Princeton Review and Ohio University Launch Second Life SAT Prep
The Princeton Review has partnered with Ohio University to launch a free SAT prep course inside of Second Life. It seems like it's an experimental endeavor aimed at testing demand, but also at generating more demand for the physical prep classes. Only two 20-minute presentations are available (one took place on January 19th and the second will be on Jan. 31), but users will then be involved in a Q&A with instructors. Ohio University, which entered Second Life a year ago, also hopes to generate virtual foot traffic across its campus. "We wanted something fun that would really appeal to tech-savvy, college-bound juniors and seniors," said Michael Reiss, online marketing manager for Princeton Review. [via Columbus Dispatch]
The event raises one of the issues with education in Second Life. While organizations like the NMC and Media Grid are looking at Second Life for higher education roles, others, like the MacArthur Foundation, are aiming at younger users. The problem is that the main grid for Second Life is technically limited to users over 18. The Teen Grid, though, has never seen nearly as much interest and is limited to minors.
The Princeton Review ultimately decided to go for the main grid.
"We felt that the audience ages straddled both the adult and teen grids and that we only wanted to tackle one grid for this event," Reiss said. "We want to capture the audience that is ready to be thinking about college, and the population of the adult grid is vastly larger than that of the teen grid. We have not ruled out the teen grid as a possibility in the future."
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