Fostering Virtual Collaboration Between First-Year Students and Seniors in English Courses

This session will show how a virtual world can be used to foster collaboration between groups of students that typically do not have the opportunity to interact: first-year composition students and senior English majors. With the stories of Edgar Allan Poe as their starting point, the seniors created interactive projects based on suggestions and research paper proposals from the first-year students. The results included the creation of an interactive "build" in Second Life where visitors can learn about the life and work of Poe, as well as enhanced learning and motivation on the part of both groups.