The Pixelated Professor: Faculty in Immersive Virtual Worlds

Online environments, particularly virtual worlds, can sometimes complicate issues of self expression. For example, the faculty member who loves punk rock has an opportunity, through hairstyle and attire choices in the virtual world, to share that part of herself with students. However, deciding to share that part of the self can depend on a number of factors: departmental guidelines, ideas of professionalism, privacy concerns, or the need for separation between the in-class self and the out-of-class self. In my study on faculty in virtual worlds, I examined faculty members’ perspectives on recreating and being themselves in immersive virtual environments.


Introduction Growth in Online Education
Online gaming and social networking have grown exponentially over the past few years, and their growth has permeated other areas as well, particularly higher education. Many students have come to expect the flexibility of online learning and the interactive components that games, social networks, and three dimensional virtual environments add to online courses. Twenty-first century students, according to Savin-Baden (2008), "are more mixed in age range, tend to be in employment whilst studying, learn on the move and have diverse expectations of what learning should be" (p. 151). One tool that combines the flexibility of online learning with the interactivity and increased technology some students have come to expect is the three dimensional virtual world, a topic I will expound upon in the following sections.

Statement of the Problem
As online educators pursue different platforms to deliver online courses, it is important to examine professors' experiences with these platforms. For example, more and more faculty use three dimensional virtual worlds to deliver online courses, so examining their experiences with that type of platform is an important endeavor.
Several researchers have investigated faculty members' experiences in three dimensional virtual worlds. For example, Dutton (2009) Herold (2010), finding results about teaching and learning in Second Life is challenging. Furthermore, not many studies explore instructors' more specific experiences in the three dimensional virtual world, such as how faculty recreate themselves in a virtual environment like Second Life. Understanding these elements can inform the use of online classrooms and help improve professors' experiences in the online environment. Therefore, I conducted a study on faculty members' lived experiences in Second Life.

Purpose
The purpose of my qualitative study, as briefly noted in the Problem section, is to explore faculty members' lived experiences with recreating their faculty personae in the three dimensional virtual world classroom. I focused on a particular aspect of faculty members' experiences in a virtual world that has been used to deliver numerous online courses, Second Life. Second Life is certainly not the only three dimensional virtual world available for use. However, as noted earlier, several faculty are familiar with and use this environment if they are looking to use an immersive virtual world for online classes. This study comes from a larger study I conducted on faculty persona in the virtual world, and its significance will be discussed in the following section.

Significance
My study is significant to faculty, administrators, researchers, or anyone with an interest in professors' experiences with expressing who they are in online environments. Other researchers can use information from my study to continue the discussion about faculty persona in Second Life and other three dimensional virtual environments. In their study that, in part, addressed faculty members' experiences with social networks online, Veletsianos and Kimmons (2013) suggested that too few studies have focused on faculty members' experiences using various technologies. My study seeks to expand the research offerings related to faculty members' experiences with technology.

Persona and Online Educators
Sometimes it can be challenging for faculty members to bring who they are in the real world into the digital environment. For example, in Baran, Correia, and Thompson's (2013) work on successful online teachers in higher education, faculty members highlighted the difficulty they had with integrating their personas into online environments. The "absence of nonverbal cues presented challenges" for those faculty members, so they were constantly looking for and trying various strategies to get to know students and allow students to get to know them (Baran et al., 2013). For other faculty members, their personae were limited in that they could not have the spontaneity in the online classroom that they had in the traditional classroom. One professor expressed, "You can't be extemporaneous with this [ALN] the way you can be...in the classroom" (Coppola, Hiltz, & Rotter, 2002, p. 183). Out of 20 faculty participants, 17 of them indicated that they have to change their persona when teaching online (Coppola et al., 2002).
For other professors, theirs was an issue of formal versus informal persona. One faculty member noted, "I found myself having a completely different personality in [ALN], writing initially much more stilted things, more formal things" (Coppola et al. 2002, p. 182). These persona issues in traditional online environments are sometimes further complicated in three dimensional virtual worlds.

