Integration and Deployment of Educational Games in e-Learning Environments: The Learning Object Model Meets Educational Gaming

Game-based learning is becoming popular in the academic discussion of Learning Technologies. However, even though the educational potential of games has been thoroughly discussed in the literature, the integration of the games into educational processes and how to efficiently deliver the games to the students are still open questions. This paper addresses the aspects of integration and automatic deployment of educational games in Learning Management Systems. This integration simplifies the introduction of games in educational settings, leveraging the pre-existing technological infrastructure. Our approach is based on the automatic packaging and exportation of games as self-contained Learning Objects that can be easily distributed through any LMS compliant with the current interoperability standards. We thus inherit the advantages of the Learning Object model in terms of interoperability and, when supported by the LMS, in terms of student tracking and assessment.