College of Education in Minecraft: Exploration or Educational Technology Tools through Virtual Worlds

The presentation aims to showcase the College of Education at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM) in a virtual worlds settings using Minecraft. The contents of the virtual building are filled with the instructional tools used in the Learning Design and Technology (LTEC) department. The simulation allows the learners to explore the college, complete a set of tasks including an in-game journal scavenger hunt, and also to experiment with Minecraft as an educational tool. Upon going through a formative evaluation, our team realized that virtual world games do have a learning curve and can be quite challenging for students who are unfamiliar with the game mechanics. Despite the shortcomings of virtual world game-based learning, the students were highly motivated and engaged during their lesson.