Editor’s note: This article was first published in February 2012 as a news item about a platform then just out of a one-year beta, tested by more than 20,000 young people and available only in English. Alleyoop is no longer active, although the piece describes it in the present tense.
According to a recent study, if young people spent half the time they devote to some of the most popular games on Facebook studying instead, school results would improve and more students would go on to university. Of course, studying isn’t fun, while a game is. That’s where the idea behind Alleyoop comes in: a learning platform that can be accessed from Facebook.
The game is modelled on Zynga’s famous farm game: as users pass tests and exams, they receive virtual money called “yoops”. Through the game, users are given challenges or missions, and as they complete them they earn “yoops”, money they can later spend on other kinds of activities.
The model is the same one Zynga uses. The startup was incubated by Pearson, a company devoted to education and training in the United States. The platform has been in beta for a year. More than 20,000 young people have already tried it, and the results have been really positive for learning. On top of that, it gets young people to have fun while they learn, which in itself is a real success for any institution.
For now the platform is available only in English, so bold Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs still have the chance to come up with something similar.
Further reading
Featured image: Ryan McGilchrist, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
