CIL2007: Learning Objects and Gaming

Shu Liu, Digital Content Librarian at Colorado State University:A learning object is an online tool that includes a learning objective, a learning process, and assessment of learning, providing an interactive experience to help learners digest a specific piece of knowledge or master a specific task.

Imagine this as a pyramid — from bottom to top would be: Courses, Units, Lessons, Learning Activities, then the Learning Object

The Wisconsin Online Resource Center, which contains a library of learning objects.

Other sites include:

• MERLOT — the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching
• UTOPIA — University of Texas repository

See also: Wikipedia article on learning objects
Tammy Allgood of Arizona State University Library:

Using gaming to introduce lower division students to library as a physical and virtual place, various services and resources.

Recommends starting with a board game before going online.

The ASU game was built using Flash and is at library.west.asu.edu/game/quarantined/login.cfm. Username: Tammy Password: Allgood (good until 4/24/2007)

Version 1.0 has been in use this spring semester; feedback from students going into version 1.1.