Create a Simple E-Learning Game #24

E-Learning Games #24: Challenge | Recap

I know there are a lot of folks in the community who are looking to build games in Storyline, or who just want to know more about using games in e-learning. If either sounds like you, then you’ll love this week’s challenge.

This week we’re going to look at transforming a quiz into a simple e-learning game.

View the E-Learning Game | Download | Video Tutorials

In reality, these types of games are more like glorified progress meters than high-production games. But they’re fun for learners to take, and just as much for course designers to build. 

Choose a Gamified Theme

What type of game do you want? One option for game themes is to align the game to the rest of your course content. Think of a new hire course where the objective is to collect important documents from different departments. Maybe you browse the aisles of your company “store” and fill your cart with your departmental items. Another option is to choose something more off-the-wall like an adventure game or a treasure hunting scenario.

Backgrounds Create Context

Once you’ve found a theme, the next step is to head over to your favorite stock photo site for some background graphics that match your theme. Because the background graphic is the largest slide object, it sets the context for your e-learning game.

Select the Style of Game

How do you want your learners to move through the game? Two common ways include:

Linear: Learners follow a path of challenge questions. Each time the learner answers correctly, the learner moves forward along the path. Markers along the path are updated visually to indicate correct and incorrect choices.

Non-linear: Learners move through the game by choosing one of the markers or buttons placed around the game board. Clicking a marker loads a new challenge question. After answering the question, the learner is returned to the game board and the marker is updated visually to reflect a correct or incorrect answer.

Building the Quiz

As with most interactions in Storyline, you have multiple options for how you structure your game. Depending on your goals, you’ll find one method fits better than the other. You essentially have two ways to build your file:

Single Slide

Everything is built on a single slide. This is an efficient way to structure your file because it enables you to easily share your final game template. Because all quiz questions are built on slide layers, Storyline’s built-in quiz results options won’t be available to track and report the game scores.

Separate Slides

The other option is to build your questions as separate slides. Using your game board as your home slide, each marker loads a quiz question either as a lightbox slide or jumps the learner to the new slide. After completing the question, the learner is returned to the home slide where the marker is updated to reflect the learner’s correct or incorrect answer.

This Week’s Challenge

This week your challenge is to build a simple e-learning game.

Tools

You can use Articulate Storyline or Articulate Quizmaker to create your e-learning game.

To get you started, take a look at this e-learning game from our downloads gallery.

Last Week’s E-Learning Challenge

To help you find a game plan for this week’s challenge, take a look at the highlights from last week’s branching scenarios challenge:

• Jackie Van Nice kicked off this week’s challenge with an elegant example of smooth animations and creative type design. Be sure to check out Jackie’s blog post to learn more about her design process. Awesome demo, Jackie!
• Kimberly Bourque followed up with a creative example that asks learners to guess their leadership style before beginning the simulation. Well done, Kimberly!
• Gemma Henderson put together an illustrated example that features a creative rollovers for the question choices. Amazing example, Gem!
• El Burgaluva shared a creative, character-driven example that features photo characters and chat boxes for each scenario. Great demo, Leslie!

How to Build a Simple E-Learning Game

Learn how to build an e-learning game in this video tutorial series.

New to the E-Learning Challenges?

The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos.