without it, but in mosts cases it is very helpful, also to answer preliminary questions. In the past, we offered 2-4 sessions (each about 1,5h) to the students with different times to make sure they can attend from different time zones. The sessions should happen around 2 weeks before the actual start of the course. That ensures that most people are "prepared" for the first "real" session, and additional (individual) dates for students who were not able to join can be offered the week before. A sample email (and other important information) can be found on GoogleDocs (private link).

4 Informing E-Mails

After Hanno sent out an introductory email about the course requirements (sample see link above), it is your turn to introduce yourself, explain what you are there for (HELP), give your contact information and most importantly: The times when you offer the introduction sessions. Note: Be as precise as possible. It is quite surprising who many misunderstandings can happen when communicating via email. Make everything as clear as possible. Use highlights for most important parts of the emails (most students will just skim it).

5 Do the Introduction

Organize it as you want :) I designed those sessions rather "open" without a strict agenda, but I wrote down some tasks on the shared media walls (using this GoogleDoc), which students should be able to / have finished after the session:
 * try to walk and fly (press F) around
 * change your camera view by (keep) pressing ALT and move your cursors or mouse
 * sit down at one of the chairs
 * Confirm the group invitation (HWR Berlin) that has been sent you
 * Use your Microphone (press SPEAK)
 * Change your Display Name to your Full Real Name (Go to Me - Profile - Edit Profile - Display Name)

6 Make sure you are available for students on different channels

Mainly email, but also Skype if possible. Same goes for the SecondLife sessions - provide as much support as possible to give them comfort in this "new world" - otherwise they feel lost.

= Tasks during the semester = 1 Weekly Questions

Make sure that every student does his 'homework'. This means every student has to answer weekly question 2 days before session starts. So you have to make sure that every student does this and if not, write him or her an email, to remind them of his / her homework.

2 Attendance List

In every session you have to make a screenshot of the avatars who are online. Write this in the second life attendance list in google drive. Note when an avatar is too late or has to leave earlier. When a student has to miss a session because of work, you need an excuse from the supervisor. Freebies : every student can miss 1 session in the summer semester and twovsessions in the winter semester without having an excuse.

3 Presentations

Make sure that every student uploads his / her presentation to Slideshare. Ask the students to send you the link to the presentation before the presentation starts, so that you make sure that the link works and everyone can enter the presentation.

4 Moodle Course

Helping the teacher when he has problems with Moodle - Course and keep it up-to-date (Links & Dates and so on)

=SecondLife=

Download
Always tell students to download second life from the official website. Also, recommend to use the english version (makes it easier to help them and tell them where to click). https://join.secondlife.com/?lang=en-US

System Requirements
Obviously, a modern computer and a good internet connection is required to use SecondLife. Additionally, the students MUST purchase and use a headset. Most modern laptops nowadays have an internal microphone. however, in contrast to Skype, it is not sufficient to only use this microphone, because it is causing echoes. It can be possible to just use headphones, but a proper headset is recommended. Find the official SecondLife system requirements here: http://secondlife.com/support/system-requirements/?lang=en-US

Known technical issues and solutions
Many students encounter problems with secondlife and thus it is important to be aware of them. Generally it is adviced to give the students the feeling that problems are normal and they shouldnt be frustrated about it. Mostly, it helps to restart the client and reconnect. If it doesn't, the following explanations go in further detail. A good general solution can be to use an alternative client, especially with older computers. A list of alternative clients can be found here. I can recommend Firestorm.

SL does not start
This is a rare problem and usually only happens with very old computers. You should help the students to update their drivers, especially for the graphics card. If that does not help, it can help to use an alternative client (see above).

SL does not connect
If SecondLife does not connect, its usually a problem with a firewall or a company network, which is blocking required ports. The most common problem is that the user didn't notice that the Windows firewall is blocking the access to SecondLife (and this message can also reappear after an update). Make sure SL (including SL_voice is not blocked, guide here)

SL is very slow
If SL is very slow, it can be because the graphics card/CPU is not fast enough. See this guide

Sound problems
The most common problems in SecondLife are related to sound. 1) User does not hear anybody, but can hear In-World Sounds (like gesture sounds or clicking sounds).

Reason: He/She is not connected to the Voice server. This can be seen, if you show the list of users around you, users who are not connected to the voice server do not have a green dot next to them. If you attempt to call them, a "mailbox" is answering, that voice is not available.

Solution: usually it helps to reconnect. If the problem persists, the internet connection is not fast enough.

2) User does hear others but can't speak.

Reason: The microphone is not connected properly, the wrong microphone is selected or the mic is muted in windows/mac osx.

Solutions:
 * 1) Unmute sound, see these screenshots:
 * Windwows XP
 * Windows 7
 * Mac 10.6
 * 2) Make sure the right microphone is selected in SecondLife (go to preferences CTRL-P, "Sound and Media", "Input Devices".

= Alternative to Second Life =

For the case that second Life broks down or the person who has to present, has no voice, you can take adobe connect as an alternative. In this case, you have to prepare the virtual classroom.