Design and Implementation of Farmtasia: A Game Designed for the VISOLE Teaching Style.

The expeditious growth of the Internet and the related technologies hastily contribute and fill up educational applications. While most of them are intended to facilitate the teaching process and are teacher-oriented, the society has continuously asked for a paradigm shift to a student-centred approach. The VISOLE teaching style is a learning paradigm is made up of student-oriented elements which contemplate to infuse learning with amusement. Farmtasia is an online game designed to implement the VISOLE idea with situated learning. Students are suggested to play this online game in groups, interact and compete with other group members. Eventually they are expected to learn the subject knowledge embedded in the game and develop high-order skills through playing the game. The design and implementation of the game follow two principles. The first one is to make the game as realistic as possible so that students can learn from an authentic environment. The second one is to inject fun and interactive components in the game, so that students are eager to immerse and interact in the multiuser environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]