Game-based E-Learning Platform

Abstract

The game-based e-learning platform (codenamed, EDGE) is a system to build and manage game-based learning experiences. It is a web-based system employing the client-server architecture and uses technologies from the JavaScript stack. The system can be used by game creators, school academic staff, students and their parents. It provides a flexible template-based game development environment, ability to host and join game play sessions, user management and performance reporting capabilities. Through the use of modern Agile methodologies and tools such as Feature Driven Development and Jira, the EDGE system was developed iteratively to address a critical problem prevailing in the current Sri Lankan education system: not incorporating modern teaching techniques in school education systems. Existing systems in game-based and online learning were studied to build a solid understanding of requirements for this project. Several technical and architectural design approaches were evaluated by weighing their pros and cons. Afterwards, the candidate designs were implemented using modern technologies such as Angular, Node & Express, Socket.IO, HTML canvas and Docker containers. Finally, the system was extensively tested using a variety of methods such as exploratory testing, validation & verification and unit testing with the Jasmine and Karma frameworks. The final solution is a system that has all the basic tools for building, managing and experiencing game-based learning right from a user’s web browser. Whilst there were many hurdles to overcome due to the system’s scale and complexity, the EDGE system proves that a platform of this nature can address present-day issues in delivering education content.