1368 Copyright © 2013, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Chapter 68 BACKGROUND As of December 1, 2008, the number of universi- ties, colleges, and community colleges, participat- ing in Second Life, reached over 300 institutions in the U.S. and the combined total for the U.S. and overseas was well over 500 (SimTeach, 2008a). Educational institutions, schools, and associations have created private islands and immersive envi- ronments where students practice new building design concepts, become familiar with the com- ponents of operating rooms, perform dangerous experiments in safety, learn to plan events, and explore the history in 3-D (Romme, 2003). R. S. Talab Kansas State University, USA Hope R. Botterbusch St. Petersburg College, USA Ethical and Legal Issues in Teaching and Learning in Second Life in a Graduate Online Course EXECUTIVE SUMMARY As a growing number of faculty use SL as a teaching platform, outside of anecdotal articles and the legal literature, no research exists on the many legal and ethical issues that affect course development. Ethical issues include abuse (“griefng”) nudity and lewd behavior, and false/misleading identities. Legal issues include creation and use of copyrighted and trademarked items, faculty intellectual property rights in objects and course content, and criminal behavior. Following the experiences of the instructor and 5 students, their 12-week journey is documented through interviews, journals, weekly course activities, SL class dialogs, and in-world assignments. Additionally, 5 faculty and staff experts who teach or train in SL at this university were interviewed and consulted, as well. This study provides insight for design- ing courses that foster exploration of rich learning opportunities outside a traditional classroom-both real and virtual. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-2136-7.ch068