• A practical guide to coping with cyberstalking

      al-Khateeb, Haider; Alhaboby, Zhraa Azhr; Barnes, Jim; Brown, Antony; Brown, Raymond; Cobley, Phil; Gilbert, Jon; McNamara, Niamh; Short, Emma; Shukla, Mitul; et al. (Andrews UK Limited, 2015, 2015-04-19)
      To create fear, distress and to disrupt the daily activities of another person through cyberstalking is a crime, if you are currently affected by cyberstalking, it is crucial that you alert the police to your situation to keep yourself safe. This practical guide offers an outline of the area of cyberstalking and cyber abuse. Written in an approachable way, it describes the forms of intrusions that have been identified by research and through the accounts of victims. It considers the motivations of cyberstalkers and the enormous impact cyberstalking has on the lives of victims as well as the threats posed. The book provides advice and information about security for people currently experiencing cyberstalking and those who simply wish to take steps to further secure their online presence by taking preventative steps. The personal experience of living with threatening intrusions and recovery from the trauma of cyberstalking is explored.
    • Maintaining context in a changing (virtual) world: educators' perspectives for OpenSim and Second Life

      Christopoulos, Athanasios; Conrad, Marc (2013)
      Educational activities previously performed in Second Life are now more and more move moving to other alternatives. This study concentrates on the features of Second Life and its open-source alternative, OpenSim that affect the results of the in-world educational activities. The need for educators to take these features into account is another focus of this study which also aims to highlight the similarities and differences between the contexts of Second Life and OpenSim worlds, whether internally or externally hosted, as well as their potentials and weaknesses. The findings suggest that each one of these alternatives gathers different positive and negative features and their suitability greatly depends on the academics’ educational needs.
    • Teaching risk with virtual worlds

      Conrad, Marc; University of Bedfordshire (2013)
      We discuss and demonstrate how Virtual Worlds available at the University of Bedfordshire have been used to teach Project Management using a ‘situated learning’ approach. In particular we have a closer look on the aspect of teaching risk management and identify how different aspects of risk are addressed in a variety of implementations of Virtual Worlds, namely Second Life, a Virtual World provided by an external provider, not Linden Lab, a Virtual World that is maintained ‘in-house’ and a Virtual World hosted by the students themselves. We note that the student experience of risk is different in each of these incarnations of a Virtual World which impacts their perception of risk and hence the effects this has concerning the teaching goals.
    • Investing in ephemeral virtual worlds: an educational perspective

      Christopoulos, Athanasios; Conrad, Marc; University of Bedfordshire (2014)
      The increased demand for the use of virtual worlds in higher education has led many educators and researchers in in-depth analysis and evaluation of a number of different virtual environments, aiming to highlight their potentials. Until recently, Second Life was one of the most widely used virtual worlds for educational purposes. However, the decision of Linden Lab to stop offering the educational discount, the rumours around its future and the emergence of a novel technology called OpenSim challenged institutions’ decisions to keep using Second Life. In a try to identify the way institutions make their decision to use a virtual world, 34 interviews have been conducted with university educators. The results of this study reveal that both the cost and the persistence of a virtual world play an important role on this decision. However, there are still some unique benefits offered by each world affecting to a great extent the educators’ decision. We conclude the paper by advocating the use of a cross-institutional hypergrid.
    • User-avatar association in virtual worlds

      Kanamgotov, Aslan; Koshy, Lyzgeo; Conrad, Marc; Prakoonwit, Simant; University of Bedfordshire (2014)