Second Life Makes Med School More Interesting?

Imperial College London is giving its medical students a whole new take on the hospital experience -- class is going virtual, with students using digital avatars to treat digital patients within an online world called Second Life. It's a new program, currently tested with the school's third-year students, but professors have high hopes that the video-game nature and break from monotony could be real benefits to weary students.

The aim is to develop a more engaging learning environment, rather than just replicate what you have in real life," said Maria Toro-Troconis, a senior learning technologist at Imperial College London. "Game-based learning plays a very important role."

Students go through all the proper protocol steps, just like in real life, from washing hands to checking in at the reception desk with access badges. What do the students have to say about it? While many had mixed feelings about the nature of Second Life (which has a very strong, though very niche, following), but most expressed an understanding for the social experiement.

The students unanimously agreed they preferred walking the wards of real hospitals and interacting with real patients. But the novelty of this new way of learning wasn't lost on them.

"I've had two years of just lectures and books," said third-year medical student Khayam Sheikh. "I think this is a nice way to break it up."

"It's a bit like playing a game and less like learning."

Whether such a thing is a plus or a minus remains yet to be seen.