Teaching a Critical Understanding of Virtual Environments (My Favorite Assignment‪)‬

THE CONCEPT OF A VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT as a workplace is often new to students, although they commonly use virtual spaces for gaming and informal communication via e-mail and chat rooms. This article outlines an assignment for a virtual class discussion. It is held in a MOO classroom that facilitates students' critical understanding of virtual environments (for more information about MOOs, see Haynes & Holmevik, 2001). Working in virtual environments helps students develop an important set of communication skills and expands students' understanding of how technology is changing business communication and the business workplace. This virtual class discussion assignment seeks to contextualize the purpose and nature of virtual workspaces so students can understand how communication differs and how the skills they will learn will translate into other business communication contexts. Students also learn how face-to-face and virtual environments vary and how they themselves can become active, professional participants in virtual workplaces. The MOO Classroom