Design issues and experiences from having lessons in text-based social virtual reality environments

In the past few years a network-accessible multi-user simulated environment, known as MUD (multi-user dimension), has become widespread on the Internet for purposes of entertainment and education. In this paper, we first discuss the design issues of collaborative learning in text-based virtual reality environments. We describe our experimental MUD based virtual learning environment, its integration with outside databases and Internet resources, and a graphical user interface to use it. Finally, we present our experimental use of this virtual learning environment, experiences gained from having virtual lessons in it, and some primary evaluation results