EMERGO provides a method and toolkit for the development and delivery of multimedia
cases that enable the acquisition of complex skills.

An EMERGO-case is delivered through the Internet, and aims to
- study together at a distance
- actively acquire complex skills
- within the context of a multimedia and realistic practice
- through gaming-, simulation- and pedagogical elements
- by using a mixture of both embedded and real-life guidance, including peer feedback


Which are the EMERGO products?

- A systematic approach for the development and delivery of case scenarios and cases
- A software toolkit for the development and delivery of cases
- Worked out case examples (e.g., from environmental policy research, neuropsychological diagnostics, teacher training)

These products will become freely available, and can be adjusted or extended according to Creative Commons. All software will be Open Source under GPL license.

Case delivery environment

Casus-uitleveromgeving

Which are the EMERGO products?

EMERGO uses multimedia and realistic cases that enable the acquisition of complex skills. These cases are delivered through the Internet. Besides pedagogical elements, they contain simulation and gaming elements. Students plunge into a rich and intriguing learning environment, enabling immersive and effective learning experiences. The contexts of practice are realistic and will continuously confront students with the consequences of their actions.
EMERGO provides conditions for the development and anchoring of new forms of education and learning, that are aimed at the realisation of productive learning experiences.
EMERGO closely fits to the educational potential of broadband internet, computer games, and embedded intelligence, in line with the multimodal and multimedia reality in which the new generation of learners grows up.


Advantages EMERGO

EMERGO offers solutions that lead to

• a decreased guidance load imposed on teachers
  Embedded intelligence, calling for students’ help through the Internet, and more collaboration between students will lead to a decreased guidance load for teachers
  - more actively involved students with more freedom to study

• The toolkit supports the integration of unexpected events and other gaming elements. This encourages students to actively participate; learning routes are not predefined but highly personalised

• decreased costs (production, complexity, distribution)
  EMERGO provides a tested, systematic, transparently documented approach with generic components of the toolkit. These enable you to develop realistic cases faster, thus cheaper, and besides to distribute them through the Internet in a fast and cheap way.

Considerations when using EMERGO

EMERGO products as such offer no guarantee for successful education. This requires expertise and skills from educators who design and develop the challenging and realistic cases. And this requires high-quality content.


Roadmap EMERGO

EMERGO has been a two year project (January 2006 until December 2007), partially funded by SURF. Project partners (all dutch) were Open University of the Netherlands (chair), University of Maastricht, Nijmegen University, and the University of Utrecht. The first version of the toolkit and first worked out cases became available in June 2007. It is intended from 2008 onwards that the number of online cases and partners will increase. Furthermore, for next versions of the toolkit we consider improving online gaming tools and extending possibilities for collaboration.

The next EMERGO toolkit release will contain an electronic user manual. Case developers easily can comment on it and revise it. Content input will be facilitated by means of animation and wizzards.

Furthermore, a 'Define object states' component will be added to the EMERGO toolkit. This component will enable a case developer to change an object's properties and/or runtime status manually for testing purposes. An object's status normally depends on elapsing time, on a playing EMERGO user's actions, or on status changes of other ('non playing') EMERGO objects.

Also, existing EMERGO components will be improved. For example, a playing EMERGO character will be able to add resources, depending on the settings configured by the case developer in the 'Design Resources' component.

At last, a Showcase will be developed to show the EMERGO toolkit's strengths and possibilities.

The Roadmap time path strongly depends on external funding and partnerships.

Dr. Hans Hummel        
Tel: 045- 5762651         
e-mail: hans.hummel@ou.nl