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.
Congratulations to the Red Team who were presented with their certificates. Photo courtesy of Acuppa Tae.John O’Connor (Acuppa Tae) accepted the trophy for Second Place on behalf of the Red Team. Photo courtesy of Acupp Tae.Congratulations to the Blue Team who were presented with their certificates. Ersin Ïnal (Ginger) accepted the certificate for Most Authentic Exhibit on the team’s behalf. Photo courtesy of Acuppa Tae.Congratulations to the Green Team who were presented with their certificates, with Lia Pop.
Elli Pinion (VWEC Co-Coordinator), Valibrarian Gregg (VWEC Co-Coordinator) and Marie Vans (VWEC Event Team Lead) at the kickoff event for the VWEC Student Challenge 2025. Photo by Acuppa Tae
The Virtual Worlds Education Consortium (VWEC) Student Challenge 2025: Serious Simulations in the Metaverse was launched today. The Challenge takes the form of a hack-a-thon except that it occurs over the entire Spring Semester, rather than in a 24-hour period. Details of the brief, the support to be provided (particularly with classes about building in Second Life) and the assessment process were shared and, for those who may have missed the presentation or who would like to review them again, a recording of the event was made which you can see here:
The challenge is to form a team (which has already been done for you) and design a virtual education experience; then build a simulation in Second Life. The experience must be: accessible, authentic, interactive, and cite sources (see below for more details). You will also record a short video to present and demonstrate your solution to the judges, who will be drawn from a panel of international educational experts. Prizes, including memberships of SL and $L, are sponsored by Metaverse Libraries. Here is a video of the exhibits from last year’s Student Challenge:
Here are some screenshots showing the logistics schedule, assessment rubric and rules for the Student Challenge 2025:
Virtual Environments: Is one life enough? 