Collaboration and Playful Competition in a 3D Educational Virtual World: The Learning@Europe Experience

Abstract. This paper examines the role of collaborative competition in an educational experience based on a shared online 3D environment. Group collaboration and competition in learning are regarded by motivationalist perspectives as a powerful combination. In a Learning@Europe experience, high-school students from 4 countries compete in teams, two schools against two, playing games in a virtual world, completing assignments with their remote partners, and answering questions about European history. During the 4th and last online meeting, the team which earned more points in the 6-7 weeks experience is crowned winner. The paper analyzes the role of collaboration and competition in L@E, through the data of a 3-months evaluation involving almost 1000 students and 50 teachers from 6 European countries: Poland, Italy, Belgium, France, Spain and Norway. Results suggest that team competition in answering cultural questions is almost as compelling as playing games in the 3D world.