SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ONLINE LEARNING IN A COMBINED GAME AND FORUM SETTING
The field of the invention relates to systems and methods that enable online learning in a game setting combined with community forum support and real world practice. In an embodiment, the system includes an online learning server system coupled to a public network and accessible to one or more users. The online learning server system is configured to retrieve a user's data in association with an educational game, determine at least one lesson, challenge, or mini-game, and provide the at least one lesson, challenge, or mini-game for playing. When the user unlocks a lesson or level in the game, the system unlocks the associated lesson or level in a forum associated with the game, and promotes the user to participate in the forum. At the completion of the learning game, the online learning server system calculates progress and level of the user, updates, and stores the user's data.
The field of the invention relates to systems and methods for online learning, and more particularly to systems and methods that enable online learning in a combined game and forum setting.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONWith the widespread availability of online access through the Internet, massive open online courses (MOOCs) have become popular in both first world nations, adopted by prestigious colleges and universities, as well as third world countries whereby free MOOC content is being absorbed at a rapidly increasing rate. Traditionally, the Internet has been a medium for learning by way of passive teaching methods—reading instructional content, listening to audio, and watching videos. These methods, however, only promote 30% average engagement (National Training Laboratories). Aside from the convenience of learning online, these types of education lack the motivation, engagement, and fun required to attract more learners and promote further learning.
To increase engagement, most MOOCs have adopted simple gamification mechanics such as badges/badging, leveling up, social sharing, achievements and goals (locked and unlocked), currency and karma. Some MOOCs have also adopted simple practice exercises and testing albeit the vast majority of content is focused on coding/programming languages and simple mathematics. Still, these additions have only resulted in a near 10% industry standard completion rate. To increase completion rates, many MOOCs are now including course certifications which seem to provide only a small amount of incremental lift.
Children's games have very high engagement which can very much be attributed to their unique addition of storyline elements. Rather than basic educational content, learning is frequently delivered through the conduit of a story and characters which often include avatars and imaginary worlds. By creating engagement through a storyline, children don't realize they are learning; the perception is they are just playing a fun game.
To promote engagement in online learning, the learning platform needs to move from passive teaching methods, with a 30% average retention rate, to participatory methods which include group discussion (50% average retention rate), practice (75% average retention rate), and teaching others (90% average retention rate). Both group discussion and teaching others can be achieved by adding a forum component to the learning platform, but to be successful, engagement in the forum must also be promoted. The learning platform must also include elements allowing users to practice what they've learned.
Accordingly, systems and methods for online learning which include, among others, passive teaching methods, gamification components, participatory teaching methods, forums components, and storyline elements may be highly desirable for online learning.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe field of the invention relates to systems and methods for online learning, and more particularly to systems and methods that enable online learning in a game setting combined with a community game forum (herein referred to as forum or game forum) to support real world practice. The systems and methods for online learning of the invention include, among others, passive teaching methods, gamification components, participatory teaching methods, forum components, storyline elements, and real world activity upon graduation. The online learning provides lessons, objectives, and mini-games that simulate real life activities, and an associated community forum for the users to help and teach others. Upon completion of a game, the online learning systems and methods of the invention also provide a conduit to real world use of the newly learned skills.
In an embodiment, the system includes an online learning server system coupled to a public network and accessible to one or more users. The online learning system server includes game application program interface, a forum application program interface, and a database that stores data associated with the one or more users. The online learning server system is configured to retrieve a user's data in association with an educational game. The system determines at least one lesson, exercise, or challenge, mini-game, or tutorial, and provides at least one lesson, exercise, challenge, or mini-game for playing, which may include associated help and/or tutorials. The system may dynamically create the storyline of the educational game, and provide assistance dynamically to the user. When the user unlocks a lesson or level in the game, the system unlocks an associated lesson or level in a forum associated with the game, and may prompt the user to participate in the forum. Throughout the episode or game, the online learning server system calculates progress, level, rewards, and so on, of the user, updates, and stores the user's data.
Other systems, methods, features and advantages of the invention will be or will become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages be included within this description, be within the scope of the invention, and be protected by the accompanying claims.
