The PolyU Virtual Campus and Virtual Hotel in Second Life

Award-winning virtual learning environment for hospitality students, 2007–09

The challenge

Hospitality students had limited access to realistic practice environments. The school wanted to test whether a virtual world could offer safe, scalable simulation of hotel operations.

What I did

• Created the PolyU Virtual Campus and Virtual Hotel in Second Life.
• Wrote “Learning Through the World of Second Life” (2009), now with over 130 citations.
• Chaired the Hong Kong chapter of SLACTIONS 2009.

Outcome

• Inaugural University Teaching & Learning Innovation Award (2009); runner-up in 2010.

Lessons

• Virtual worlds work best when tied to clear learning tasks.
• Sharing results through papers and conferences extends the impact of an internal project.