Preface

E-learning can be described as the use of computers and digital technology to facilitate teaching and learning. One popular method of accomplishing this, and which is also the approach we will take in this book, is through gamification of learning, that is, the application of cognitive psychology and game-based rules to learning systems.

At the time of writing this book, it is projected that by the year 2020, 85 percent of all daily human tasks will be gamified to some extent (Everyone is a Gamer, a HTML document by Corcione, Andrew, and Fran Tardo, available at www.prnewswire.com, February 25, 2014. This document was accessed on February 28, 2014, http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/everyones-a-gamer---ieee-experts-predict-gaming-will-be-integrated-into-more-than-85-percent-of-daily-tasks-by-2020-247100431.html). This book was written in parts to address the need of young programmers to have a robust and substantial example of an e-learning game to learn from.

The reader will participate in the development of an e-learning game that teaches American geography, Geography Quest. The code and the book were written in tandem so that the text could serve as an accompanying guide to the software.