Alice
Description and Design
Alice is an established toolset (downloadable software) and support website created at Carnegie Mellon University. Alice facilitates the creation of animations, 3D games, simulations, and narratives. In addition to the software, the website provides an abundance of resources including: How Tos, Lessons, Exercises & Projects, Textbooks, Curriculum examples, an Audio Library, as well as Downloads & Swag. Alice3 is the newest version of the Alice programming language and it is the one that I utilized to complete this analysis. Some of the main features of this version of Alice can be seen below in Figure 10.
Figure 10
Alice3 Features
Unlike a lot of other education related websites and applications, Alice is completely free to download and use. It is funded by donations from foundations with additional support provided by a range of research and curriculum partners and the user population (www.alice.org).
Alice was a lot to digest. This software is definitely something that you can intuitively start using. Thankfully, Alice provides a variety of tutorials and lessons to help you get started.
Figure 11
Alice3 How Tos
Figure 12
Alice3 Lessons
In addition to the How tos and Lessons, Alice also provides Exercises & Projects, and Audio Library, Curriculum, and Textbooks. The start screen for the software itself is your introduction to building a new project. If you are like me, perhaps a little less tech savvy, There is a help button that brings up a link to a help wiki.
Figure 14
Alice3 Help Link
Figure 13
Alice3 Project Page
Because of the abundance of tutorials, lessons, and online help, this tool is not only for educators, it is a great jumping off point for students entering the realm of coding, AI, and animation. A bit of a caution here- you should not confuse alice.org with alice.tech as they are two different entities. Alice.tech is a website used to create study materials, not 3d models, animation, or programming.
Unlike may other educational websites and software suites, Alice was created by educators for educators and students and is bolstered by a large body of research, papers, and dissertations, all of which are easily accessible under the "Research" tab.
Figure 15
Alice Research
Projects, videos, and underlying workspaces can be exported to others for viewing or collaboration. Additionally, Alice provides premade templates for both PowerPoint and Google Slide presentations that can be shared online via a link that can be posted into Google Classroom, classroom chat, or social media pages. Furthermore, the link can be made publicly accessible, or private for those with designated access.
Using Scapin & Bastien's ergonomic criteria for evaluating interactive systems (1997), the website looks very much in line with the principals of good soft-ergonomics.
The website is easy to navigate with clear navigation buttons, professional looking pages, easy to locate menus with easily accessible information. Additionally, the website's policies on privacy, content ownership, and terms of use are easy to find and easy to understand. The software itself however, is not as ergonomically friendly. While the buttons are easy to see, the menus are easy to navigate, and the colours are vibrant, there is little "as you go coaching" or immediate help. However, as previously stated, there is a large body of resources available for users who are just beginning their journey with Alice.
Recommended age level for use of this platform would be grades 6-12+.
How Alice fits within established learning theories can be seen HERE on the Learning Theories page.
The strengths and weaknesses of Alice can be seen HERE on the Recommendations page.