Hi from Dennis

As Arturo said, welcome to the interdisciplinary research seminar. We're looking forward to pursuing and exploring virtual world research that will synthesize a variety of academic disciplines. This is the second iteration of this course through the Digital Worlds Institute. You can access a published article on the first class here.

You will be encourage to produce a scholarship of engagement. A traditional definition of scholarship is a creative intellectual work that can be validated by one’s peers and then communicated to those within the discipline. We would encourage an expanded definition of scholarship that includes the discovery of new knowledge as well as the development of new technologies, methods, materials and uses. The communicating of these new discoveries should lead to new understandings and interpretations. Scholarship of engagement includes a collaborative work environment that includes those outside of one’s immediate discipline. You should be able to communicate findings (discovery of new knowledge, new technologies, methods, materials or uses) to a more diversified audience as well as develop a level of involvement that includes more than the “telling of facts”; it is an interaction between individuals bound by a common desire, goal, problem or interest. Finally, scholarship of engagment is service-oriented:

"Service is often seen as somehow outside the "real" work of scholars. However, faculty members who can extend their intellectual curiosity into their service activities, Huber (2001) suggests, can unify their professional lives, bringing together their teaching, research, and service in a synergistic way, to the benefit of each aspect of their work and the benefit of those with whom they work. One way to make faculty service a more legitimate use of faculty resources is to treat outreach and service activities as scholarly activities in the same way that research always has been and teaching is increasingly being treated. When faculty and administrators finally embrace a scholarship of engagement and acknowledge the important role of service in both the internal and external functioning and health of the campus, then faculty can begin to experience integrated academic lives."
(Ward, K. (2003). Faculty Service Roles and the Scholarship of Engagement. ERIC Digest)