Announcement: Help Wanted At Caledon Oxbridge University

 Caledon Oxbridge University is looking for volunteer staff!

    We are looking for new people to take over duties as professors. (New tutors are always welcome.) People who can provide coverage of the times when SL users who come from parts of the world other than North America would be an excellent addition to our staff.  Classes available during those times would also be welcomed by our students, including repeats of classes already in session during the SL afternoon and evening.

-- A brief explanation of COU titles:

Tutors:
    Tutors are the lifeblood of Oxbridge. They are responsible for spending time on campus and providing support, advice and information to all comers, from rank newbies to experienced residents pursuing the answers to esoteric questions. Must have a year inworld and are asked to serve a 6-month probation/training period.

Professors:
    Professors teach our classes. They usually develop their own materials and graphic illustrations, as well as provide supportive extra materials to supplement their lectures.

Friends and Allies:
    There are several individuals who work behind the scenes at Oxbridge, often without formal titles. Their skills and enthusiasm fill many gaps left by other staff job descriptions.

-- Classes:

    New classes are always welcome. Professors receive a L$250 per diem per class session to cover the cost of uploading graphics. Most classes meet weekly, with the same lecture repeated every week. However, Photo Salon, the Animation classes and the Scripting classes, as well as Samm's Building/Texture class have established a precedent for more in-depth series.  Open office hours on some subjects have also proved successful.

    While all applications will be considered, Oxbridge prefers staff members to have a knowledge of Caledon, and its mores, culture and puns, as well as specific Oxbridge manners and guidelines. Part of keeping Oxbridge a safe space is for students to feel comfortable around the staff. Staff is expected to represent Oxbridge, abide by Oxbridge rules and support Oxbridge policies while at Oxbridge and while wearing an Oxbridge staff tag. Visible profile listings should be General. This does not prevent having a visible listing of an adult group if the listing itself is General-rated.

    Experience in another Oxbridge position, such as Tutor, is definitely a plus. An ability to work with other staff is required, as well as comfort dealing with the public, which may require patience as well as an ability to write clearly and succinctly.

    The excellent Professor possesses the ability to tailor class information on-the-fly to students who may be unfamiliar with computers and/or Second Life, may use viewers other than the default viewer or Firestorm, and may vary wildly in ability, basic knowledge and skill.

    On rare occasions, Professors are also asked to deal with behavior issues, ranging from newbies who change clothing on your stage to full-fledged griefers. Fortunately, things usually go fairly smoothly. Oxbridge professors are generally asked to teach using the default Linden Lab viewer, at least at the basic level of the class subject matter. However, familiarity with other viewers is always an asset.

    To apply to teach a class, please write up a summary of the class to present to Wordsmith Jarvinen, and be prepared to create complete lecture materials and graphic illustrations. Some support is available from former Professors and other staff. With some occasional leeway, prospective professors should be able to commit to a weekly or bi-weekly class time (any open time of your choice. The Alternate Lecture Hall can also be used.)  We will definitely consider guest professors who offer SL-related instructional lectures that are timely and pertinent

    Classes about aspects of buying and using mesh avatars are very much needed. It's a large, complex subject, so we probably need more than one class.

    A professor who takes over our How to Buy and Rent Land class, as well as a Smart Shopper's Fundamentals class, will have access to the former Professor's lecture materials (and associated slides?), so a new Professor would not have to start these classes from scratch. However, they are somewhat technical, so expertise in the area is needed, along with the ability and willingness to continually upgrade one's knowledge to keep the classes current.

-- Miscellaneous projects:

    While many of our staff fall into easily defined roles at Oxbridge, there are several people who choose to work behind the scenes on projects that benefit Oxbridge for which they have unique qualifications.  If you have expertise in teaching, writing, foreign languages, PhotoShop or Blender, or mesh bodies, there's a good chance we can put you to work on a project that doesn't necessarily require a specific time commitment or other such limitations. Have an idea?  Run it by Wordsmith!

Creating informational web page content like Avatars Reload – The Oxbridge Guardian (http://www.caledonoxbridge.org/guardian/) would also be a valuable project for those who don't want to commit to a class. We're looking for content; we can do the web page coding.

