Metaverses are fully immersive 3-dimensional virtual worlds (VWs) in which people interact as avatars with each other and with software agents, using the metaphor of the real world but without its physical limitations. The ubiquitous availability of high speed Internet access has spurred enormous interest in virtual worlds like Second Life (SL) and World of Warcraft, both in terms of user gaming and potential as a new technological platform for global virtual collaboration. VWs provide various technology capabilities that can be exploited for delivery of clinical and translational research (CT) training in areas such as medical care. The technology capabilities of VWs can be classified broadly into the following four areas (Davis, Murphy, Owens, Khazanchi, and Zigurs, 2009):

Communication: (feedback, multiple cues and channels, language variety, channel expansion, and communication support)

Rendering (personalization and vividness of representation that uses 2D and immersive 3D imagery)

Interaction (real time synchronous interaction including interactivity, mobility, and immediacy of artifacts - an ability to construct visual artifacts in the form of text, images, pictures, 3D pictures, threedimensional models, or some combination of these in real time)

Team process (custom-built tools that helps teams keep track of agendas and activities, to evaluate information, and to socialize and built communities)

One of the most popular VWs today is SL (secondlife.com) which was created by Linden Labs and released to the public in 2003. This online world boasts over 16 million residents as well as state of the art 3D picture and sound. SL is very similar to Earth in that owners can purchase plots of land (called islands) and build on this land. Entrepreneurs sell creations and goods using the VW's currency, Linden Dollars. Linden Dollars can be directly purchased with real world currency or earned through a monthly membership. However, anyone can create an avatar in SL for no charge. An avatar can explore islands and interact with objects and people. Avatars also have limited building capabilities with the landowner's approval.

The Metaverse Research Team from the University of Nebraska at Omaha's (UNO) College of Information Science and Technology (IS&T) owns and manages a SL island called "CIST Nebraska Omaha." The team develops and maintains the island and studies different capabilities for it for a variety of contexts. One important part of that mission is to investigate the ways that SL can be used to support education. The ultimate goal is to create educational experiences in this environment that enhance and complement what is possible in the traditional classroom.

One part of the island is devoted to acquainting students and other guests who have never used SL with basic tutorials on how to move, chat, adjust the camera, and personalize avatars. There is also a sandbox area where users can learn to create and build objects. To make use of SL's collaboration capabilities, the island has breakout rooms for small classes and meetings in addition to an amphitheater with stadium seating for larger groups.

The Metaverse Research Team's most recent project has been to create a chemistry lab intended for high school and college students to learn about chemistry in an interactive and intriguing way. The team has set up a "collider" where atoms appear visually on the screen and combine to form new molecules. Users can select elements to add to the collider, and compounds are generated based on the elements the user adds. The team is collaborating with UNO's Chemistry Department on this project and has recently added an area for ion chromatography, which demonstrates its inner workings by showing how each component in the machine actually interacts with mixtures that are converted into ions and molecules based on their charge properties.

The team is also partnering with the AIM Institute to develop their own island that will host an innovative virtual business incubator.

Dr. Deepak Khazanchi and Dr. Ilze Zigurs, who lead College of IS&T for the metaverse research and education activities, continue to explore how this technology's unique capabilities can be leveraged to enhance learning and training, virtual work, and virtual project management. Under their supervision, three Ph.D. students have recently published two well received papers, one for academic consumption and another for IT professionals. In the education area, Jay Austin, an undergraduate student in the computer science program, completed an honors thesis on the uses of virtual environments a year ago. Chi Zhang, Computer Science (CS) lecturer and Ph.D. graduate in the College of IS&T, has utilized SL as a supplementary tool for her distance learning classes. Guest lecturers were invited to present scholarly lectures in the classroom, and group projects and presentations took place in SL as well.

"Second Life (SL) and other virtual world environments provide a unique platform for teaching and learning," Zhang says. "The role-playing and simulation is helpful for learning objectives and performing tasks."

Zhang's virtual world course provided UNO students the opportunity to explore and interview with real businesses (such as IBM and Microsoft). Students enjoyed being involved with virtual objects and acquired singular learning experiences. Zhang recently defended her doctoral dissertation entitled "Learning in Virtual Worlds: Understanding Its Impact on Social and Cognitive Processes in Learning" under the supervision of Dr. Ilze Zigurs. VWs such as SL offer a wealth of opportunities for IT researchers, teachers, and practitioners. In the education domain, the power of this technological environment to engender excitement and interest in young people about IT and its uses is enormous. The college's efforts in this area have already paid dividends in the form of an interesting series of summer workshops for high school and middle school students, ongoing demonstrations to visiting high school students, and in-class talks about the design, construction and capabilities of such technological environments.