Second Life Persona
Just as professors noted differences in their personae for traditional online environments, faculty members who use virtual worlds like Second Life expressed some differences as well. For example, a professor from Savin-Baden's (2010) study saw the Second Life medium as a chance to try something new. The professor interchanged male and female avatars often and also selected a name that could be seen as male or female. Other SL users have also adjusted elements of their real-world selves, even when supposedly recreating those versions of themselves in Second Life (Bullingham & Vasconcelos, 2013), and other researchers have investigated what these issues of This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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representation suggest in Second Life (Bloustien & Wood, 2013). However, some faculty members noted challenges with faculty persona in the immersive virtual world. For example, professor Sara Robbins indicated that "role markers" disappear in Second Life, shifting the classroom dynamics between professor and student (Livingstone & Kemp, 2006, p. 37). She went on to state that the faculty member's loss of authority turned into student ownership.
In some cases, however, this shift in dynamics can be problematic. A professor from Dutton's (2009) study mentioned that when a professor takes on a different persona in the virtual world, students will sometimes ignore the professor because there is some confusion over who is "in charge." What each of these instances addresses is the almost-inherent challenge of persona in online environments. Even when online teachers are seen as excelling in teaching their online courses, as the faculty members in Baran et al. (2013), persona transference from the face-to-face environment to the online environment can be challenging. Another layer of complexity is added when these personae are re-created in three dimensional virtual worlds like SL. For example, as Robbins (Livingstone & Kemp, 2006) and the faculty member from Dutton's study (2009) pointed out, the animated nature of Second Life can complicate issues of authority and roles in the classroom. As faculty members continue to use environments like SL, it becomes increasingly important to address issues related to how faculty members create/recreate their personae in these types of environments, as my study does.

Conceptual Framework
The framework for my study is the concept of persona. The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (Baldick, 2008) defined persona as follows: The assumed identity or fictional 'I' (literally a 'mask') assumed by a writer in a literary work; thus the speaker in a lyric poem, or the narrator in a fictional narrative... Some theorists of narrative fiction have preferred to distinguish between the narrator and the persona, making the persona equivalent to the implied author.
The uncertainty of the "implied author" works well for the virtual world because virtual world participants can either use digital versions of themselves, avatars, to replicate who they are in real life or author new versions of themselves in this new environment. Their narratives of themselves could be autobiography, complete fiction, or a combination of reality and fiction. Implicitly, my study is rooted in the notion that the professor's digital representation in Second Life represents the persona, and persona serves as the vantage point for my study. Instead of investigating and discussing the findings from my study as multiple identities, I chose to explain faculty members' virtual iterations of self as personae. That perspective frames the data.

Research Approach and Research Question
For my qualitative study, my research question was the following: What are faculty members' lived experiences with creating a faculty persona in Second Life?

Research Inquiry
In order to access and provide interpretations of participants' lived experiences, I conducted a hermeneutic phenomenology as described by van Manen (1990). In addition to methodological features, van Manen (1990) also noted that hermeneutic phenomenology does not provide a theory for explaining or controlling the world, but the method helps us come into "more direct contact with the world" (p. 9). Therefore, when exploring the phenomenon of faculty constructing the faculty persona in a three dimensional virtual world, I did so with the understanding that I could not provide a full description of this human experience but only an opportunity to come into closer contact with the phenomenon.

Data Collection
I conducted 30-minute to one-hour semi-structured online interviews in Second Life, and conducting the interviews in that environment allowed me to interact with faculty in the environment where they create their virtual world personae. Although van Manen (1990) emphasized the importance of asking questions aloud instead of in writing, as writing may allow participants to become more removed from the lived experience, online chats can often mimic the spontaneous nature of face-to-face conversations. Also, the idea of interviewing faculty members in the environment where they recreate their faculty personae has a number of advantages. For example, I was able to access a wider pool of participants (national as well as international), and I gained a greater sense of the benefits and challenges of virtual world personae as the participants described those benefits and challenges. Faculty members and students who interact in these environments cannot rely on traditional cues, and it is incumbent upon researchers to exercise new ways of accessing and articulating these differences as faculty and students experience them.
In my original study, I conducted three interviews with each participant. The data I collected specifically regarding the way faculty construct their personae in the virtual world came from the three sets of questions in my original study. The first set of questions dealt with persona in general (faculty members' definition and understanding of persona), the second set of questions focused on persona construction, and the third set of questions dealt with persona interaction.

