Virtual Labs Authoring tool
- Creator: ENVISAGE project email
- Publisher: Rage project
- Owner: Dimitrios Ververidis email
Authoring your own Wind Energy and Chemistry Virtual Labs
Short non-technical description: An educator can use this web tool to author his or her own 3D Virtual Labs related either to Wind Energy or Chemistry. The games can be played either from a web browser or locally from a PC/Mac. There are no programming skills required. 3D assets are already available into the tool in order to allow easily making your own compilation.
Technical description:
This component allows for a user-friendly platform that can generate virtual labs through high quality web interfaces and game engines. Our idea is briefly to employ WordPress in order to develop an editor for Unity3D game engine. This editor hides all the programming details from educators and allows them to build educational game projects through their web browser. The game projects are compiled by Unity3D game engine. Thus, the game output is a high quality product for WebGL, desktop, consoles, or mobile devices. The whole procedure is based on game project templates that incorporate high level organization to allow object behavior inheritance.
The component is actually a plugin for WordPress that augments the functionalities of the already available WordPress site into a Virtual Lab authoring platform. The developed plugin has several components such as the front-end interface, the compiling mechanism, and the analytics component that help to monitor virtual labs and provide feedback to educators.
Detailed description: This is a plugin for WordPress that transforms your website into a powerful game authoring tool. Our idea is to employ WordPress in order to develop a new editor for Unity3D game engine. This editor hides all the programming details from educators and allows them to build educational game projects through their web browser. The game projects are compiled by Unity3D game engine and the game output is a high quality product for WebGL, desktop, consoles, or mobile devices. The whole procedure is based on game project templates that incorporate high level organization to allow object behavior inheritance.
Date: Jul 18, 2018
Language: English
Access URL: https://envisagelabs.iti.gr
Download: Virtual-Labs-Authoring-tool.zip
Authoring tool
IDE
Unity3D
Chemistry
Wind Energy
WordPress
plugin
Source code:
Documentation:
- https://envisagelabs.iti.gr/wp-content/uploads/Models/Scenario1_june2018.pdf
- https://envisagelabs.iti.gr/wp-content/uploads/Models/WindEnergyScenario1_June2018.pdf
Setup files:
Game development environment: Unity
Target platform: Browser
Programming language: Other
Version: 2.0
Version notes: We present the second version of the “Virtual Labs authoring tool” which is an integrated software consisting of authoring features, game analytics visualizations, and content adaptation capabilities during the creation of virtual labs. Compared to its initial version, the Authoring Tool has been significantly improved by incorporating several new features such as the ability to author a second type of labs namely the Chemistry Labs which, together with the Wind Energy Labs are the two kinds of supported virtual labs. The Chemistry Lab is a first person view game (FPV) whereas the Wind Energy Lab is a real time strategy game (RTS). Significant effort was allocated into the implementation of web interfaces that allow the configuration of the Chemistry template and also the new version of Wind Energy template. Effort was also allocated in integrating the modules of game analytics and visualizations as part of the Authoring Tool dashboard, as well as in implementing an A/B strategy making mechanism that allows teachers to deploy this kind of strategies without having to compile and re-deploy new gamelabs. Moreover, a score prediction mechanism has been also integrated as part of the Authoring Tool that can predict the score of the learners as a result of certain design choices and investigate the impact of these choices on how the learners are distributed in the 4 PISA categories of performance. This would facilitate the teachers to design virtual labs ensuring the properly balanced distribution of students across these categories.
Development status: Completed
Commit URL: https://github.com/Envisage-H2020/Virtual-labs-authoring-tool
Type: Apache 2.0 (Apache License 2.0)
