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 Creative Arts and the School of Architecture as part of the Optional Module Programme.

It was originally delivered in partnership with Dublin Virtually Live in Second Life to TU Dublin students and others from around the Real World and Second Life. From 2014 to 2016 it was offered jointly with University of Akron (UA) in collaboration with Dudley Turner, Dean of the College of Creative and Professional Arts. In 2021 the module formed a parternship with Çağ University in Turkey and Whole Brain Health in Second Life 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 is delivered by John O’Connor (Acuppa Tae) from the College of Arts and Tourism. All classes are held entirely in Second Life: in TU Dublin’s campus and other locations in Second Life.

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

A design graduate specialising in visual communication John has experience in advertising, design and television in Ireland and the UK. He was one of the founders of the graphic design company Information Design in 1985 and also served as Art Director of the journal Film Ireland during the late nineteen eighties and early nineties.

John has been actively involved in the development of the design industry in Ireland and has sat on the council of the Institute of Designers in Ireland (IDI) and 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.

In 1994 he joined TU Dublin as a lecturer in the Department of Print and Digital Media, going on to become Head of the the Dublin School of Creative Arts in 1998. He was Director and Dean of the College of Arts and Tourism from 2012 to 2021.

John’s interests include design, access to education and VR for education. Visit John’s website.