Confidentiality
To ensure confidentiality, I gave all participants a pseudonym, although their SL comments are associated with their avatar names. Also, I did not name participants' universities or ask questions that could negatively affect their jobs.

Data Analysis
I used qualitative coding to analyze the data and ascertain the various "structures of experience" (van Manen, 1990). I isolated the themes as van Manen suggested: "the wholistic or sententious approach, the selective or highlighting approach, and the detailed or line-by-line approach" (p. 93). Using these approaches allowed me to explore the meaning of the entire text as well as select certain sections of the data and isolate themes.

Quality Assurance
Because my SL chat room interviews with participants were available in their SL accounts and my account, I did not have to transcribe the interviews or conduct member checks. Hermeneutic phenomenologies focus on lived experience, so I employed faculty/peer debriefing to determine if participants' lived experiences were accessible. My faculty/peer debriefer is a professor with many years of teaching experience at the university level.

Researcher Positionality
I used Barker, Pistrang, and Elliott's (2002) and Savin-Baden and Major's (2012) phenomenological lens to view my study. According to Savin-Baden and Major (2012), phenomenological researchers should not only indicate how background and experience influence research, but also share participants' lived experiences with a phenomenon. Barker et al. (2002) noted that the phenomenological lens should provide an opportunity to understand participants' 'lifeworlds.' Although I know that researcher bias influences research, my goal was to learn from participants' lived experiences and not foist my perspectives on their experiences. I used a situationalist orientation, as I employed hermeneutic phenomenology because I thought that it was the best way to answer the research question, not because I am solely a phenomenological researcher.
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Findings Virtual World/Real World Connections
Some participants highlighted connections between the virtual world persona and the real world persona, and some noticed marked differences between who they are in the face-to-face classroom and who they are in the immersive virtual world.

Similarities.
Several participants mentioned the numerous similarities between their real world persona and virtual world persona. For example, Ian stated, "I dress very much the same and interact with my students in a very similar manner. My online or SL persona is simply an extension of me represented in a different environment." Ian noted that his persona, regardless of medium, is "very personable, professional, helpful and demonstrative of an academic..." (ellipsis in original).
Greg said that his virtual world persona is, "similar to [his] real life persona." He added: "I try to make my classrooms conversational, meaning that I encourage students to talk and ask questions as much as possible...Most students are respectful of me but also feel comfortable interrupting me to ask questions" (Greg, Participant 2). When discussing her persona, Carla stated, "I honestly don't think I have any differences." She added, "I try to be consistent despite the environment. I work very hard at that" (Carla, Participant 4).
For these participants, the virtual world/real world symmetry was often purposely created and maintained.

Differences.
Although some participants noticed many similarities between the real world persona and the virtual world persona, other participants indicated several differences. These participants were equally committed to having students feel comfortable in all classroom environments, but some of

Virtual World/Traditional Online Connections
Participants also noted connections between the traditional online environment and the three dimensional virtual environment. For this study, traditional online areas include social networking sites, email, Blackboard, chat rooms, Moodle, and the like. However, some participants indicated that the virtual world is a little more freeing. Martin, a distance university professor, noted, "I am more engaged in SL than elsewhere-not a huge user of social networking (Facebook etc).... For some reason SL seemed to be more useful and appropriate to what I want to get out of the virtual world." All of the participants were concerned about students' experiences in online classes, but the professors' comfortability with the virtual world often affected their faculty personae. Confidence and comfortability matter.

