The 18th Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education (VWBPE) conference takes place between Thursday, April 3rd and Saturday April 5th, 2025 inclusive.
A grass-roots community event focusing on education in immersive virtual environments, VWBPE attracts 2200-3500 educational professionals from around the world each year. Its primary goals are to foster discussion on, and learning about educational opportunities presented through the use of such virtual spaces, a defining core values and best practices in doing so, including:
- Helping to build community through extension of learning best practices to practical application of those ideas and techniques;
- Providing networking opportunities for educators and the communities that help support education; and
- Offering access to current innovations, trends, ideas, case studies, and other best practices for educators and the communities that help support education.
In the context of the conference, a “virtual environment” is an on-line community through which users can interact with one another and use and create ideas irrespective of time and space. As such, typical examples include Second Life, OpenSimulator, Unity, World of Warcraft, Eve Online, and so on, as well as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest or any virtual environments characterised by an open social presence and in which the direction of the platform’s evolution is manifest in the community.
Every year, the event has an over-arching theme. For 2025 this is Transitions, which the organisers describe thus:
Transitions, like pivotal shifts in a story, capture the profound changes educators and students have faced in recent years. These shifts highlight the need to adapt and redefine social dynamics within virtual environments as education evolves to meet new challenges.
Join us as we all share experiences and successes in how virtual technologies used in the classroom have helped shape education for the better.
Programme
As with previous VWBPE conferences, this year’s event includes speakers, workshops, presentations, social activities and more.
The best way to find out what is going on over the three days of the conference is through the VWBPE programme page, However, here are some of the highlights of major events (note: all times SLT and held at the main auditorium unless otherwise stated):
- Thursday April 3rd:
- 08:30-09:00: Welcome event at the VWBPE Gateway.
- 14:00-14:50: Tour of the VWBPE 2025 Exhibition commencing from the Wetlands Visitor Centre.
- Friday April 4th:
- 08:30-09:00: VWBPE 2025 Kick-off event at the VWBPE Gateway.
- 09:00-10:00:
- Lecture Area A – VW Illustrations and AI Avatars Enhance Engagement, presenter: Kayako Mayako (RL: Kay McLennan, Tulane University, School of Professional Advancement).
- Workshop Area B – CyberX: AI Personalized Learning in Virtual Worlds, presenter: Ran Hienrichs (RL: Ran Hinrichs).
- 11:00-12:00 noon: Auditorium Keynote – Sonicity Fitzroy (RL: Phylis West Johnson) – Auditorium Canopy Point entrance; Auditorium Rainbow Basin entrance.
- 13:00-14:00: Workshop Area B – Constant Change as a Transitional Motivator, presenter: Marly Milena (Niela Miller, Whole Brain Health)
- 14:00-15:00: Above the Book – Catching up with the Lindens, with Grumpity, Patch, Kali and Kyle Linden – Auditorium Canopy Point entrance; Auditorium Floating Meadows entrance.
- 16:00-17:00: Lecture Area A – We Stand in the Middle, presenter: Jenaia Morane (Jena Ball).
- Saturday April 5th:
- 07:00-08:00: Workshop Area B – Immersive AI Companion Design, presenter: ErlinaAzure (Helena Galani, TESOL International).
- 08:00-09:00 Lecture Area B – Navigating Transitions Through Community Learning, a roundtable discussion with host: Rhiannon Chatnoir (RL: Joyce Bettencourt, Avacon, Inc.).
- 09:00-10:00 – Auditorium Keynote – Rabindra Ratan (SL: Rabidth Rote) – Auditorium Floating Meadows entrance; Auditorium Rainbow Basin entrance.
- 10:00-11:00: Workshop Area A – Round the Campfire on Student Agency, presenter: Bluebarker Lowtide (Vasili A. Giannoutsos, VBCPS).
- 12:00 noon-13:00: Lecture Area B – Go Ahead, Accept Failure, Fall Forward, and Fly, presenter: Zinnia Zauber (Renne Emiko Brock, Peninsula College).
- 14:00-15:00: Lecture Area A – Transitioning from Virtual World Student to Pro, presenter: Kreatya Shannon (Shannon Broden, Graduate, San Jose State University).
If you cannot get in-world to attend any of these or the other major talks and presentations at the conference, note that you can watch them via You Tube – check the VWBPE Livestream Guide for the full schedule of events streamed to the VWBPE You Tube channel.
Region Themes and Facilities
For 2025, the conference continues with its Earth build, with each region representing a different terrestrial biome, including wetlands, desert, badlands, grasslands, and forests. Conference attendees will be able to explore 3D immersive virtual representations of these biomes.
The VWBPE Gateway
At the VWBPE Gateway you can find information on the conference – including the schedule for the day, a Swag Bag which includes the conference teleport HUD for easy access to all locations and venues, information on the biomes comprising the conference regions, and more. And, of course, VWBPE volunteers are on hand to answer your questions!
Core Facilities and SLurls
Within these regions the following core facilities for the conference can be found – but please refer to your conference Swag Bag (and teleport HUD!) for full information on all locations and facilities at this year’s conference.
- The VWBPE Auditorium access points:
- The Lecture and Workshop areas:
- Lecture A – The Hearth (Tundra Expanse biome).
- Lecture B – The Oasis (Desert Hinterlands biome).
- Workshop A – Rock Theatre (Badland Wilds biome).
- Workshop B – The Ruins (Desert Hinterlands biome).
- the Quadrivium (Tundra Expanse biome).
- The VWBPE Social Centres, all of which are located within the Wetlands Marsh biome:
To keep up-to-date with the conference, be sure to check the VWBPE website daily.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 