Second Life and Croquet: A Comparative Study for Investigating the Support of CSCL Scenarios

Computer technology seems to be very useful to support collaborative learning scenarios and thus computer supported collaborative learning. The main goal of this paper is to compare two of the most promising collaborative virtual environment platforms, namely Croquet and Second Life, in terms of their potential to support collaborative e-learning scenarios among geographically separated users. Both platforms are examined by validating the platformspsila features, philosophy and policies against some basic design principles for collaborative virtual learning environments in order to better assess their design adequacy for online learning. Finally, this paper presents the user evaluation results, which was conducted by undergraduate students in order to assess the potential of both platforms for supporting collaborative e-learning scenarios.