Lecturer Dioselin Gonzalez does not bat an eyelid when her students get boisterous in class.

Because more interaction was what she was hoping for when she switched her teaching mode from traditional lectures to a virtual approach, in Second Life.

"I don?t like repressing them, as long as they get back to what they're doing and complete their work, I don?t mind them having some fun," said Ms Gonzalez, who teaches the Final Year Projects course at the Nanyang Polytechnic's Digital Entertainment Technology department.

The move has paid off so far. After one full semester of teaching in Second Life last year, and five weeks into the new semester this year, Ms Gonzalez has found that her students interact much more with her.

"I do see that the students react very differently. During lectures, it takes a lot of energy to get them talking and interested.

In Second Life, I don't even need to do anything," she said.

Represented by their avatars, the students are also more willing to participate during class discussions on topics that range from gaming addiction to scripting.

Said third-year student Gabriel Tay: "The environment in Second Life is not so formal, so it's easier to talk to people."

Holding classes in Second Life also lets the students reach out to the rest of the world through attending lectures by professionals and through socialising with the other residents of the virtual world.

"They meet all these people from around the world that they won't meet in class. It opens them to more points of view," said Ms Gonzalez.

For the students though, it is the other perks that matter, like having a chat log that records all class discussions and being able to attend class by proxy.

"If you sleep through the entire lesson, you can wake up and read the logs to see what's going on," said student Jeremy Wong, 18.

His classmate See Hui Ping, 20, added: "I can also do whatever I want, go for lessons in my pyjamas, drink coke and eat potato chips during class.

But there have been drawbacks.

Said student Melissa Lim: "Sometimes having people do funny things is fun, but sometimes it?s a little distracting and it can drive us crazy."

And because it is in a virtual world, it is hard for Ms Gonzalez to mete out any punishment.

Punishing an avatar or raising her voice via Second Life's online messaging system does not achieve the same results as when it is done in person.

Because of that, she has developed a new way to convey her displeasure. She makes her avatar shout "hey" and waves her arm repeatedly.

"After a while, they get irritated and will all stop fooling around to listen to me," she quipped.

That said, there is one definite plus.

"The students are more willing to do their homework and hand in assignments on time," she said.