Contact Wordsmith Jarvinen, Chancellor of Caledon Oxbridge University to pitch a class.  Contact any staff member to obtain an application for tutoring and a Tutor's job description.

 

How To Second Life : A Guide For Those Who Are New - Part Two

By Cyfir (Cyfiremmerich)

In part one of this guide, I focused on getting started and taking your first steps in Second Life. In this part, I’ll focus on more advanced features. Before that, though, reader Cynthia Farshore recommended the Caledon Oxbridge University which is an educational center for new and/or young Second Life residents. This place can be found here, Caledon Oxbridge (93/194/27).  Once you teleport there, just follow the numbered path and begin reading the signs. This place goes much more in depth than I could with a series of articles and is a valuable resource.

Now that you’re fairly familiar with the basics of Second Life, I’ll share some more advanced features you can take advantage of in Firestorm. First, assuming that you’re over the age of 18, you can choose to make more Adult locations visible in search (which we will touch on in a moment). Click ‘Avatar’ in the top left corner of Firestorm and then click ‘Preferences’ from the resulting drop down menu. In the general tab, where it says ‘I want to access content rated:’ you can change this to whatever you want. By default, adult locations are filtered out.

In the same General tab, you can also set up your ‘start location.’ You can set this to be the area you designated as your home (World/Set Home To Here) or your last location and you can check the box that says ‘Show on login’ which will automatically show you the location you set when you are first logging in. From this same tab, you can also set up how you want name tags to be displayed and what you want the browser to do when you are away. You may have noticed that my menu buttons are purple. You can set up different colors for your browser in the ‘Custom Colors’ tab.

You don’t have to touch the graphics tab. In fact, your browser should automatically set everything to what your computer can handle efficiently. However, I customized mine to show a little more detail just for the sake of having things look better. I used to get better performance with these settings when I was running Windows 7 with the same hardware. Now I’m lucky if I reach 60 FPS on Windows 10.

In the ‘Move and View’ tab, you’re going to want to click the checkbox that says ‘Disable camera constraints.’ Now hold Alt on your keyboard and click anywhere in the world while moving your mouse around. Check the box that also says ‘Allow the camera to move without constraints through prims’ and the box that says ‘Disable minimum camera zoom distance.’ You now are able to zoom all the way out and see everything there is to see. Holding Ctrl+Alt and clicking while dragging the mouse lets you pan around any fixed point.

In the privacy tab, click the ‘LookAt’ sub tab and if you don’t want others to see what you’re looking at, check ‘Don’t send my look at targets to others’ and ‘Don’t send any lookat targets at all, not even to myself’ for good measure. If you don’t want people to constantly see what you’re editing in world check ‘Don’t send my selection target hints.’

One of the most important tabs is the Backup tab. Click this tab and select the assets that you want to save and back them up. You never know when you may have to reinstall Firestorm only to find that all your settings are now wiped.

Now, to search for any person or place just simply type Ctrl+F to bring up ‘Firestorm Search.’ Here you’ll find different tabs to search for resident names (People), Groups, Places, Events, and Classified ads. This is one of the most valuable resources in Second Life and will help you find communities based on interests of yours. For instance, if you’re in to Star Trek, type Star Trek in the ‘Places’ search tab and you’ll be presented with a list of sims to choose from and teleport to to check out.

Before you go hopping around though, a word on trolls/griefers: Whatever you do, do not feed them. Do not give them a reaction. Do not talk to them. Do not even acknowledge their existence in your space. There are bad actors in Second Life who just want to have fun at the expense of others. If they are bothering you, click the region information in the top center portion of your Firestorm browser. This should bring up the ‘About Land’ menu which should tell you who owns the region. Inform them of the troll and move on with your day. If they are really bothering you, following you, making threats or anything of the sort. You can report them directly to Linden Lab. The easiest way to do this is to right click on their avatar, and click View Profile. At the bottom right corner of the profile window there should be a button with a gear on it. Click that and then click ‘Report’ from the resulting drop down menu. Now click Block in the bottom right hand corner of their same profile window. They should now be a harmless orange cloud.

In part 3, I will be focusing on land and setting up your first home. What else should I focus on in future installments? Sound off in the comments below!

Cyfir