CLASS 1 : INTRODUCTION

Video Games and Virtual Reality is an Immersive Education course: the entire course takes place online in virtual worlds and video games (synthetic immersive learning environments).

Students may take this course on the day and time of the week that best fits their own schedule.

NOTE: This course class is entirely self-scheduled: your may take this course on the day/time of the week that best fits your own schedule. The instructor will "meet" you and your fellow students in virtual worlds and video games at different times throughout the semester.

Complete the steps below so that you are READY to meet virtually. In other words, you must complete the steps below so that you can meet with the professor online (virtually) at a later time. Approximate time estimates are given for each step below so that you can keep pace.

BEFORE YOU START THE STEPS BELOW:

• If you are unable to to complete the steps below for any reason contact Prof. Walsh immediately through his bio and contact page (click on the "CONTACT" button).
  

• You MUST have access to your official Boston College (BC) email address before starting the steps below. Every Boston College student is issued a personal BC email address that ends in bc.edu (such as jane.doe@bc.edu, for example). You will receive critical information about how to proceed with tonight's class through your BC email address, and therefore must be able to send and receive email using your BC email address. If you DO NOT know how to access your Boston College email account call Campus Technology Resource Center (CTRC) at 617-552-HELP now.

STEPS TO TAKE AT THE START CLASS:

1) Click here now to review the course syllabus and then check your BC email account for notices related to tonight's class. [10 minutes]

2) Purchase your "academic subscription" to the iED 3D/VR Virtual Learning Environments listed on the course syllabus. [10 minutes]. Note the following:

• TONIGHT YOU WILL NEED THE TRANSACTION ID (PURCHASE ID CODE OR CONFIRMATION CODE) THAT YOU ARE EMAILED FROM PAYPAL AFTER YOU PURCHASE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION, SO BE CAREFUL TO USE YOUR REAL EMAIL ADDRESS AND LOOK FOR THE EMAIL FROM PAYPAL AFTER YOU PURCHASE. THE EMAIL YOU RECEIVE FROM PAYPAL WILL CONTAIN THE TRANSACTION ID (PURCHASE CONFIRMATION CODE) THAT YOU WILL USE LATER IN TONIGHT'S CLASS.

3) Visit http://members.ImmersiveEducation.org and read about Immersive Education (iED), and then CAREFULLY follow the steps below to creating your own account [30 minutes]:

a) Click on the "Create new account" link that appears on the right-hand side of the iED home page, and follow the instructions below.

b) Use your FIRST AND LAST NAME for your username, and your BC email address, but do NOT enter your phone number in the phone field (enter your PayPal transaction ID code in the phone field as detailed in the next step).

c) Enter your PayPal transaction ID code (see Step #2 above) in the PHONE field. Instead of entering your phone number be sure to enter your PayPal transaction ID code instead.

d) Enter BOSTON COLLEGE STUDENT in the "Your school, educational institution or organization" field.

>> ALLOW 72 HOURS FOR YOUR ACCOUNT TO BE APPROVED <<

4) Install Flash from here if you don't already have the most up to date version. [5 minutes]

5) Create a personal Google account if you do not already have one, and take great care to write down your Google account name and password, and also your GMail address (GMail is "Google Mail"). If you already have a Google account you do not need to create another one: you can use your existing Google account. You will need a Google account and a GMail email address later in tonight's class and for the remainder of this course. Follow these steps to create your Google account: [30 minutes]

a) Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdJzVNoP1E4

b) Visit http://google.com, click on SIGN IN and then SIGN UP

6) If you have not used Google Groups before watch the following two videos, visit the official Google Groups home page, and also read the following article: [15 minutes]

• 2 minute Google Groups video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29n6xm1dLiI
• 4 minute "How To" video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJkrdaoq3-w
• Google Groups home page: https://groups.google.com
• Wikipedia article about Google Groups: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_group

7) Check your BC email account for details on how to join the Google Group for this course, and for further instructions (steps) for tonight's class.

NOTE: The professor will send further instructions to your BC email account on the first official day of this course, at which point you should have completed ALL of the above steps. See the notes above for details on how to contact the professor if you have any issues or problems completing these steps before the first day of class.

ASSIGNMENTS DUE BEFORE OUR NEXT CLASS: See our course lecture notes and assignments page to review the previous classes and prepare for the next class. Between today and our next class do all of the assignments listed on the lecture notes and assignments page that correspond to tonight's class. IT IS CRITICAL THAT YOU WORK CLOSELY WITH YOUR TEAM MEMBERS BETWEEN EACH CLASS TO ENSURE THAT YOU'RE ALL READY FOR THE NEXT CLASS. YOUR TEAM SHOULD KNOW THE PASS/FAIL STATUS FOR EACH MEMBER OF YOUR TEAM *BEFORE* CLASS STARTS SO THAT YOU CAN RECORD A PASS/FAIL IMMEDIATELY (SAVING TIME, AND ENABLING OTHER TEAMS TO RUN THE LADDER WITH YOU IN A TIMELY MANNER).

DO NOT USE ANY OF THE LINKS BELOW TONIGHT. ONLY FOLLOW THE STEPS ABOVE AND BE READY TO MEET THE PROFESSOR IN THE AUDIO WHITEBOARD AFTER YOU COMPLETE THE ITEMS ABOVE.

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WHEN THIS COURSE OVER: Once this course is over consider uninstalling (removing) browser plug-ins and software that you've previously installed for this class but may no longer use. Here's how to uninstall software if you're using a Windows-based computer.