This week the Student Teams made their presentations and Merino recorded them to produce the final video which plays at each team build. Many thanks to Merino for her work recording, editing, and posting these videos. Students were reminded that they now have two more days to refine their submissions before the closing on Wednesday this week. Check the schedule for the specific deadline. Don’t forget the Awards Ceremony on Saturday!
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The VWEC Student Challenge presented the Intermediate Building Class hosted by Tilly from Builders Brewery. The recording of this practical class can be followed by those who couldn’t attend, or by those who attended but would like to brush up on their skills. The supports for the class can be found at the Student Challenge lecture space in the red coloured Builder’s Brewery box.
Merino (aka Çağla Solak) has produced this really useful and easy to follow series of short YouTube tutorial videos for building in Second Life. You can follow the instructions and practice building at Çağ University’s sandbox in the Second Life campus. Don’t forget to activate the Cag University group so you have permission to build.
How to Build in Second Life demonstrates the basics: creating a prim; using the ‘object’ tab to edit; applying textures; and linking objects.
Build a Basic Solar Panel in Second Life applies what was learned in the previous video.
the Basic Mushroom Lamp Modelling in Second Life tutorial explains how to make an object interactive by using a script.
The Second Life Marketplace Guide | How to Buy and Use Items tutorial explains how to find free items to use in your own building.
Using scripts to animate objects so that they react to being clicked is explained in How to Use a Script in Second Life.
Second Life Notecard Giver Tutorial exlpains how to have an object give out a notecard to anyone who clicks on it.
All videos coutesy of Çağla Solak.
The class this Saturday began with Gentle Heron talking about the importance of accessibility when building in Second Life. The founder of Virtual Ability, she has a lifetime of experience in the area and her approach is based on the principle that ensuring accessibility is not simply to support the disabled but, it significantly improves results for everyone. Gentle also shared a link to the Second Life wiki on accessibility which has lots of useful information.
This was followed by a visit to the Happy Hippo Building School with Leslea Aldrin and JeZeBeLe Dagger. The school is a tremendous resource for anyone building in Second Life. It offers regular building classes at all levels and specialising in a range of topics from scripting to adding media. Many classes can be taken at your own convenience and are available all the time. The school is well worth visiting to see the huge range of support available. Here is the Landmark for the school in Second Life.
The VWEC Student Challenge presented a Absolute Beginners Building Class hosted by Tilly from Builders Brewery. The recording of this practical class can be followed by those who couldn’t attend, or by those who attended but would like to brush up on their newly acquired skills.
Here is the brief for the VWEC Student Challenge project. You can find out more about the project at the VWEC website. For information about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals go to the official UN SDG website or this useful YouTube video posted by the UN.
Marie Vans (aka amvans Lapis) and Valerie Hill (aka Valibrarian Gregg) host the kick-off event for the VWEC Student Challenge 2026.
Classes commence on Monday 9th February and we will meet every Monday thereafter. This semester we will take on the VWEC Student Challenge with teams made up of students from TU Dublin in Ireland, Çağ University in Tükiye, and Technical University of Cluj-Napoca in Romania. Instructors will include John O’Connor in Dublin; Murat Gülmez and Çağla Solak in Türkiye; and Lia Pop in Romania. There will also be guest speakers making presentations and hosting site visits across Second Life throughout the semester as we explore technology and society. There will be additional class meetings on some Saturdays for support in the Student Challenge.
Monday class meeting times are:
0500 to 0700 Second Life time.
1300 to 1500 Ireland time.
1600 to 1800 Türkiye time.
1500 to 1700 Romania tiime.
This will change when summer time arrives.
The Awards Ceremony for the VWEC Student Challenge 2025 was well attended by instructors, tutors, lecturers, students, participants, judges and more this year. All the students were presented with the individual certificates marking their completion of the challenge. In addition, The Red Team was presented with the trophy for Second Place overall winner and the Blue Team received the certificate for the Most Authentic Exhibit. Congratulations to all the students who participated in this year’s challenge. Well done! Huge thanks to the instructors who mentored the three teams and to all the guest speakers who shared their knowledge and experience over the semester.
The student teams have been working hard on their projects for the last two weeks and today we finally saw their completed presentations. Çağla Solak, aka Merino, joined us to record the videos for each team and also made a really nice introduction to the student Team Projects for the VWEC Student Challenge. All the team members were present and took part in the tour of their builds and the presentations. The work was very impressive and the performances were word perfect and delivered with confidence and professionalism. Amber Selenium also joined us to take the team photos.
Here is the introduction to the project from Çağla Solak, aka Merino (video courtesy of Çağla Solak):
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RED TEAM: Konrad Karolkiewicz (KONRAD1), Laura Bota (LauraBota), Vanesa Hotca Francesca (Vanesa26), and Derin Nur Özer (nyxiebiyxe). Team mentor: John O’Connor (Acuppa Tae). (video courtesy of Çağla Solak):
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BLUE TEAM: Alina Sandor (AlinaMarsiposa), Ava Fenton (phroggg), Emma Long (Emmagukkie), and Tuğçe Çetinkaya (tugcecetinkaya). Team mentor: Ersin İnal (Ginger). (video courtesy of Çağla Solak):
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GREEN TEAM: Oliwia Kowalczyk (oliwiakowalczyk), Dana Rusu (DanaR2507), Andreea Pasca (Pasca Andreea), and Raluca Pascaniuc (Raluca1984). Team mentor: Lia Pop. (video courtesy of Çağla Solak):
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Amber Selenium took the team photos starting with the Red Team: from left, nyxiebiyxie, Vanesa26, LauraBota, KONRAD1. (Photo courtesy Amber Selenium.)
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Blue Team: Ava, tugcecetinkaya, Emma, AlinaMariposa. (Photo courtesy Amber Selenium.)
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Green Team: DanaR2507, oliwiakowalczyk, Pasca Andreea, Raluca1984. (Photo courtesy Amber Selenium.)