Virtual World Persona: Benefits
Participants mentioned two advantages to the virtual world persona: freedom and interaction.
The freedom to change avatars or outfit an avatar with various accoutrements appealed to participants, even if they did not take advantage of the numerous options. For some professors, this environment also presented increased opportunities for interaction.

Doppelgӓngers and Deviations: The Question of Avatar Choice
When choosing avatars, some participants wanted replicas of their real-world selves, and other participants wanted to deviate from their real-world selves.

Doppelgӓngers.
Many participants wanted their avatars to mimic who they are in real life. For example, Carla All of the participants, the doppelgӓngers and the deviators, chose to maintain their personality characteristics no matter which avatar elements they chose.

Material Messages
Another Adam said, "I've sometimes been looked down upon in some SL environments for not looking spectacular enough...but those are not opinions I pay much attention to."

The Idea of Professionalism
Participants also emphasized the importance of professionalism, even though a few of them differed on what professionalism in the virtual world looks like. Some made connections between avatar choice and professionalism while others made connections between proficiency in the virtual world and professionalism.

Avatar choice.
Both Carla and Ian saw avatar choice as being directly tied to professionalism. For example, Carla mentioned the importance of having a professional image, and when asked to expound on the term "professional image," she stated, "I think the term is all encompassing. We are expected to

Discussion
As indicated in the data, faculty members' experiences with persona in the virtual world extend beyond merely selecting an avatar with no thought for the environment's other elements. Faculty members, even when they choose stock avatars, are quite deliberate about those decisions. They understand the messages that are communicated through the initial act of selecting an avatar.
Professors also give thoughtful consideration to the learning tools and opportunities within the virtual environment, whether the lesson is to not make generalizations about competence based on avatar choice or a class field trip to another island. Each participant saw the virtual world as another way to connect with students, and that type of connection is not always present in traditional online environments. Contextually, faculty members' appreciation for the enhanced freedoms and interactions in the virtual world highlight some of the elements that are lacking in more static online environments. However, with the entree of video capabilities in traditional online courses, the avatar could be replaced by the real-time, real-life projection of professors and students. On the other hand, video capabilities cannot replicate the interactive tours that are available in the virtual world. These issues speak to the larger question of how to successfully interact and engage with students in the online environment. Virtual worlds are not without their challenges, but several faculty members find that these environments are still worthwhile. Virtual worlds allow students at a distance to create environments and practice certain skills that are either impossible or logistically challenging in the real world. Whether the virtual world is provided by Second Life, OpenSim, or some yet-to-be-discovered company in its incipience, there is a market for the enhanced interactions that three dimensional virtual worlds can provide.

Additional Elements of Persona
Participants from my study shared commonalities with professors in other online environments, particularly related to persona. In Avgerinou and Andersson's (2007) article on e-moderating and persona, they found that instructors engaged in e-moderating, or online teaching, were greatly concerned about their students' level of comfort with the course and online course environment.
Professors in my study shared those sentiments. Every participant in my study, regardless of his or her own level of comfort in the virtual world classroom, was completely committed to having students feel comfortable in the virtual world course. Avgerinou and Andersson (2007)

