Toronto student helps create "cheat proof" educational video game
Spongelab Interactive is a Toronto-based company that wanted to create a compelling educational game to teach the history of Biology. But they also didn't want students to cheat their way through the game. To help make that impossible, Centennial College sent in one of its best student programmers. INCLUDES VIDEO.11/9/2009 8:00:00 AM By: Brian Jackson
Jeremy Friedberg understands just about every student will cheat at one time or another -- he just doesn't want it to be on his game.
A partner at Toronto-based Spongelab Interactive and a PhD holder in microbiology and molecular sciences is creating an educational game to teach high school students about the history of biology. A story-driven game will have players meeting virtual resurrections of the personalities that shaped the world's knowledge about living organisms.
SEE VIDEO - College student helps create 'cheat proof' video game
To progress through the game, players must solve puzzles and answer questions correctly, Friedberg says.
“We were very worried someone playing this would post a walkthrough -- somewhere on the Web -- that we can't control,” he says. “They post solutions for all the answers in the game and boom, it's done. As an educational tool, it can be ruined.”
So Friedburg turned to his colleague Paula Demacio, a professor of biotechnology at Centennial College who had been helping create content for the game. She suggested recruiting a gifted student programmer to make the game cheat-proof. To project could be funded by the Colleges Ontario Network for Industry Innovation (CONII).
CONII is a network of Ontario colleges that meets business problems head on with resources and students. The government-backed program can provide to $10,000 in funding per project.
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Students at the Toronto-based college were interviewed for the opportunity, Demacio says.
Sign up for our IT Business NewslettersPage Navigation 1) "We were worried someone playing this would post a walkthrough somewhere on the Web." - Page 1
2) It makes cheating nearly impossible. - Page 2
3) "It's like people who see a movie really getting attached to the characters." - Page 3
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