Utilising second life machinima-facilitated narratives to support cognitive and imaginative engagement across an undergraduate curriculum

This chapter provides a case study of a unique learning experience developing in the Queensland University of Technology Law School. It outlines initiatives across the undergraduate law curriculum which successfully utilise Second Life machinima in different modes to enhance student engagement and promote authentic learning. They use blended learning environments involving narratives, facilitated by machinima and linked by threads of a common storyline running through all of the programs, in diverse areas of laws and skills. The chapter discusses the pedagogical basis for the use of machinima as a component of a learning and teaching approach, discusses student responses and identifies important lessons concerning the use of connected narratives as a means of engaging students and enhancing their learning across multiple subjects in a curriculum, whether in law or some other discipline. It thereby showcases a successful use of Second Life which does not involve students actually entering the virtual world