Identity and Persona Revisited
Participants' responses reified the decision to discuss persona and not identity. For each participant, the virtual world professorial self was an extension of the in-class self, and further still, an extension of the self in the traditional online environment. The identity is the allencompassing essence of a person, and the persona is an extension of the identity. When a participant, Carla, decided to dress her avatar in a holiday sweater, that was an extension of who she is in real life. She is also that person in a traditional online classroom, but traditional learning management systems do not afford professors or students opportunities to attire avatars. John, as a person who enjoys experimenting with different looks and species, cannot do that in the face-toface environment. However, the importance of that expression is a part of a whole, and the virtual world allowed him to express the aspect and not the all-encompassing essence. Avgerinou and Andersson (2007) used the phrase "user representations" in their work on persona and emoderators (p. 356). Their idea of a representative seems tempting because of the avatars that are integral to three dimensional virtual worlds. These electronic emissaries are imbued with the knowledge and authority of the face-to-face version of the professor. However, my participants seemed to identify their avatars as extensions of themselves, which could connote a deeper relationship. The persona as expressed by the avatar is inextricably tied to the professor's identity.
The avatar, in that case, is not just the representative or the proxy, but the person. Consider the emphasis on the avatar for participants in my study. Even when participants selected stock avatars, they did so with their face-to-face selves in mind.
The point of the persona is further extended by participants' remarks regarding the similarities and differences between their virtual world classrooms and traditional classrooms. As noted earlier, participants immediately indicated that who they were in virtual world classrooms mirrored who they were in traditional classrooms, an overt example of their personae. However, the differences in the virtual and traditional classrooms were also indicative of the persona. For example, Eva noted that the technology of the virtual world classroom made her feel like a novice even though she is an expert in the content for her courses. Her decision to see a challenge as an opportunity speaks to another aspect of her persona that she was able to share with students in the virtual world classroom. The essence of who she is did not change, but the manifestation of that essence, her persona, was displayed in a different way because of the different environment.
As with the e-moderators (Avgerinou & Andersson, 2007), participants in my study valued the opportunities the online environment afforded and were committed to having their personae give some indication of their identities.

Professionalism: A View from the Virtual
Professors in my study overtly addressed the challenges and perspectives associated with professionalism in the virtual world. Similar perspectives are also present for faculty members who use more traditional social networking tools such as Facebook. For example, Veletsianos and Kimmons (2013) found that there is a delicate balance between the personal and professional for faculty members who use social networking sites; in that instance, participants used Facebook.
While the professors appreciated both the personal and professional relationships cultivated through the social networking site, the apprehensions about the personal-professional balance were palpable (Veletsianos & Kimmons, 2013). For participants in my study, however, the personal-professional distinctions were quite clear, but the definition of professionalism was different and led to a few challenges. Most of the participants viewed professionalism as related to clothing choices and a human avatar. However, John saw professionalism as related to the highest expression of virtual world acumen. The larger issue is really the question of whether or not the definition of professionalism should be changed, or at the very least extended. Is a nonhuman avatar a hindrance or an opportunity? John, the participant from my study who often employed non-human avatars, recognized and addressed the challenges associated with selecting a non-human avatar. However, the use of that non-human avatar also created an opportunity for students to learn not to judge people's intelligence based on their looks/avatars. The virtual world provides numerous opportunities for exploration. The classroom could contain traditional desks and a board, or it could be situated among the clouds. Some would argue that the same experimentation should be allowed with avatars.
The other side of that scenario, however, is the question of limits. How far is too far? While the question of human or non-human avatar is a seemingly innocuous one, the "wrong" choice of avatar could prove offensive and detrimental to students. However, the "default" choice of a human avatar could mean that students may miss a chance to critically consider what it means to move and interact in an environment that is used both for playfulness and professional work.

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teleportation is a pedagogical one. Further pedagogical choices include the type of avatar, the type of classroom (traditional desks or glowing orbs), the attire of the avatar (everything from jewelry to sunglasses), and the avatar's movements. As faculty and administrators continue to consider the types of online environments to use, these conversations about the connection between technology, pedagogy, and experiences with technology must continue as well. An institution's choice to adopt a particular learning management system, for example, is a decision about what faculty and students will or will not get in the classroom environment; it is a pedagogical decision.
As institutions and individual faculty members continue to select these various technologies, it also becomes equally important to continue conducting research on faculty and students' experiences with these emerging technologies.

Conclusion
Many elements are involved in creating a faculty persona in the three dimensional virtual world.
In order to understand some of those elements, it was important to gain access to professors' lived experiences with creating personae in the immersive virtual environment. While professors had different types of courses and teaching styles, they all seemed to focus on pedagogy over technology, student learning and comfortability, and professionalism. For other faculty members who want to venture into the virtual worlds or for those who are curious about others' experiences in the virtual environment, there is much to be gleaned from these participants' experiences.
Although they taught/teach classes in Second Life, the insights from their lived experiences are useful when thinking about using any virtual world environment.