page_title: Globaloria
section_title: Outcomes
hierarchical_section_title: Globaloria / Outcomes
caption_attribution_description: Girl working in Globaloria class.
context_page_description: Globaloria is an online learning platform oriented to K-12 curricula to teach students to design, prototype, and code educational web/mobile games and simulations with industry-standard technology as a means of learning content and creative innovation skills. Globaloria was developed in 2006 by Idit Harel as a project of the World Wide Workshop Foundation with the stated mission of providing all primary and secondary school students in the U.S. with STEM and computing education opportunities. Globaloria is noteworthy among MOOCs as it is based in constructionist learning theory and Harel's research in the MIT Media Lab.
  As of May 2015, Globaloria was being used by over 500 teachers and over 17,000 students in over 50 schools. The product serves participants in 15 states: Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Washington D.C., West Virginia and Wyoming. Globaloria technology and content are designed to cultivate engagement in learning among students on a large scale, and has shown success among schools in rural and urban communities of varied socioeconomic status.
context_section_description: The key outcome of Globaloria courses in any implementation format is that each student successfully learns to take an idea from invention to completion, and to collaborate with peers to design, research, code, program and publish an original educational game. Along the way, students also master global thinking, social media tools such as blogs and wikis, and the skills required to document, chronicle, and co-learn as active members of an online learning community. A profile in Education Week highlighted that Globaloria users develop "the transferable skills of proposal writing, storyboarding, ActionScript software coding, informational blogging, and presentation of progress reports, as students follow a development plan similar to those in the commercial gaming industry through tools available through their account on Globaloria's social learning platform."
  Research has shown that Globaloria educates students in technical and computational skills, as well as content knowledge, which results in improved academic performance and increased Constructionist and digital learning abilities, preparing them for college-level studies, digital citizenship, and careers in the global knowledge economy. Additionally, Globaloria has been named by the National Center for Women and Information Technology as a "Promising Practice" for engaging girls in computing, as a result of its success shrinking the digital divide faced by girls and minorities.
caption: A Globaloria student researches her video game topic using digital resources.
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