Five Software Products for Adding an Avatar to Your eLearning

Here are 4 software products that allow you to add an avatar to your elearning courses. Avatars can be an important and meaningful addition to your elearning. Aiding in such things as increasing positive learner attitudes and providing a social role model for interactions.

NOAH--Provides animated characters to focus attention, point out and explain critical information, and make even the dullest material interesting. The company can create the instruction for you or you can build NOAH products yourself. Check out some examples of NOAH in action.

NOAH animated character (avatar) in action.

Codebaby--Provides avatars to engage learners, prospects and others in engaging dialog. You can see some examples of Codebaby in action for elearning here.

Here is a video of Codebaby in action.



Reallusion--Creates D cinematic animation tools for consumers, students and professionals. The company provides consumers with easy-to-use avatar animation, facial morphing and voice lip-sync solutions for real-time 3D filmmaking and previsualization for professional post-production. One of their products is Crazy Talk which is used for creating sophisticated, zany or dramatic talking characters for unique digital content. You simply import an image and CrazyTalk guides you through the process to bring it to life.Check out some Crazy Talk demos here. Crazy Talk can be good for animating characters you want to add to your elearning. Check out this video explaining how it works.




Media Semantics--This software installs on your desktop and lets you build royalty-free Flash and video materials using animated talking characters. The Builder works with your existing text, images, and Powerpoint slides to let you rapidly create effective and engaging materials. Check out some demos of Media Semantics here.

Avatar helping out with a multiple choice question.

Vcom3D--This company has a product suite including Studio and Gesture Builder. The suite of products allows for the creation of 3D animated characters that communicate through body language (including gesture or sign language), facial expression and lip-synched speech. Check out demos of Vcom3D here.

Here is a video of Vcom3D in action.

Customer service training incorporating an avatar to help the learner through the course.

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Avatars, Video and Simulations

Here is some information as pre-reading for webinar attendees and for students in the Learning in 3D summer class.


Avatar Information

Learning about avatars:What is an Avatar?

Encourage Avatar Customization

Promoting motivation with virtual agents and avatars: role of visual presence and appearance.

You are your avatar, your avatar is you.

Avatars for Learning

Accidental Learning and the Power of Stories (information about 3rd person and 1st person learning opportunities)

Videos
Here are some videos about creating a good educational video. Remember, even in an educational video, you are telling a story. The story of how to accomplish a task or achieve a desired outcome. Educational does not mean, no story. It means an instructional story.






Simulations

Do they die in real life?

Advantages of immersive learning

Creating questions for compliance training.

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Gadgets, Games and Gizmos: Attending an ISTE Meeting in SL

Last night I attended my first meeting in Second Life. It was sponsored by the International Society for Technology in Education better known as ISTE. (that's me in the hat with the blue and black striped shirt.)

It was facilitated by Kittygloom Cassady. She did a great job! I kept the bubbles over everyone's head for the picture to show a little of the environment in which the chat took place. We had about 22 folks attend the meeting.

The diverse group is trying to work toward determining the best ways of teaching within a virtual world. We heard examples of mock courts, English as a Second Language (ESL) and the creation of ancient cities as well as role-plays.

The meeting was, at times, chaotic with many people chatting and, I noticed, Second Life doesn't really have any classroom management features, it is hard to tell who raised their hand first and a little difficult to avoid one person talking over another. Also, when people got "bored" they would stand or even fly or jump...interesting, never had that in an actual classroom (flying that is)



One thing I think that should happen once a meeting starts is that protocols are created for making the meeting effective. For example, have chat words like DONE at the end when a person is done with their comments. Don't raise your hand or ask to speak until the person has indicated DONE. Perhaps take questions from left to right so that it is orderly.

These are just some ideas. It really reminded me of when virtual classrooms like Centra started to appear, eventually the software grew into its use by the pioneers.
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Gadgets, Games and Gizmos: The Future of E-Learning

I think the future of e-learning revolves, in a large way, around the use of 3D worlds and avatars...I'm not the only one, IBM believes this as well...

Employees of tomorrow will inhabit virtual worlds like Second Life to hold live weekly meetings with co-workers, catch up over lunch with financial advisers, and join friends on virtual shopping excursions after work.

Meet me in my avatar's office explains some of the vision of IBM.

However, I am not sure the actual vehicle will be Second Life. Recently, I was given the opportunity to play with a product created by a company called ProtonMedia.

The product is called the ProtoSphere. This interactive 3D environment was built for learning with Voice Over the Internet (VoIP), application sharing, whiteboards, and virtual meeting spaces. It speaks the SCORM language and looks a lot like Second Life only with a cleaner interface.

This summer I am going to put the product through its paces as I use it for my class "Learning in 3D." I will provide feedback and information on this blog so stay tuned for more information on ProtoSphere: Second Life for Learning
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Gadgets, Games and Gizmos: Learning about Avatars

Here is a great article from the eLearning Guild on avatars. If you are not familiar with the potential of avatars for e-learning check out this article by Raj Sheth titled Avatar Technology: Giving a Face to the e-Learning Interface. The article does a great job of defining avatars and describing the different types of avatars and provides examples of how they are used in a variety of settings.
Raj describes an avatar as:

An avatar, in the broadest sense, is an image that represents one party in an interactive exchange. In some situations, the avatar may represent an actual human being, but in e-Learning, the avatar almost always operates as an agent of the e-Learning application, and generally simulates human activity. Avatars in e-Learning are somewhat similar to avatars in online games.

Raj believes that avatars are just begining to show their potential in the world of e-learning. If you have some time, check out the article.
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Gadgets, Games and Gizmos: Avatars for Learning

A great deal of research is being undertaken in the area of avatars...you know, the lifelike animated people that inhabit Second Life and other online worlds.

One person doing work in this area is Amy L. Baylor at Floridia State University. She is the founder of The Center for Research of Innovative Technologies for Learning (RITL) which is creating these virtual trainers has found that learners tend to choose virtual trainer types that were similar in ethnicity to the learner. She has also found that female avatars seem to be better at motivating learners than male versions.

The customizability of these avatars means a learner can choose to learn from a wise old mentor or a hip young "dude" or "dudet". Gamers, who are used to building their own players in video games, can now construct their own online trainers, tutors or mentors. These trainers can then assist them to learn new information or be available from time-to-time when they detect that the learner is in trouble.

Sounds like an interesting way to have Einstein be your mentor. To learn even more, check out this article titled Attractive Virtual Professors Draw Student Attention. Research is begining to show that avatars can be an effective tool for online learning. If done correctly, the same "teacher" could appear as different avatars to different students. Regardless of who was teaching the class, you could have the look of the instructior you wanted.

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