[Mania] Learning Becomes Fun by Solving Quests Like Playing Games in the Metaverse World...

Wonderbus, NHN Edu Develop Educational Metaverse Platform
Learn by Solving Quests Like an MMORPG Game
Real-Time Learning Progress... Increase Achievement by Earning Badges

The character is directly performing the Talchum dance while learning about intangible cultural heritage festivals through Wonderbus. [Image source=Wonderbus capture]

"Today's topic to learn is national heritage. Click the backpack-shaped icon to start the quest and the class will proceed."

Clicking the backpack-shaped icon on the right side of the screen revealed icons for quests, badges, chat, mailbox, and settings. Following the teacher's instructions, clicking on Quest allowed participation in a quest about intangible heritage festivals. Controlling the character to complete quests felt like a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), but the content was packed tightly with educational material.

NHN Edu developed the educational metaverse platform 'Wonderverse' to enable learning as if playing a game. Educators can use Wonderverse to select content and prepare lessons directly. They can monitor students' learning progress, time spent on quests, inappropriate vocabulary usage in real-time, and can also pause or deliver announcements. Students needing support, such as those inactive or staying over 10 minutes without interaction, can also be identified.

The strength of Wonderverse lies in allowing learning while feeling like playing a game. Clicking to proceed with quests and talking to NPCs (Non Player Characters) enables progress. While undertaking the quest about intangible heritage festivals, it was possible to converse with an NPC assistant for Talchum (mask dance). Depending on the learner's request, the character wore a 'tal' (mask) and performed dance moves, through which various movements used in Talchum were learned.

After finishing the Talchum movement learning, finding the tightrope walking assistant NPC led to watching a video. Through a video showing Seoul Namsan Gugakdang performing tightrope walking, learners could study actual tightrope walking beyond just virtual world education.

After watching the video, learners experienced tightrope walking in the virtual world by controlling their character. Although not real, it provided an indirect experience of how difficult tightrope walking is. Using the forward, backward, left, and right arrow keys and keys to control the viewpoint, the tightrope walking quest was successfully completed. The quest progress was shown in a 'notification window' at the top left of the screen, and the destination could be checked on the map at the top right. Interaction with other learners through chat and emoticons was possible, and characters could be customized directly.

Badge obtained after completing the Wonderbus Intangible Cultural Heritage Learning Quest.
[Image source=Wonderbus capture]

After completing a series of quests related to intangible heritage, learners earned a badge titled 'Person Who Cherishes Intangible Heritage.' Teachers could also introduce outstanding learners through real-time announcements. When the activity 'Let's learn about the characteristics and value of Talchum and tightrope walking' ended, a screen appeared to evaluate the difficulty and fun of the learning. After the evaluation, teachers could check the final results regarding learners' achievement levels and interest.

Wonderverse officially launched last month and was adopted by Donghwa Elementary School located in Cheongju. The content prepared in Wonderverse includes six topics such as national heritage and waste issues, with additional content on digital literacy and drug addiction prevention in preparation. There are plans to allow teachers to create learning content themselves.