Diversity University was the first MOO dedicated specifically for education. Like other MUDs, it was an online realm that allowed people to interact in real time by connecting to a central server, assuming a virtual identity within that realm, "teleporting" (in other words, transporting your character) or "walking" to virtual rooms, and holding text-based conversations with others who had entered the same virtual room.
Diversity University was created in summer 1993 by its founder (and original "arch-wizard"), Jeanne McWhorter, then a sociology graduate student at the University of Houston.
In an interview with a reporter, she described her initial purpose in creating the online educational environment:
It all began when I got interested in getting social workers online. ... Social workers all tend to be computerphobes — part of it is that we have it in our mind that computers dehumanize. I think computers do anything but - I think people are much more open and willing to talk about themselves when they're online.
Josh Quittner continues, "McWhorter figured that Diversity University would be a way to attract educators and students to computing as a communications medium."
# See also * Structure * Sample educational projects * Educational tools in the MOO * Closing * References