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The Ohio State University

TELRport

Conditions of Use

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TELRport is a Second Life island sponsored by Technology Enhanced Learning and Research (TELR). The mission of TELRport is to provide an exploratory educational Second Life forum for The Ohio State University community; to further TELR’s capacity to support virtual environments for teaching, learning, and research; and to establish an Ohio State instructional presence in Second Life.

By participating on the TELRport facility, you acknowledge and agree to the conditions outlined below.

Conduct

On the TELRport facility, you must:

  1. Abide by Ohio State University guidelines, policies, and codes of conduct (see http://cio.osu.edu/policies/legality.html). This includes obtaining permission to use Ohio State logos and imagery, as well as other copyrighted images, music, videos, and creations.
  2. Abide by Second Life (Linden Lab) policies, regulations, and standards.
  3. Respect others and use general etiquette rules.
  4. Ask for an owner's permission to use his or her area.
  5. Acquire permission when archiving another's avatar and property.
  6. Wear clothing reasonable and fitting for scholarly activities. Nudity is not tolerated.
  7. Respect the weapon-free zone. All weapons are strictly forbidden so do not bring or “rez” weapons.
  8. Protect your avatar. You are responsible for your avatar and may not share it.

Building

The appearance of your parcel (area) is left to your discretion; however, TELRport reflects on TELR and Ohio State and should not be treated as a junkyard. Complaints regarding parcel usage will be assessed on a case-by-case basis, and could result in a directive for design changes.

On the TELRport facility, you are responsible for:

  1. Any development, design, construction, and cost associated with your project--including staying within agreed upon building limits (e.g., prim allotments)--and ensuring your work does not disrupt or impede functionality for others (e.g., avoid giant objects and seriously lag-inducing scripts).
  2. Eliminating clutter from your parcel.
  3. Maintaining seamless parcel borders.
  4. Exemplifying the mission of the TELRport facility.

Note, you may generate skypods or sky platforms; however, ensure they are out of visual range (i.e., 300 meters or above) and only over your parcel. They do count against prim limits.

Parcel Property Limitations

As a TELRport facility participant, you will receive a mutually agreeable amount of space dedicated to your teaching and/or research initiative. You have the ability to coordinate your own streaming options for audio and video; however, you may have only one audio or video stream per 512 sq. meters. You may consider using a "radio" or "TV" to handle multiple content streams. To request additional media, contact the TELRport facility operator by writing to secondlife@osu.edu or IM in-world to TELR Telling.

TELRport can support a limited number of concurrent users; therefore, no more than 40 users may use the TELRport facility at a given time as the performance for the entire facility may dramatically diminish.

Privacy

Activities on the TELRport facility are public. Please be aware your actions may be visible, observable, and recorded. Further, you agree to allow TELR representatives to capture images and videos regarding your Second Life presence on TELRport. Additionally, TELR may track the number of users utilizing the TELRport facility.

Informed Consent

If you are using TELRport for teaching, research, or outreach, you must inform your constituents (e.g., students, research assistants, and others involved) about potential risks within Second Life, as well as the TELRport Conditions of Use policy. View a sample informed consent form.

Consider human factors and feelings when using Second Life. Although anyone may enter Second Life directly onto the TELRport facility, constituents may explore offsite and unintentionally encounter offensive material or be subject to harassment. As a suggested practice, have your constituents create TELRport as a safe "home" location, or advise they close Second Life immediately if they feel uncomfortable. If you are conducting research, you are responsible for obtaining appropriate Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval (see http://orrp.osu.edu/irb/). Further, be aware individuals younger than 18 are not permitted in Second Life's main grid at any time.

For the purposes of the TELRport pilot, you must acquire informed consent from your students before they enter Second Life for instructional purposes. If Second Life activities are required, we advise that you prepare an “opt-out” alternative activity for equivalent credit.

Agreement

If you do not wholly agree to the above Conditions of Use, you may choose to purchase/rent Second Life property yourself. If you wish to pursue non-academic Second Life activities, please create a second avatar that is not affiliated with OSU (i.e., use a non-OSU e-mail address during registration).

Questions or concerns may be directed to secondlife@osu.edu or IM in world to TELR Telling.

Other Instructional Considerations

Assuring Access

Second Life access is not trivial. It requires high-end graphics and audio cards, and the system may be unavailable due to outages and updates. Before moving substantial portions of your course into Second Life, ensure class members have adequate access. Plan for alternative options for accessing content when Second Life is not behaving as expected.

ADA Compliance

Please be aware that Second Life poses accessibility problems for people using adaptive technologies. It may be necessary to provide content in an alternative format (good practice for resolving potential hardware and software issues per above).

Acknowledgments

This document is based, in part, from information and suggestions by Linden Lab, the TELR Second Life initiative interest group subcommittees, and Second Life educator colleagues.