A Framework to Stimulate Collaborative e-Learning through Collaborative Educational Games Modeled Using IMS-LD

In an e-learning environment, learn in a collaborative way is not always so easy because one of the difficulties when arranging e-learning contents can be that these contents and learning paths are not adapted to this type of learning. Online courses are constructed in a way that does not stimulate interaction, cooperation and collaborative learning. This is why the e-learning often is seen as individual and lonely. In this sense, one way to reduce these problems and promote collaborative e-learning and interaction learner-learner and learner-teacher is to model these contents in the form of collaborative educational games. The primary aim of this work is to exploit the potential of educational games to improve students' collaboration in e-learning environments. Thus, this paper presents a framework for designing, implementing and building collaborative educational games targeted to e-learning. The proposed framework is composed of two main phases: game design phase that consists to propose a collaborative design process of educational games; and game development phase that consists to implement, package, describe and deliver the games using the IMS-LD standard. The paper describes the steps followed for modeling games, the framework architecture and adopted technical choices. The final framework supports the creation and the use of such games using one of the most popular tools of learning in the web era: the LMS (Learning Management System).