A Brent college is encouraging students to fly out to an island for the latest extension to its campus.
The College of North West London's new facility includes an outdoor amphitheatre, business park and relaxing garden and waterfall.
However, visitors will not need to move from their classrooms to explore the extensive grounds, as it is all online.
The further education college, which has campuses in Wembley, Willesden and Kilburn, has become the first in the country to have its own operational island on the worldwide web.
Gas and heating lecturer Martin Biron rented 4,000 square metres of space in virtual world Second Life to explore the possibilities ofrunning an online 3D classroom.
He then persuaded the college to support a programme of exploration anddevelopment, which led to it renting 65,000 square metres of land in the the programme and attracting as many as 15,000 visitors in a month.
Visitors can fly through the air using an avatar or humanoid figure of their own choice to represent them inside the virtual world creating a game-style virtual reality environment for educational use.
Second Life opened in 2003 with properties entirely built and owned by its residents, who range from IBM and the NHS to Honda and lighting manufacturer Osram.
The virtual 3D environment is designed mainly for social and entertainment purposes, and has 11 million registered users worldwide who can do anything from watch a rock concert, shop or just have a chat with friends.
Visitors to the college's island can play chess, visit the garden and waterfall, check out the outdoor amphitheatre or enter the public sandbox to build their own 3-D objects.
There is also a business park where companies with college links can set up exhibitions to support students.
Mr Biron has installed a veritable giants house with an interactive central heating system that plumbing, gas, and heating and ventilation students can access and study.
Visitors can fly round the virtual central heating and hot water system, turn on taps and follow the movement of water through the pipes.
The house also features a U6 diaphragm meter to allow students to take a gas reading from a virtual appliance and get instant feedback on whether they are right.
Mr Biron said: The technology is so refined, its amazing - you can create anything you like. Second Life offers an excellent platform as a distance learning tool to support a blended learning approach.
It can be instantly accessed by students in a classroom or anywhere on the planet to undertake learning and assessment in their chosen field.
"Additionally, it supports their individual develop of IT and design skills.
We have set up a picture gallery from the Colleges recent Industry and Competitions Day, where visitors can walk through as though they were in a real gallery, and we are talking to other areas of the College, especially Art & Design, with a view to displaying their work.
Second Life can be accessed free on www.secondlife.com .