Learner-instructor interaction within university-community partnerships: The samples from Second Life (SL)

This is a qualitative case study aiming to determine the views of experts from distance education on learner-instructor interaction in Second Life (SL) platform within the context of University-Community Partnerships. In this study, the virtual reality is evaluated with the model of Second Life. In accordance with this purpose, the learner-instructor interaction that occurs in digital communities is discussed within the frame of Mindtool Model (Jonassen, 1996) and Interaction-Communication Theory (Holmberg, 1989). The principles of interaction, individual and collaborative learning are appraised on a matrix. Semi-structured and open-ended survey questions are formulated according to the matrix based-principles are sent to four (4) distance education experts throughout the world via email. A wide range of information is collected on a voluntary basis.The 36 matrix-based questions on learner-instructor interaction generated 189 themes and 185 main themes. The results show that Second Life platform is not an active environment due to its limited structure and it needs appropriate andragogical and communicational designs.