It's definitely the time of year for authoring tool releases, with Adobe announcing their eLearning Suite and a version 4 of Captivate, an extensive upgrade to the 200+ interactions in the Raptivity library, and now Caspian Learning's Thinking Worlds, the first tool that I know of to support the rapid creation of immersive, single-player 3D worlds for learning.
I know the guys at Caspian well and I've had a little bit of influence on the design of this tool, so I'm delighted that they've been able to move mountains and get it to market so quickly. Interestingly, the product has been designed to work at a number of levels:
Entry level: simple templates, programmed objects and 3D libraries which enable games to be assembled easily.
Enthusiast level: a visual flowcharting tool enables non-programmers to easily create complex gameplay.
Scripting level: a scripting language allows the more technically minded to create advanced 3D games.
Professional level: API access into the Thinking Worlds engine allows professional programmers to extend functionality.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this tool is the facility it provides for instructional designers and other l&d professionals to assemble simple 3D games without a PhD in rocket science. This is an ambitious target and it remains to be seen whether anyone but serious developers will be able to get their minds round it, but some evidence can be obtained from the demos that Caspian will be running on stand 85 at Learning Technologies this week, on the hour every hour. For a quick preview there's an online demo.
Pricing isn't yet fixed for the tool, but I expect it will be in the region of £1000 ($1400). I'm determined to be one of the first to put together a prototype, so watch this space for news on just how easy this proves to be.
Looking forward to it!
ReplyDeleteGreat post Clive, I managed to get a full demo of Thinking Worlds. It looks like a fantastic tool which opens up many game based learning possibilities.
ReplyDeleteThis morning we've had 6 computer games students in our office this morning who have had a look at the demo. It was great to show them that this type ot technology is available within e-learning.
The reaction from the students was really positive! We are looking forward to the full release.