Online Learning 101: Part II
Games and Interactivity

Online Learning 101: Part II

June 11, 2010

Part I: Authoring and Course Development Tools | Part II: Games and Interactivity | Part III: Tools for Web Conferencing and LMSs

In Part I of this three-part series, Susan Landay identified the best ways for face-to-face trainers to add a component of e-learning to their repertoire. She reviewed software tools that are affordable, have minimal learning curves and focus on lively and interactive tools—specifically addressing authoring and course development.

Here in Part II, she explores the range of games and "interactivities" that can easily be created and posted for online learning reinforcement; selection criteria for the various offerings; plus some features and benefits of a few reputable, cost effective solutions. Part III looks at tools for web conferencing, as well as learning-management systems. —Editor

Games and interactivity e-Learning tools are not for creating entire courses, but rather they are useful for quickly and easily loading games and other "interactivities" into existing courses, presentations, a website, or webinar. If you prefer to stick with PowerPoint as your primary course development tool, these add-ons might help you include new dimensions of interactivity and game-play to your existing materials.

In general these tools let you create and edit games, which can be saved into a file format that is easy to integrate into a presentation, email to learners, post or link to online, and embed as links in authoring tools and Learning Management Systems (LMSs).

Definitions
Just to be clear, let's clarify a few words.

Interactivity: any exercise in which the learner must interact with your content and do something with it—play a game, answer a question, sequence tasks, match answers, etc.
Flash: refers to both Adobe Flash, the software program used to add animation, video, and interactivity to Web pages; and to the type of files created with Adobe Flash software. Flash files saved as .SWF (shockwave Flash or "swiffs") can be read and used with a Flash player, for those who don't own the Adobe software.

Criteria for Choosing Solutions
The evaluation criteria for choosing a software package are fairly straightforward:

1. How many different types of interactions are included in the package?
2. What is the quality of the graphics?
3. Do you prefer to create the games online or off?
4. Will games be used for self-paced learning or in a guided webinar?
5. Do you need to track results and integrate with a LMS?
6. How costly is it?

1. Interactivities you can post online or link to in a presentation.
Raptivity by Harbinger
Raptivity software has won a ton of awards from the eLearning Guild, Training Media Review, ELearning! magazine and others. Raptivity may have the most robust library of "pre-built" interactions that allow for customized content to add pizzazz into your e-Learning courses. "Interactivities" include learning games, simulations, videos, puzzles, animations, interactive diagrams, page-flipping books, interactive questions, surveys, brainteasers, flow diagrams, whiteboard simulations, and tons more. The various bundle options make it slightly difficult to navigate the Raptivity site. So here's a simplified overview: To get started you need to purchase either Raptivity Essential (with 35 interactions) or Raptivity Zest (with 12 interactions). Then, you can add on "booster" or "turbo" packs. The packs most useful in keeping with brain-based learning techniques are the Booster Pack 1, Games, Mindplay, and Wordplay.

Claims to fame:

• Great graphics and ready-to-customize, pre-built templates.
• Easy to track completion status, scores and responses for each interactivity.
• Embeds interactions into hundreds of authoring tools, LCMS, LMS, CMS and live collaboration systems.

• Zest is $395 and Essential is $550.
• Most turbo packs are $295 each.
• The Learning Games combo pack includes Essential, plus Booster Pack 1, Games TurboPack, Mindplay TurboPack, and Wordplay TurboPack; it is available for $1249 (reduced from $2130).

Claims to fame:

• Super low-cost.
• Quickly creates custom interactivities.
• An option to integrate with a LMS, for results tracking.

• The price for a single user license is $299.

Claims to fame:

• The invitation wizard lets you quickly distribute the quizzes.
• Easily track how each participant answered each question and how a team did collectively.
• Host quizzes on LearningWare's secure server or your own.
• QuizPoint will keep track of the quizzes that are online and will remind you to update the online quiz after you've made changes on your computer.

Thinking Worlds by Caspian Learning
This template-driven software program, launched in April of 2009, allows you to quickly create 3-D games set in a range of pre-designed locations (office, shop, etc.). You can insert people, objects, and questions; and export games to the Web or use them as stand-alone interactivities.

Claims to fame:

• The only 3-D quick development tool I've found!
• SCORM and LMS compliant.

• The annual license is $1,499.

Claims to fame:

• Multiple authors can collaborate.
• No software installation is needed and all your games are stored on the Quick Lessons server.

• Individual: $99 per month per user.
• Corporate: $149 per month per user (allows for collaboration).

Claims to fame:

• Most customizable option (colors, logos, sounds, etc.).
• Not just an online tool—you can use games both in the classroom and online.
• Post online, host on C3 SoftWorks site, or load onto your own website or LMS.

• Bravo Web Lite is $995.
• Bravo Web (LMS integration) is $1,500.

Pricing: $700

2. Interactivities you can conduct in a webinar.
AllPlay Web by Learningware
The software lets you create games that can be used to make a live webinar more interactive and engaging. After you create game-show type questions, you invite participants to your webinar with GoToMeeting or Webex. You'll host the game on your computer while attendees play on their own—working alone or in teams. One of the nice features here is that you can customize the look of the game with your own logo, etc.

Pricing: $1,495

PING by C3 SoftWorks
This solution combines BRAVO's four TV-style game shows (described above) with some "virtual" response pads, so all of your webinar attendees can stay engaged by "PINGing" in their answers. The game automatically collects the results so you can track results during and after the event. You can use a connectivity/Web conferencing tool, like GoToMeeting or Webex, to launch these games.

Pricing: $1500

3. Additional stand-alone tools, worth mentioning, that enhance interactivity.
Camtasia Studio by TechSmith
The screen recorder and editor tool allows you to record what you see on your computer screen. You can include audio/video if you have a mic and/or webcam; easily edit, produce and share "screen shot movies"; and include "picture in picture" treatments, callout text boxes, or basic shapes like arrows.

Pricing:

• The PC version is $299.
• The Mac version: $150.

Pricing: $49.95

Flypaper by Flypaper Studio, Inc.
With this unique software application you can quickly create interactive content and presentations—complete with Flash animations—interactive pages and menus, special effects, transitions, interactive forms for collecting viewer data, branched stories with navigation, and much more. Programming expertise is not needed, and it is much easier than PowerPoint to coordinate timing and animation on slides. Flypaper also includes hundreds of templates.

Pricing:

• $795 for the desktop version.
• $1,495 for the professional version.

Pricing: $149.99