Abstract

Creative and strategic application of modern technologies is a key to success in 21st century academia. An innovative approach for enhancing graduate courses through utilization of virtual worlds, Web 2.0, and cloud computing technologies was developed. To raise students’ level of engagement and satisfaction, virtual educational tours and large-scale virtual colloquia were conducted. The goals of the approach were to enhance course learning objectives and support teaching cutting edge information technology topics in core multi-section information technology courses. For immersive virtual worlds, Second Life was utilized; for Web 2.0, Twitter and Twibes were applied; and for cloud computing, Google Docs and WebEx were used. Students and faculty confirmed that the approach provided new, rich, and effective extensions to the current educational platform. The virtual activities supported the pedagogical goals of being engaging, interactive, and reflective on student experiences. In this paper, the developed approach is presented, the utilized technologies and applications are defined, examples of enhanced course objectives and emerging IT topics are provided, findings from actual learning experiences and student reactions are shared, lessons learned and teaching strategies are related, and future plans for applying emerging technologies to teaching and learning are discussed.