How to Gamify ELearning Courses through Virtual Worlds

Instructional designers often search for ways to gamify their eLearning courses quickly and efficiently without hiring professional developers and graphic artists. We all know that gamification can get expensive!  So, what can you do if your client wants to get an engaging product and, at the same time, does not want to pay a fortune? Luckily, there is a rapid solution that can make everyone happy. Virtual Worlds have been around for quite some time now and many designers have been successfully incorporating them in their eLearning lessons. With Virtual Worlds, the sky is the limit.  There are many avatars and settings that you can choose from. All you have to do is choose a Virtual World you want, find the characters that best meet your needs, find settings and create your story around that setting. One of the best features of Virtual Worlds is that you can maneuver your camera very quickly to capture your characters at different angles. You can easily change and capture their emotions and even change settings at any time you want. Some Virtual Worlds allow you to record short videos and voice -overs. If you were to hire a professional graphic designer, not only that you would spend a lot of money to complete all the scenes and angles to make your game interactive, engaging, and professional, but you would also spend a lot of time on all the prep work including describing every scene and characters involved in these scenes.

So, what do you need to gamify your course using Virtual Worlds?  First, you need to have a completed script, and have a good idea about what you want to portray in your game. Think about the setting of your game and the characters that will be involved. Then, do your research about the pros and cons of each Virtual World, and choose the one that best meets your needs. Once you select your desired Virtual World, you will have to add your characters and settings. Then, capture the scenes with your camera and do screen captures. That’s all it takes to create an eLearning game!

While it is certainly possible to create your entire course in the Virtual World environment, not all instructional designers choose to go that route. Instead, they may decide to develop a short simulation or quiz using Virtual Worlds. Regardless of what you decide to do, you should find Virtual Worlds a quick and effective solution to your instructional design needs.

If you want to learn more about gamification and designing successful eLearning courses in general, please check out the Instructional Design for eLearning: Essential guide to creating successful eLearning courses book. This book is also available in Spanish.

In addition, I am offering a special discount for my Instructional Design for eLearning course.