Students will be stepping into the virtual classroom when they take part in Kingston University’s first ever public online lecture. 

The faculty of computing, information systems and mathematics will hold its annual industrial lecture in the virtual world of Second Life on Wednesday, with students represented by computerised characters called ‘avatars’.

The appropriately named ‘Learning Without Walls’ lecture will enable pioneering academics from across the globe to participate in this revolutionary new teaching method. 

Senior Computing lecturer, Dr Chris Hutchinson believes that Second Life has an important role to play in the future of education.

He said: "It makes sense that students, lecturers and researchers should be able to work with their counterparts around the world in Second Life, in a way that would be prohibitively expensive or impractical in real life. 

The virtual classroom can provide a less intimidating setting than the traditional classroom according to Dr Hutchinson.

"Students are less embarrassed about asking for help in a virtual world; they're more prepared to show me their work and ask advice," he said.

Dr Hutchinson will be joined in cyberspace by lecturers from as far afield as the United States and South Africa, all keen to give their support to the new platform.

During the two hour lecture Dr Bryan Carter, Associate Professor of Literature at the University of Central Missouri, will give a presentation on teaching methods in the digital age.

Dr Carter has embraced virtual communities since their inception. Over a decade ago he created a virtual representation of the New York district of Harlem, and has since gone on to do the same for the Montmartre district of Paris.

Also attending the lecture will be Cathy Walker, based in Arkansas in the United States, she was the co-chair for Hillary Clinton's Second Life presidential election campaign.

The 2010 industrial lecture, "Learning Without Walls: Multi-User Virtual Environments For Training And Education", will begin at 6:15pm on March 17.