Freshers don't even have to stir from their sofas tonight to meet other students and their lecturers and generally find out what their new college life will be like.

In what may be a world first, Dublin Institute of Technology is providing a virtual college tour through the virtual world of "Second Life".

New students can go online between 7pm and 8.30pm tonight -- a full week before they arrive on campus for the real thing.

The online initiative will allow new students from all over the country to meet up with each other and with staff from the DIT from the comfort of their home computers.

They will be able to view videos and presentations about student life and see an exhibition of work by art and design students at the college through the virtual campus.

The life-like campus was created by John O'Connor in the Faculty Of Applied Arts.

He says it offers students "the opportunity to experience a dynamic and interactive mode of learning."

The 'real world' environment means that experiments can be carried out in a secure space that responds just like the real world.

"Meeting people from all over the real world in this virtual space brings globalisation to life," Mr O'Connor said.

Opportunity

"Second Life also offers a great opportunity for those with disabilities or mobility issues to fully involve themselves without any restrictions," he added.

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world created by its "residents".

Since opening to the public in 2003 it has grown explosively and today has 15 million residents from around the globe.

People use it to build virtual house, buy land and trade virtual goods every month.

Research is now being carried out into using the facility as a more personal alternative to traditional distance learning.

DIT is Ireland's largest third level Institution and offers over 300 different programmes across six faculties, from Applied Arts, Built Environment, Business, Engineering, Science, to Tourism and Food.

The Institute is in the process of moving to a state-of-the art purpose-built campus in Grangegorman in Dublin city centre.

- Clodagh Sheehy