Virtual fun and challenge: Case study of learning cybercrime in second life

In 2010, the National University of Singapore (NUS) launched a campus-wide e-Learning Week that require students to attend classes online for an entire week, in a simulated drill preparation of a pandemic disease (eg.HlNl) which would usually warrant a mandatory quarantine at home. In replacement of this absence in physical presence from school for the week, all lessons taught by lecturers and attended by students will be electronically conducted via a variety of virtual means of communication which spanned from webcasts for lectures to asynchronous forum discussion boards for tutorials. What could be more innovative and relevant than making use of the affordances and efficacies of a 3D virtual environment like Second Life, to teach cybercrime and its related topics in a cyber virtual environment? This paper will feature an undergraduate module, "NM3210: Cybercrime and Society" in its learning perspective of leveraging on a highly customized and purposeful cybercrime game quest, how it scaffolds into stages using engaging simulations and challenges, to impart and share intended knowledge and consequently, to stimulate independent and critical thinking through assessments, in an unique experience of learning in a 3D virtual environment.