Virtual Environments: Is one life enough?

This website is part of the award winning elective module ‘Virtual Environments: Is one life enough?’ offered by Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) since 2009. It is taken by undergraduate students in the School of Art and Design and the School of Architecture as part of the Optional Module Programme.

Designed and developed by John O’Connor, it was originally delivered in partnership with Dublin Virtually Live in Second Life to TU Dublin students and others from around the natural world and Second Life. Dr Claudia Igbrude (aka Locks Aichi), of the Learning Teaching & Technology Centre at TU Dublin, co-taught on the module until 2016. From 2014 to 2016 it was offered jointly with University of Akron (UA) in collaboration with Professsor Dudley Turner (aka Dudley Dreamscape), Dean of the College of Creative and Professional Arts. In 2021 the module formed a parternship with Çağ University in Türkiye, led by Prof Mürat Gulmez (aka Magua Theriac), and Inspiration Island in Second Life, led by Lynne Berret (aka Lissena Wisdomseeker), to offer the International Student Project.

The module won the Jennifer Burke Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning in 2010, a national award made by the Irish Learning Technology Association and Dublin City University. In January 2012 it won the Learning Without Frontiers Award in London in the Further and Higher Education Innovation category.

The module continues to be delivered, by John O’Connor (Acuppa Tae) at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. All classes are held entirely in Second Life: in TU Dublin’s campus and other locations in Second Life.

–

John O’Connor / Acuppa Tae
Strategic Lead (European University) at TU Dublin.

John O’Connor, Acuppa Tae’s avatar in the natural world.

Acuppa Tae, John O’Connor’s avatar in Second Life.

John is Strategic Lead for TU Dublin at the European Univeristy of Technology EUt+, an alliance of nine universities across the European Union.

Prior to this John served as Head of the School of Art & Design and, more recently, Director and Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Humanities at TU Dublin. He led the development of the first honours degree programme in visual art to be delivered remotely on an offshore island off the West Atlantic coast in 2000 and established Idea Camp in 2016, a summer workshop introducing 8 to 12 year olds to creativity through practical classes led by professors from the Conservatoire, Art & Design, Media and Culinary Arts schools at the university. He was a member of the leadership team that delivered university designation in 2019, brought the first students to the new city centre campus in 2014, and delivered the new Arts Centre quad for the Faculty of Arts & Humanities.

Beyond Academia, John co-founded the design practice Information Design in 1985 to collaborate with national and international clients and also served as Art Director of the journal Film Ireland during the late nineteen-eighties and early nineties. He sat on the council of the Institute of Designers in Ireland (IDI); the committee of the Institute of Creative Advertising and Design (ICAD); was a founding member and honorary secretary of  Design Business Ireland and served on the boards of Design Ireland and Irish Design 2015. He completed a six-year term on the board of the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland in 2020 influencing educational and industry standards while advocating for the growth of design in Ireland.

Currently, his main academic interests are the impact of VR and AI in education and is a member of the board of the Virtual Worlds Education Consortium. Visit John’s website.