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Exagames for LMS
The goal of this activity is to bring the aspect of game-based-learning into LMS-courses. Yes, game-based-learning is much more than using some funny animations and yes, HTML 5 is cooler than Flash – but these are developments that we have made in the past and just want to share for the fun of it.
The way the activity works is that two of our exagames are based upon quizzes given to users within an LMS-course. This way exagames can be seen as another fun way to acquire knowledge by being an “enhancement” of quizzes.
Braingame
We started out with the “braingame” which basically reads out questions from quizzes. During the answering of questions, there is a small animation (brain growing for given correct answers). The ultimate goal is to catapult the scientist into outer space – otherwise, he drops into the ocean.
Exaclick
This year we have enhanced the activity with another game called exaclick. The principles were taken from an old television-show where tiles would cover up a whole picture and then would be uncovered one by one. This is also combined with LMS-quizzes but in addition, questions can be enhanced with a video or picture that can be covered with tiles. These questions can be categorized with difficulty-levels – the enhancement is done with an integrated Flash-based editor.
Regarding gameplay: after one recognizes the picture or video the stop-button is pressed and a question (it could be related to the picture) is then displayed which should be answered correctly. If the question answered incorrectly one heart is lost, three lost hearts equals to “game over”.
Bonus points (for a game-highscore) are given for the factor speed (the sooner the picture is recognized the more bonus-points are gained).
For exaclick to work, you need to configure the questions that you have added to a test that the game is based upon.
1. Upload some pictures and/or videos to a folder within your LMS-course
2. Create a test based upon a question bank
3. Create a game using the activity “exabis games” and choosing “exaclick” from the pulldown-menu
4. Configure your question in the tab “configure question”. Here you can choose a question. By clicking on the question a flash-based editor is opened. Insert a link to a picture or video that was previously uploaded.
5. Save the question
6. Continue configuring questions on different difficulty-levels.
7. Have your users play the game – Highscores are displayed within the exabis games-activity.
Gamelabs.at
This is a mere embedding of a platform we have started to develop two years back. Here users can create individual games based upon the adventure-principle. Take a look at the game “Hallo Welt” to get a basic idea. The platform was financed by the Federal Austrian Ministry of Education and is free to use for everyone.
Try out gamelabs with the
user: gamecreator
password: Ilovegamelabs!
to experiment.