Programming in Virtual Worlds for Developing Educational Aids: LSL Scripting Challenges

3D virtual worlds have been widely used in educational activities ranging from schools to universities and higher educational institutions. The dynamic nature of the 3D virtual worlds play a significant role in designing and implementing attractive educational content for serious learning tasks as part of the formal educational setups. In world programming through LSL scripting is the available method for achieving this dynamic behaviour in content objects and interacts with the environment. In this paper we discuss the use of LSL scripting in Second Life and Open Simulator based educational projects while presenting the challenges faced during our educational environment development projects in Open Simulator. The findings of this study are expected to support virtual world based educational environment development activities, and provide novel insight to virtual world based teaching and learner support.