About ClassRealm

ClassRealm is a customizable classroom management system built on role playing themes. Teachers can use ClassRealm to set up specific goals and achievements for individual students or entire classes, as well as to track student data and progress. Students can earn achievements and experience points by doing a wide array of school related tasks such as doing well on tests, helping others, and reading extra books. Parents can use ClassRealm to follow their child’s many adventures online and can even create personalized side quests. ClassRealm makes learning a grand adventure!

28 Comments on "About ClassRealm"

  1. Han Cilliers says:

    I love what you doing with games and education, can I please interview you?

  2. Chris says:

    I would like to know if this would be adaptable to other subjects. I teach Middle School Band and I’ve been trying to develop something similar to this for a few years now. I would love to use this system with my courses.

  3. t. says:

    Eagerly awaiting…… I have a slew of my own unmotivated 5th graders. Once I see how this will work, I’ll probably try to figure out how to integrate it into Moodle. They like working in Moodle much better than traditional text books and worksheets, but there’s still about 20% who avoid even working much on that. From what I read in your piece on Kotako, it sounds like this could be tweaked to suit the needs of individual teachers’/classes’/students’ needs. That would be outstanding. If one strategy doesn’t yield satisfactory results, something else might get the job done.
    So, like I said….eagerly awaiting! Kudos!
    (Oh, I also have video game posters in my room:)

  4. Damon Thomas says:

    Hello Ben. Just wanted to say as a young teacher/researcher that I think your idea for ClassRealm is fantastic. I spent some time looking into this area of gamifying education last year as part of my PhD, and can see a huge gap for a go-getter like you to jump in first and make a lot of children very enthusiastic about learning mathematics and literacy. I will follow your progress with great interest and wish you the best of luck mate 🙂

    Damon

  5. Matt S says:

    I just started a beta of a classroom RPG a few weeks ago and it’s been a lot of fun so far.

    I teach a 3/4/5 multi-age gifted class and each student has a character sheet that they keep updated. Each subject’s grade has been converted into a character attribute on the character sheet (eg. reading is attack power, etc.)

    Earned XP unlocks increasingly cool tiers of real world “loot” which can then be puchased with gold that students earn by doing various things. Students submit a gold & xp submission form each week (gets them writing and thinking about what they can do every day to be a better student).

    We also have random monster encounters which involve rolling 20-sided dice and using stats from their character sheets. If defeated, the monsters drop armor/weapons (which give bonuses to character stats) and gold. The amount of math in a random monster encounter is pretty amazing and the students don’t even realize we’ve been doing math the entire time because it’s so fun.

    I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of supplemental materials will eventually be made available here at ClassRealm and learning from successes and failures of other teachers who have “gamified” their room.

    Good on you for making this site! 🙂

  6. Sanjay says:

    Hi Ben,

    Sounds very intriguing. As a parent, I’m always curious about tools (hopefully fun ones) I can offer my children to let them learn and grow. Your ideas have promise. Though it’s unclear how far they’ve been implemented.

    My questions re: your site:

    A) Is your site’s software (the classroom management feature set) already working, being developed concurrently, or are you only at the early “concepts” stage?

    B) How automated is/will your site/tool/software be? Do you expect educators to manually enter data per student & per activity, or will this be automated?

    C) What types of games/activities do you see included? E.g.,
    (1) paper-based ones the teacher must score & enter here,
    (2) group-activities with no intrinsic quantitative data (where the teacher or a group-leader must quantify and enter the metrics),
    (3) automated games (with built-in metrics) that are not interfaced (or uninterface-able) with your system (thus requiring manual entry of metrics),
    (4) and of course (probably) fully automated games (both individual & team-based/networked) that automatically input their collected metrics?

    D) obviously the last type of games/activities in my above list (marked “(4)”) are the best for keeping the system easy-to-use & humming along efficiently. Do you see/have such games already existing and interfaced to your system?

    This last question is the crux of your effort (I believe), and will determine its long-term success or not. At this stage, I’m mostly curious since I didn’t see anything tangible that accomplish your goal.

    I stumbled onto your site, so I’m not sure when/if I’ll return next. So after you’ve expanded the site, please send me a note at my private e-mail (please keep it private). I would like to inform the my kids’ teachers about your site, but I feel it’s premature yet. Who knows, if this looks promising, I myself might offer to help.

    Good job, and keep up the effort. Our children are the future!

  7. Morrigan M. says:

    Hi there – I teach a period of 6-8th mild/moderate disabilities special ed class for reading intervention and we’re doing a version of this that I’ve tweaked for our class right now! Random Encounter Friday has turned into a great review strategy – the students earn attack opportunities by answering questions correctly. They unlock achievements by doing things in their other classes – keeping their grades up, completing special assignments, having no missing work. I have one student who is emotionally disturbed and he will do just about anything to keep it together in his classes so he can earn achievements in my class. Thank you for the idea!

  8. John says:

    I launched a beta of this in my Year 7 Classroom this term with some custom achievements and XP for a High School setting. Working really well so far, a brilliant innovation. Thanks to Ben.

  9. Caitlin says:

    I am beyond excited for this to exist. Was just saying today how I really needed something more hands on and captivating for my year 10 boys who just struggle with text book learning. Was going to do something similar, but manual and not digital – but if this is launched in time, I will be on it in a heart beat! This is fabulous, can’t wait to use it!