In order to better appreciate how the above-recited and other advantages and objects of the inventions are obtained, a more particular description of the embodiments briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof, which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the components in the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention. Moreover, in the figures, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the different views. However, like parts do not always have like reference numerals. Moreover, all illustrations are intended to convey concepts, where relative sizes, shapes and other detailed attributes may be illustrated schematically rather than literally or precisely.
Turning to the online learning server system 1400, an exemplary embodiment is shown in
For a game 1430, the learning engine API 1420 includes the gaming API 1421 that provides the building blocks, applications, tools, and software for building and managing the education elements (e.g., lessons, challenges, mini games, and so on), story (e.g., main storyline that moves users along from lesson to lesson, and so on), agent assistance (e.g., pop-ups or fly-ins with dynamic text to help users), level unlocking, rewards, analytics dashboard, and so on, for the game 1430. Alternatively, a game 1430 may be built as a standalone game (application) without the learning engine API 1420.
For online electronic forum 1440, the learning engine API 1420 includes the forum API 1422 that provides the building blocks, applications, tools, analytics and software for building and managing level unlocking, rewards, content voting, content levels, content management, and so on, for the forum 1440. Levels (e.g., topics, and so on) in the forum 1440 are locked (user cannot access or participate in) until the associated levels in the associated game 1430 are unlocked. Users of the forum 1440 are rewarded (e.g., with karma, swag, currency) for engagement which may include providing content (e.g., asking questions and providing answers), voting content up and/or down, and socializing content by posting on social networks, blogs, and so on. Users are also rewarded for bringing other users to the forum 1440 and/or game 1430 (user acquisition). After bringing in other users to the forum 1440 and/or game 1430, a user may also help or mentor the other users, creating a teacher/student acquisition. As such, the user (teacher) earns rewards based on the user's consistent help to or mentoring of the other users, and/or based on the performance of the other users (students). Users of the forum 1440 may vote on the forum content. As a result, authors of content that reach a predetermined number or type of votes (good content) also receive rewards (e.g., karma, swag, currency). The forum rewards can be used back inside the associated game 1430. Content that also reaches a predetermined number or type of votes are also socialized (e.g., published) to one or more social networks (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and so on) of the authors of the content, or of the online learning server system 1400. The content may be socialized automatically. The above encourages participation in the forum 1440 for learning and collaboration.
The learning engine API 1420 also keeps profiles of users and data in a user profile database 1410. Users may need to register with the system 1400 before using the system 1400. Alternatively, a tier of users may use the system 1400 without registration. These users can only access a limited number of games or forums and/or for a limited period of time. The registration may be free of charge, or the users may have to pay a subscription fee, which may be made via the payment server 1600 (e.g., PayPal, Google Wallet, Stripe and the like). The subscription fee may have one more tiers, each tier offering a different level of services. As such, the data stored in the user profiles include user personal information, payment information, user's device information, user's game information, forum information, and so on. Other data may include metrics and analytics data from the game sessions performed by the user. This data may include, e.g., timestamp of session, session duration, game information, forum information, and so on. As mentioned above, the system 1400 may be distributed on one or more physical servers. The user profile database 1410 may be integrated with the system 1400, or communicatively coupled to the system 1400. The user profile database 1410 may be a single database or a distributed database, or in multiple databases.
The learning engine API 1420, the game API 1421, and the forum API 1422 also support dynamic storytelling. Each time the user (or player) starts a session, the game API 1421 records key data interactions (e.g., duration of play, in-game purchases, referrals, billing, and so on) and forms a unique user story and/or user game profile. The forum API 1422 also records forum activity which is also used to form the unique user story and/or user game profile. The user stories are aimed at refining the gameplay as well as helping to define the user acquisition strategy, game strategy, and the like. The story is driven on a parallel track with the game progression. The user completes tasks but can also engage in a lighter version of the story mechanic if he chooses. This allows the ability to push the story along without forcing the user to complete actions. The online learning server system 1400 has the ability to deliver the story, updates, alerts, and motivating factors in ways that aim to prompt retention, not necessarily in-game purchases.
