The main target of the ELEKTRA project is to establish a methodology which incorporates the advantages of computer games for educational purposes and to overcome disadvantages and potential risks. Modern computer games let their players enter the virtual worlds by offering a high degree of interactivity and realism. They turn the user into the active protagonist and hero, who can act and interact using more and more complex game features. Furthermore, the “gamer” is embedded in a fascinating universe having its own rules and residents to be discovered. By the player’s own actions and his involvement into the framework story the game becomes important and meaningful to him.
ELEKTRA will build upon these success principles and apply their design and realisation in current computer games in order to develop new forms of didactic design for game-based learning. The aim is to excite and motivate learners equally as leading edge commercial games excite gamers and improve the knowledge transfer at the same time. Learning situations will be presented in a rich and immersive virtual 3D environment offering traditional and new perspectives to learning content and embedded in a meaningful and motivating storyline. This will offer both a consistent world experience that fosters contextual learning and envision knowledge in imaginative and visionary stunning ways.
Moreover, ELEKTRA will incorporate sound pedagogical and psychological learner models and didactics. Within this learning game environment ELEKTRA fosters a user-centric approach as regard to both learning and gaming by enabling constructivist and active behaviour as well as situation- or story-driven learning and teaching situations.
ELEKTRA's overall aims for the new digital learning game are
1. to create new learning experiences in an exciting learning game environment
2. to enable the transfer to formal learning by using school curricula conform learning content
3. to validate the learning process in the learning game environment