  10. jneilson says:

    Hi there – I’ve been doing an RPG with XP as a classroom management strategy and reading program for about 4 years now and have struggled with keeping up with the constant record keeping of XP for the little things like good questions, positive actions, etc.along with the regular essay XP, homework XP and all that. I spent 1.5 hours every weekend tabulating the scores, posting them online for the kids to access, managing their online loot, etc. I found as soon as I lagged with consistent updates, the students’ enthusiasm lagged as well. I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of XP management comes out of your project. Thanks for sharing!

  11. Kafui Monu says:

    Hi there,

    Saw your wonderful article on Kotaku and I am interested in implementing this in my Introductory Business School classes. I am also doing research on designing better gamified experiences in the corporate world. If you are interested I would love to work with you on research ideas and funding.

  12. Jessie Chuang says:

    We like your idea! Looking forward to its launch.
    We are developing a tool that teachers can upload their contents/questions to publish Apps without coding a line. We are interested to integrate or connect with your tool. Let us know your thoughts. Thanks.
    our site : http://www.classroom-aid.com

  13. Joseph says:

    I’ve been developing something nearly identical for my class, and the ASL interpreter says to me today, “Oh, you mean like ClassRealm?”

    Anyhoo, I’m excited to see how things go for you!

    Joseph Rawlins
    8th Grade Science

  14. Kevin Byers says:

    Looking forward to the launch!

    Any chance you are thinking about integrating with Clever (getclever.com) or another similar service to make it easy to manage rosters?

    • admin says:

      Hello Kevin, glad you asked! 😉

      My name is Courtny and I am the lead designer for ClassRealm. We have targeted support for Clever assuming that it has a wide reach and open API that we can tap into and make roster management easier. There have been a number of things we are looking to pack into ClassRealm, and Clever would certainly assist us in making student management easier for all involved.

  15. Capitan Typo says:

    Hello,

    Someone directed me to your site after I produced my own similar product for RPGs as an LMS. I’d like to talk to you about your game, if someone could email me at capitantypo@gmail.com.

    Cheers,
    Cameron

  16. Dan says:

    Hi,
    I’ve only just come across your work thanks to stumbleupon and I wanted to say how inspired I am by your dedication to engaging your students and proving them with an exciting challenge.
    I’m looking forward to exploring further and trying this out with some of my classes.

    I was sorry to see that your kickstarter campaign didn’t meet its funding goal but I really hope you continue with your inspiring work. I’d love to see your program get up and going online.

    Thanks for sharing your idea so willingly. I’ve already started spreading your work to my colleagues to figure out a way that we can make this work for us.

    Thanks again,
    Dan

  17. Luke Fehring says:

    Keep this up guys, I have been following ClassRealm for years and I love everything you do. I only wish I could have participated when I was a kid!

    All the best from Downunda,

    Cheers.

    Luke Fehring – Fezilla Art

  18. Brandon says:

    I read your original article on Kotaku a while back and thought it was a cool idea. Now my school is implementing 1:1 technology with iPads and the idea came up again. I’m excited to see an app is in development for this. I’m thinking about implementing a version of ClassRealm in my 9th grade World History classes for next year; I’m curious on how it will work with older students.

    Keep up the great work!

  19. Matthew Bales says:

    A friend of mine turned me onto this concept about 2 or 3 years ago considering she knew that 1, I love to game; and 2, I teach 8th grade Language Arts. So, after many times coming back to this as a possibility, last year during 4th quarter, I implemented a simple version of what you had described in the article on Kotaku. It took kids about a week to figure out what was going on with how I was using it, random encounters, xp, magic races, gaining XP and such. The kids really enjoyed it, so I decided to start it up again at the beginning of the following school year.

    Started it up exactly the same and kids really enjoyed it as well. Made it to Christmas and decided, “ya know what? I should add equipment, items, and skills (special powers to them)”. Instantly kids were enthralled. I’ve even set up a student run shop for items they want to sell that they won, no longer use, or earned while doing mercenary missions (assignments from me, other teachers on campus that I gain and post on the board, etc.).

    I’ve got to say, it’s been a wonderful experience and I’m glad that I was turned onto this idea. I’ve also been using a class set of iPads since November now as we’re heading the route of 1:1 tech as well. I eagerly await the possibility of an app, hopefully with a wide range of customizable features.

    Keep up the good fight!

    • JD says:

      Hi Matthew!
      Im currently running my own version of Classrealm and I’m super interested to know how you encorporated items, and especially a shop?! How does it all work? Do you have a website? Would love it if you could give me some tips/info.

      Cheers,
      JD

  20. Henk says:

    I think Class Realm is a revolutionary concept which would work way better than the current educational system. I can’t wait to see it launch and I sincerely hope it will be used my many teachers. In my opinion it could even be a whole new form of education. I’d be quite sure things like this would work at high school too. Wish you the best of luck and I really hope it becomes a major success.

    Henk

    • Ben says:

      Thank you Henk! We appreciate the kind words. We sincerely hope ClassRealm will have a positive influence on teachers, students, parents and gamers the world over.

  21. Dora says:

    Hi,

    I have looked at your site and I am really impressed with its entire structure and content quality. Also, you are maintaining it very well. Currently, I am looking for the possibilities of sharing my content in this kind of blogs (as guest blog post) with my website link.

    Please let me know your opinion on my request.

    Thank you.