Depending on the user device 1200/1300 (e.g., desktop, tablet, smartphone, mobile, laptop, and so on), the game API 1421 may push the appropriate game notifications to the user device 1200/1300 to promote the user to take action (e.g., lesson, challenge, mini game, and so on) in a game 1430, and the forum API 1422 may push the appropriate forum notifications to the user device 1200/1300 to promote the user to participate in a forum 1440. For example, a user may start a session on the desktop and moves to another device (e.g., smartphone, tablet). The game API 1421 recognizes the current device and sends the appropriate alert/motivator message to progress the user. The game 1430 and the forum 1440 may also utilize the learning engine API 1420 to package and deliver the message to the appropriate game/device.
The online learning server system 1400 is configured to keep track of the user's game information and forum information and calculate progress, levels and rewards. Rewards may be given as gifts at predetermined time in the game 1430, or when the user has completed a certain challenge, set of challenges, level, and so on. Rewards may also be given when the user participates in the community forum 1440. Rewards may be dynamically created. Rewards are electronic data that may include currency (e.g., cash, coins), gold, badges, tokens, points, swag, karma, powerup, and so on. Karma represents energy which helps the user perform more challenges, gain more patience, and so on. Powerups helps unlock additional advice or skills for the user, which may help the user complete the game 1430 faster and/or earn additional rewards (e.g. currency, karma, and soon). Levels and rewards may be used as incentives to motivate the users to perform more challenges, participate more in the community forum 1440, and so on. In an embodiment, the user may complete all challenges 3820, but if he does not have a certain amount and/or type of rewards, the user does not unlock the next level.
According to an embodiment, once the user completes one or more lessons, challenges, or mini-games, the online learning server system 1400 then offers the user to participate in a game that may include the one or more lessons, challenges or mini-games that the user just learned in the game 1430, together with other lessons, challenges or mini-games.
According to an embodiment, once the user completes the game 1430, the online learning server system 1400 may offer the user to participate in more advanced games for learning more advanced subjects. The more advanced learning games may include real life activities (e.g., creating and placing a real ad campaign on social networks such as Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and so on, after learning about ad creation and campaign; trading on online brokerage firms such as E*Trade, Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, and so on, after learning about stock trading; participating in real forums, and so on), and may involve real currency. The online learning server system 1400 may offer or reward real and/or effective currency to the user for participation in the real life activities.
According to an embodiment, one or more new educational games may be created using different combinations of different episodes, story elements, levels, and challenges, mini-games, rewards, forum engagement and so on, from the game 1430. One or more different forums may also be created using different levels, rewards, and so on, from the forum 1440.
Preferred ProcessesIn the foregoing specification, the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments thereof. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention. For example, the reader is to understand that the specific ordering and combination of process actions described herein is merely illustrative, and the invention may appropriately be performed using different or additional process actions, or a different combination or ordering of process actions. For example, this invention is particularly suited for online learning; however, the invention can be used for any learning in general. Additionally and obviously, features may be added or subtracted as desired. Accordingly, the invention is not to be restricted except in light of the attached claims and their equivalents.
Claims
1. A computer-based system for providing online learning in a game, comprising:
- an online learning server system, operatively coupled to a public network, having game application program interface, a forum application program interface, a database that stores data associated with a plurality of users, wherein the online learning server system is configured to:
- retrieve a user's data in association with an educational game;
- determine at least one electronic episode object, lesson object, challenge object, mini-game object, help object, or tutorial object;
- provide the at least one electronic lesson object, challenge object, or mini-game object for playing;
- provide the at least one help object or tutorial object;
- electronically unlock at least one lesson object or level object in a forum associated with the educational game;
- calculate progress and level;
- update the user's data; and
- store the user's data.
2. A computer-based system for providing online learning in a game, comprising:
- an online learning server system, operatively coupled to a public network, having game application program interface, a forum application program interface, a database that stores data associated with a plurality of users, wherein the online learning server system is configured to:
- retrieve a user's data in association with an electronic game forum;
- determine at least one level of forum participation;
- provide the least one level of forum participation for user participation; and
- calculate, update, and store the user's data.
Type: Application
Filed: Mar 14, 2013
Publication Date: Sep 18, 2014
Applicant: PIXLWISE, INC. (Dover, DE)
Inventors: Cedrick Funches (La Mesa, CA), Nicholas J. Ryall (Auckland), Jason M. Akatiff (Carlsbad, CA)
Application Number: 13/830,254
International Classification: A63F 9/24 (20060101);