Learnalot Ltd is a British

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 limited company

Limited company

A limited company is a company in which the liability of the members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by shares or by guarantee. And the former of these, a limited company limited by shares, may be...

 developing and maintaining game based learning

Game based learning

Game based learning is a branch of serious games that deals with applications that have defined learning outcomes. Generally they are designed in order to balance the subject matter with the gameplay and the ability of the player to retain and apply said subject matter to the real world.Games...

 (GBL) technologies. Learnalot hosts and develops the Learnalot portal which specialises in mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 for 11–16 year olds. Formed in Burscough

Burscough

Burscough is a village and civil parish within West Lancashire in North West England, to the north of both Ormskirk and Skelmersdale.-Growth:...

 in Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

 in 2009, the company launched its educational portal at the annual BETT

BETT

BETT or The BETT show is an annual trade show in the United Kingdom that showcases the use of information technology in education. Founded in 1985, it has expanded to fill both the National and Grand Halls at the Olympia exhibition centre in London, England...

 show at Olympia

Olympia, London

Olympia is an exhibition centre and conference centre in West Kensington, on the boundary between The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham, London, W14 8UX, England. It opened in the 19th century and was originally known as the National Agricultural Hall.Opened in 1886,...

 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in January 2011. The company mission statement says it engages young learners by fusing education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

 with existing interests in popular culture and video games.

The Learnalot portal itself is continuously updated with new content of two different types – resources and games. In each resource the learner assumes the role of a character

Character

- Art and entertainment :* Character , an agent in a work of art, including literature, drama, cinema, opera, etc.* Character , a 1997 Dutch film, based on the novel by Dutch author Ferdinand Bordewijk* Character , by Dark Tranquillity...

 within a given scenario

Scenario

A scenario is a synoptical collage of an event or series of actions and events. In the Commedia dell'arte it was an outline of entrances, exits, and action describing the plot of a play that was literally pinned to the back of the scenery...

 and is tasked with completing an overall objective that is broken down into three separate activities. Each activity focuses on different areas of the curriculum

Curriculum

See also Syllabus.In formal education, a curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults...

 and each activity contributes to an overall score

Score (game)

In games, score refers to an abstract quantity associated with a player or team. Score is usually measured in the abstract unit of points, and events in the game can raise or lower the score of different parties...

 and grade

Grade (education)

Grades are standardized measurements of varying levels of comprehension within a subject area. Grades can be assigned in letters , as a range , as a number out of a possible total , as descriptors , in percentages, or, as is common in some post-secondary...

 for that resource. In order to achieve an A grade, the learner must master each of the three different activities and the skills that each demand.

Both resources and games feature online leaderboards which encourage competition

Competition

Competition is a contest between individuals, groups, animals, etc. for territory, a niche, or a location of resources. It arises whenever two and only two strive for a goal which cannot be shared. Competition occurs naturally between living organisms which co-exist in the same environment. For...

 among users by periodically awarding prizes to those with the highest scores.

Resource scenarios include saving mankind from extinction by establishing a colony on Mars, re-capturing convicts who have recently escaped from the local prison and ridding a haunted house of its unwelcome guests.

External links

• Next Gen UK Government-commissioned report on games based learning
• Learnalot The Learnalot portal
• Blogalot Learnalot's behind the scenes development blog
• BETT 2011 Learnalot's profile on the BETT 2011 directory
• PRweb Ghost Hunter Academy press release
• Business and Industry Today An article in the business press
• Bee-IT Taking a closer look at Learnalot's Cops and Robbers resource
• Bee-IT BETT 2011 coverage