Learning Villages (LV) 學習村莊 Official Website

Learning Villages (LV) is an educational online game developed by the Centre for the Advancement of Information Technology in Education (CAITE) of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).

Similar to other commercialized online games in the market, LV also provides different interesting elements commonly found, which include role-play characters, virtual scenarios, online chatrooms and game missions, etc.

From the educational point of view, LV is a virtual world composed of a WebQuest task and different knowledge construction tools assigned for the players. The players are encouraged to discuss their project-based learning activities and share their learning processes in the learning villages. One theme is set for each village and the players are welcome to discuss with each other based on the themes they are interested in.

Players can join any learning villages by building a house there to initiate an issue for others to discuss. Other villagers are welcome to join the discussions in two different ways:

build a new house near the others in the same village to express ideas relative to the others and then use a road to display the linkages of these ideas.

Simply go into a house and then discuss there.

• The whole system facilitates quality discussions by the following ways:
• LV virtual money (Donut)

A reputation system

Restricted roles you can perform

Virtual Interactive Student-Oriented Learning Environment (VISOLE)
--- Extending the Frontier of Web-Based Learning

Virtual Interactive Student-Oriented Learning Environment (VISOLE) is a learning style which combines scaffolding and the use of virtual game environment for in-depth learning. The web-based game environment is a simulation of the real world where students participate as "citizens" and take part in shaping the development of the virtual world. In the game, activities planned by players will not only affect themselves but also the whole cyber world because all elements are connected and interrelated. Players are therefore expected to compete among themselves while collaboratively developing the whole cyber world at the same time. The web-based game provides a platform for participants to apply the theoretical knowledge accrued from the scaffolding stage to solve problems in a near-real environment, as well as to develop high-level skills for communication and problem solving in addition to subject knowledge. This project lasts from Dec 2002 to Nov 2005 and supported by RGC Earmark Grant.

Visit Farmtasia webpage (A VISOLE game)

The Probability Fantansy

Fantasy-based learning is a kind of situated learning paradigm in which students learn by solving problems embedded in a near-real situation. Fantasy-based learning employs further interesting story plots from fantasies and/or folklores as the background situation to motivate students to participate in learning activities. It is believed that such paradigm has on one hand, the advantages of helping students to learn in an authentic situation, and on the other, the provision of interesting story episodes as a stimulating agent for less initiated students.

Visit the game webpage


The Network Learning Environment from Flat-land to Space-land: The Higher Dimensional Space Odyssey

In cooperation with the Captial Normal University (CNU), this web-based learning system has been under developing since 2004. This web-based learning system introduces the concept of four-dimensional world to players through series of carefully sequenced games. Starting from playing games in one-dimensional world, and then followed by games in two-dimensional and three-dimensional ones; the players are progressively led to generalize rules that can be applied to the four-dimensional world, in which the generalized rule is tested. The games are designed for players to learn the different features of four-dimensional world and at the same time, the ability to generalize from specific examples to rules.