Avatars, actors, and other educational characters best describe characters that represent humans in an online environment. Initially, characters had the form of 2D photorealistic cartoons or personified animals. This was when there were no animation tools or interactive character solutions like CodeBaby.
E-learning has provided learners with higher expectations and technological advances for developing animated character-mediated learning, which is easier to apply. At the same time, more sophisticated instructional design techniques can be employed. Before taking the leap and embarking on a program that integrates animated characters into e-Learning, it would help you review the evidence showing the benefits of emotionally animated characters in e-Learning.
In a study regarding the Benefits of Interactive Online Characters in 2004, Byron Reeves claimed that the same social capabilities that simplify human-to-human interaction initiate the success of human media interactions.
Here are some of Reeves' critical findings on why animated characters provide significant benefits for e-Learning.
1. Interactive, emotional characters make online learning more socially intelligent.
2. Improving the environment with a dynamic character and simulating a social exchange improves memory and information trust.
3. The level of character interaction increases realism, enhancing the learning and engagement experience.
Another aspect is that the characters are pretty practical. To create a socially intelligent context, you can use other techniques such as audio, video, and conversational text. However, animated characters are more reasonable and easier to replicate. Other than these benefits, they never tire and are always available.
Animated Movies for Adults
Various animated movies have carved the way for tremendous animated characters that adults have enjoyed watching and learning from. Here are a few movies that have had impactful characters.
The Disney/Pixar animated film Coco tells the tale of a young boy who travels to the Land of the Dead. The movie Coco tells the story of a shoemaking family who long ago outlawed all music.
The son of the family, Miguel, only wanted to play music, but his family had no intention of supporting him in that endeavor. Miguel searched for a strategy to persuade them to pay attention and comprehend.
Pixar delivers fascinating stories from distinctive angles that focus on emotional intelligence, likable characters, and essential life lessons for audiences of all ages. Inside Out, a 2015 film, explores this paradigm through the animated emotions of a preteen girl named Riley.
The other emotions in Inside Out made a conscious decision to deny Sadness a place in Riley's life. Joy's drive to confine Sadness to a metaphorical box without comprehending that she has a place and space in Riley's life as a human being serves as a mirror image of this in Riley's thinking. She had to experience confrontation and go through her breakdown before realizing how frequently emotions interact.
A superhero comic from Marvel's hidden vault, Big Hero 6 is tucked away in the nook and is rarely seen on the front lines alongside the rest of the company's incredible superheroes.
Tadashi, a student, assisted Hiro, his younger brother, in enrolling at Callahan's advanced college. However, Hiro was also unable to go past a challenge that had stumped him. What action did Tadashi take to aid Hiro? He urged him to approach the issue from a new perspective. Tadashi gave Hiro a fresh perspective, which enabled him to devise a clever solution that allowed him to enter Callahan's Institute and solve his problem.
Although this film and Finding Nemo have a similar message, Meet the Robinson's approach to expressing it is preferred. But from the start, its clear message to keep going forward is nearly a mantra for every Robinson.
It almost starts to anger the main character Louis (and even the audience). How can we continue to advance in the face of many obstacles and hardships? But it becomes plausible after the shocking revelation that Luis' future is the Robinson family, gained by constantly going forward. And with so many exciting things to look forward to, Luis can't fail.
Social Roles
Here are three essential references for you to adopt social roles from animated characters and understand how their parts affect others. Character-Based Simulations: What Works TM (2004), a well-researched case study by Jennifer De Vries from Bersin and Associates, lists the most prevalent but successful character roles in e-learning in animation. These are the first three.
Expert Instructor
An expert character is designed according to a knowledgeable human. This could be a teacher, coach, or expert in the field who could be a doctor or financial advisor. Using this role efficiently ensures a commitment between the character and student through interaction, conversational tone, and feedback according to the student's answers.
Peer Instructor
The most common social role is that of peer educators. The student and the character instantly have a social relationship when you do this. The characters are either utilized as the only character or as the peer coach for a different surface on the screen.
Cooperative Co-Learner
Finally, new research pushes designers to integrate a "Cooperative Co-learner" into their social roles. In contrast to a peer coach, a cooperative co-learner supports and encourages the student while participating in the course. This approach to instructional design enables the student and co-learner to be taught by an expert or peer instructor.
Little You Animation
Little You, a platform for creating customized 3D printable avatars, also incorporates a variety of animated videos into its daily operations to teach children the importance of becoming whoever they want to be.
Little You shows an animated snippet with a character playing the doctor role. But as soon as the time is up on his profession, the man becomes a DJ at a club, giving you the lesson of being whoever you want to be.
The Takeaway!
Animated characters in shows and movies are an integral part of everyday life. They are something we value greatly as children. However, as we age, many lose track of our favorite characters and superheroes. This doesn't seem right.
No matter our age, animated characters always teach us valuable life lessons. It encourages us to smile more and maintain a stress-free and calm mind. Additionally, even when all hope is lost, we can still count on our favorite animated character to teach us valuable lessons.