Adventure Game Ideas for eLearning

Adventure games are usually single player games in which the player controls the actions of the main character of the game (protagonist). All adventure games have a story or a narrative to it. The player is required to navigate and explore spaces such as rooms or landscapes to solve a puzzle or reach a destination. During the game, the player is faced with obstacles that they must avoid and enemies that they must defeat in order to proceed. Collectable objects are often placed in these spaces that help the player combat these situations and accomplish the assigned task. Unlike other gaming genres, you can get very creative when building adventure games. And because it is fun to play, it naturally becomes a great template for elearning games.

Creating elearning simulations

What is a simulation? A simulation is a system built artificially, mimicking a real-life environment and situation that allows a participant to interact with the system or alter it for the purpose of observing, learning or experiencing the changes or responses to that interaction. We build simulations for participants when they do not have access to the real-life environment or are not permitted to access it. The reasons for not gaining access to these real-life environments are usually cost, security (of the environment), safety (of the participant) and rarity. Since simulations are used for observation and learning, they find a place inside elearning courses as well.

Interactive Matrix Diagrams

A picture is worth a thousand words. Many complex ideas are represented visually and one of them is a chart. We have all used charts at some point in our lives. These could be line charts, bar charts, scatter charts. Apart from these data charts, we also use diagrams that represent data pictorially just like other charts. Charts and diagrams help us visualize data and their dependencies and are designed for studies and analysis. And so, they are also used in e-learning courses. Since we love interactivity, in this post we will look at an interactive elearning example with the use case of a matrix diagram or chart. You can also play around with a simple interactive chart on this post.

Jumbled Letters - A word game for elearning

Validating the response to a fill-in-the-blanks question in an e-learning assessment is tricky. The first reason is that there can be more than one acceptable spelling to a word, mainly arising from American vs. British spelling. Secondly, if a question has more than one blank to be filled in, then we must let the program know if the order of responses is important or not. Thirdly, some questions may themselves have other correct answers. Finally, this works best with single words and not with phrases. A game like hangman (hangaroo, if you remember) can be a substitute to a typical fill-in-the-blanks question as it overcomes these challenges. This post discusses a game design that can overcome these problems just like hangman does. This is called Jumbled Letters. Play the game here below...

Ordering Game - Tower of Hanoi

One of the easiest puzzle games to build digitally is the Tower of Hanoi. It is a game which involves Ordering and Arrangement of disks on a tower (a stick or a rod). In e-learning content, you will find situations which involve ordering of items. Items may be arranged based on Size, Quantity, Position, Time, etc.. A topic about the size of planets in the solar system involves visualizing the planets from big to small (or vice-versa). Similarly, an e-learning module on climate change or quantity of carbon emissions involves visualizing the data from more to less. Likewise, a Standard Operating Procedure will require visualizing the order of Steps in the SOP.

Word game with a story or scenario

Word games can be used in e-learning to not only present content, but also for reinforcement or even as a quiz. Games become more interesting if they have a story (a plot or a scenario). The story provides reason to why a learner should play the game. In this post we will try to make a simple word search game interesting by adding the flavour of a detective story. The intent here is to provide some ideas that you may be able to use when building your word game for learners.

Cartoons in Scenario based learning

Learners almost instantly get connected when the content includes infographics, cartoons or illustrations. Shapes and colors are attractive and more eye-catching than plain text. This not only makes it easier for a learner to skim through the content quickly but also helps in knowledge retention.

A Card Game for E-learning

Technical e-learning modules that have only basic interaction can be boring. Introducing games inside a module or even as part of a quiz, will make it engaging. Games can be of any genre. Action, Adventure, Puzzle, Strategy, Sports are examples of game genres or categories. There are several factors that affect the decision on the choice of the game. The first one is the audience. Not everyone likes action or shooting games since these types of games require users to have a high level of hand-eye coordination and quick reaction time. These abilities improve with practice over time. Another factor is the budget. Games that require rich graphics and physics are more expensive to build. You'll also need a good story or motivation to play the game. Some of the easiest games to build are word games and card games. Since these games are common and most users would have played these at some point in their lives, the learning curve is short.

An interactive Fishbone diagram

The Fishbone diagram is also known as the Cause-and-effect diagram. It was popularised by Kaoru Ishikawa, a Japanese professor, as a method to visualise a problem and its root causes. The diagram became a common industrial brainstorming tool in the 1960s. It is also referred to as the Ishikawa diagram.

Structural Complexity of e-learning modules

The general belief is that interactive content improves engagement. The truth is, it depends on the learner profile. Factors that define the learner profile include age, gender, education, region, industry, experience, likes and dislikes, beliefs, etc. All these factors must be taken into account when conducting a training session or developing an e-learning course. A trainer or an instructional designer determines the amount of interaction needed in an e-learning course.