Emerging Tech: Roblox

Emerging Tech Report: Roblox for Education

Joshua Filoteo - Tech in Teaching and Learning - Dr. Erica Preswood

Click the pulsing icons in this presentation for more info!

wow

Roblox is a massively-multiplayer online (MMO) three-dimensional sandbox game for children 9+, with most content generally suitable for ages 13+. This game has been around since 2004 as a browser-based game but had its claim to fame in the mid-to-late 2010s when it expanded to the console gaming and mobile gaming markets, currently reporting 216 million active players per month.Like in most MMOs, players can customize an avatar, chat over text, and interact with others on the online space, but it is unique for encouraging players to create their own video game within the platform. The vast majority of games and user experiences on the Roblox platform are created by its users rather than by the Roblox Corporation.

What is Roblox?

...a game that's come a long way

Its original appeal for many kids in the early 2000s (including myself) came from its LEGO-like aesthetic: Player avatars and most game elements resembled the ubiquitous building blocks, which may have partly been due limitations in computer graphics and rendering at the time of its release.Roblox today is nearly unrecognizable, with fully animated humanoid player avatars and photorealistic lighting. It's coming close to being an actual metaverse. The philosophy has always been the same, though: It’s a game where you make games and play other people’s games.

Typical Roblox gameplay in 2009

Real example of what's possible on the Roblox engine today

Recently, I learned that the Roblox Corporation has been making a push for its baseline tools to be used in classrooms for educational purposes as of 2021 with an emphasis on gamified learning and online safety.

Its Place in the Classroom

Roblox for Education shows examples on its webpage of professionally developed games on the Roblox platform that teach players the concepts of chemistry, robotics, computer programming, physics, and more.

Roblox Studio is a seriously impressive piece of development software for programming, 3D modeling, animation, and game development that has been completely free for nearly 2 decades.

Its Place in the Classroom

What's this?

The software used to by players to create their own games, Roblox Studio, has a robust array of tools for computer assisted design and realistic physics simulation, which could be a powerful tool in itself for students interested in engineering and creative projects.

My experience with Roblox today

I logged into my original Roblox account from when I was a kid in 2009 and played some of the demos on the Roblox for Education website. One presented a tutorial on how to use the movement controls and featured a couple interactive educational areas.The first was a nature quiz where a virtual park ranger asks the player to use the in-game binoculars to identify birds in a habitat. The player is then to pair the type of bird with an appropriate diet as a quiz.The second interactive area demonstrates click-and-drag functionality of in-game elements, where players control the objects with the mouse to open doors, control an elevator lift, and load a giant ballista to fire at a castle.

The highlighted piece is to be pulled back to launch a projectile.

When the target is hit, the drawbridge descends and the tutorial ends. The player can exit this experience and join other featured educational games from an in-game 'portal' here.

Technical Difficulties

Frankly, Roblox isn’t really a platform directly built for teaching, so it takes some creativity to make gamified learning experiences for students. Luckily, the number of those is on the rise, and teachers that adopt Roblox into the classroom have a decent bank of games to choose from to at the very least provide some fun teaching aids for STEM subjects.I personally would feel comfortable using Roblox Studio to create some demonstrations or simulations to use to teach physics concepts as I have been familiar with the game since I was 8, though I feel like more resources need to be available for teachers to create their own games so they don’t need to solely relying on what’s currently available.

Error

Due to the nature of user-created experiences, many games on the platform aren't fit for educational settings. Thus, Roblox for Education has a stigma to break before it is widely adopted in schools.

Forbidden

Access & Affordances

$0.00

Teachers and students can access from most devices completely for free.

There is a premium subscription, but it is mainly to gain in-game currency for avatar customization, etc. The development tools and ability to play experiences are always free.

11:59

It does take some time commitment to develop games.

Studio is a great tool for making immersive demos, labs, experiences, etc... with sufficient programming know-how. Catalog of edu-experiences on Roblox is limited but growing as of 2024.

403

Roblox is commonly blocked in school settings.

+ info

+ info

+ info

When I was a chronically-online 8 year old in 2009, I actually emailed my elementary school teachers screenshots of the Roblox website, expressing how much I loved this "LEGOs but on the computer" game and hoping we as a class could play it in the computer lab. I'm ecstatic that 15 years later, Roblox is officially becoming tool for education.

Conclusions

Roblox has huge potential for engaging students in STEM for a wide range of ages: It's one of the most popular games for generation Alpha today, and Roblox Corporation is actively pushing for adoption in schools.The sky is the limit for student-oriented experiences, but development tools have a high skill-barrier to entry.

I'm optimistic!

Roblox is more than an online entertainment platform, it's an educational tool where the opportunities for creativity and imagination are limitless. We offer free software and curriculum to teach students of all ages computer science, digital citizenship, entrepreneurship, and more.

—Get Started with Roblox Educationhttps://create.roblox.com/docs/education/support/education-getting-started