ELH#134 – Soccer, Avatars and Gamification

Motivated by the Articulate Roadshow in Toronto last week, and with a two hour bus ride ahead of me, I decided to tackle the E-Learning Heroes Challenge on Personalizing Your E-Learning Courses with Gamification Techniques. I originally started off building a simple soccer game for ELH#102 but my list of ideas kept growing. This interaction has been kid tested and approved by my 5 and 7 year old nephews.

This sample has a few options for learners to allow them to customize their course experience:

  • Choose their own Player The learner can choose whether they have a female or a male player. Originally I created players of many colours, but because I was not able to add motion paths to the player states, on the question slides where the player comes onto the soccer field, I had to use individual layers for each player. The feedback layers were created in the feedback master however and these player changes are accomplished using states.
  • Name Players are asked to enter their name. Their name is used on their personalized Soccer Trading Card, in the game instructions, and in the results slides.
  • Personalized Paths The learner has the option of Learning First or skipping directly to the quiz questions.

In addition to allowing customization, which is one aspect of gamifying a learning experience, this quiz is set up like a game. Audio of the audience clapping and cheering has been added to set the scene, and points are awarded for correct answers. These points are tracked on the game scoreboard. When a wrong answer is selected, the learner scores a point for the away team.

This challenge allowed me to use feedback masters for the first time, and also forced me to become much more comfortable with using variables in my course. Some of the graphics are custom the players and soccer ball were modified from free vector illustrations using PowerPoint while the soccer net was built using the shape tools in PowerPoint. I also integrated a motion video background that I obtained from Pixabay on the title and results slides.

I had a lot of fun with this challenge, but would like to do a couple of things with this game in the future:

  1. Add additional avatar options
  2. Modify the game for another sport such as hockey
  3. Create a custom Take the Shot button to replace the standard Submit button

I hope that you enjoy the game. Please leave comments and feedback below.

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