At Rockcliffe, our milestones define our growth, and continue to define it. Here are some of our most memorable benchmarks.
Who We Are
For almost 9 years now Rockcliffe University Consortium has been a supporter of digital education, media, arts, and sciences using virtual technologies. While the majority of our assets center around the Second Life platform we are also involved in other technologies for content delivery including OpenSimulator, Unity, Moodle, WebEx, Livestream, MediaWiki, WordPress, and multiple social media platforms [1].
Rockcliffe is committed to the concept of open source and open access. We receive over 70,000+ visits per year in Second Life alone, plus 10,000+ library visits per month on our website, from people interested in online education, game development, research, and virtual collaboration. Our expertise has been recognized through contracted engagements and consultation with universities, colleges, government agencies, non-profit, and for-profit organizations [2].
What We Do
Every year since 2009, Rockcliffe has been the principal coordinator of the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference. This annual, peer reviewed, event brings together over 2200 educators, designers, tool developers, and artists from around the world to discuss current technology trends in education regardless of the platform. The conference proceedings are published as an open source journal for others to reference in addition to providing collections of other reference material to assist educators and researchers find current information sources on virtual collaborative environments.
Rockcliffe is involved with numerous 501c3 organizations that have their own special mandate. As part of our mission we try to help people, regardless of ability or status[3], to augment their marketable skills by providing opportunities that prospective employers will find valuable. Whether someone is deaf, blind, a quadriplegic, or has other health concerns, Rockcliffe tries to help people find a balanced approach to skill development that meets their needs and requirements.
Rockcliffe is also involved in directed research on new techniques and methodologies related to knowledge emergence and its application in the presence of technology. The results of these research efforts have been published in various peer-reviewed publications[4].
While most of Rockcliffe’s products and services are freely available, the service itself does not come cheap. Rockcliffe leverages open access services wherever it is reasonable prudent to do so. As a result our annual budget is approximately $25,000 which is mostly covered by the financial contribution from Rockcliffe’s founders, some general donations, the sale of voluntary carbon offsets[5], and the occasional consultation contract with universities on joint projects[6].