Teaching first-year studies in religion students in Second Life: UQ religion bazaar

Abstract

The UQ Religion Bazaar project was originally conceived in 2007 and developed through 2008. It consists of a Second Life island situated in the New Media Consortium educational precinct and boasts a number of religious builds including a church, a mosque, a synagogue, an ancient Greek temple, a Freemasonic lodge, a Zen Buddhist temple and a Hindu temple to Ganesha. The island was used in two large first year classes and for supervising distance postgraduate students. After a brief introduction to the discipline of Studies in Religion at the University of Queensland, this paper will assess the suitability of using Second Life as an environment for learning based on constructivist methodologies. Further, it will explore the original conception and development of the UQ Religion Bazaar project within Second Life, and outline the preliminary findings of the project.