12 November 2018 |  Rudy GUILLONNEAU

Energize an element of the setting for a better immersion of learners

In a simulation or Serious Game, the more qualitative and relevant the interactions, the better the learners’ engagement. The update 3.0 of VTS Editor has seen the birth of new green interactive blocs for this purpose. This trick will focus on one of them: The Clickable Area. A real educational gold mine, this bloc will be the subject of several tricks because its use unlocks new uses!

How it works ?

The Clickable Zone bloc allows to define an action triggered by a click of the learner at a specific location on the set.

This bloc has 3 gradual levels of use located at the top right when the bloc opens: Normal, Advanced or Expert. For the sake of this first trick, we will place ourselves in the “normal” mode of the bloc.

Let’s first look at how it works in the simulation:

gif_ok

As you can see from the video, the phone on the desk is an interactive element that triggers an action: pick up the phone.

Let us now look at how to implement this type of interactivity and its pedagogical implications for the learner.

The graph of the previous scene is as follows:

Graph Tip 1

The scene begins with a “Message” bloc, to alert the learner that an element of the set is interactive. Following this bloc, we place our Clickable Zone bloc on the lead wire, which we will configure as below.

Place this area on the place you want to make interactive as in the photo and validate:

Clickable area JPG 1

The literal explanation of this bloc is as follows: As long as my learner has not clicked on the desired area, the scenario does not progress. There are other scripting techniques specific to the clickable area that we will see in future tips!

Realism and increased immersion thanks to the interactivity of the environment.

The purpose of these interactivities with the set is to allow the simulation to run continuously without interruption. They make the scripting process more fluid and thus increase the learner’s immersion and engagement.

Another advantage of the interactive zone is the gamified aspect it gives to your simulations. The learner feels even more involved in the simulation through his choices, but also through his actions.

We will see during the next trick other blocs that participate in the gamification of your scenarios, such as the inventory bloc!