We are thrilled to announce the upcoming release of Adventure Academy, the world’s first premier (or “AAA”) educational massively multiplayer online game (or “MMO”)! Launching May 1 on computers, tablets, and smartphones, Adventure Academy will provide elementary and middle school age children with an immersive, interactive learning adventure where they can explore an ever-expanding virtual world while building critical academic knowledge and skills.
We developed Adventure Academy to address the alarmingly low levels of academic proficiency among elementary and middle school students, prioritizing the areas the National Assessment of Educational Progress has consistently shown a majority of American students are not proficient in, including reading, math, and science. Adventure Academy offers learners opportunities to explore hundreds of topics within these subjects and learn in ways that are highly engaging and effective.
“Our sole focus at Age of Learning is to help children build a strong foundation for academic success,” said Doug Dohring, founder and CEO of Age of Learning. “Our outstanding team has executed on this mission for many years, developing highly engaging and effective educational programs that early learners enjoy, and families and teachers trust. Adventure Academy allows us to now meet parents’ demands to bring learning to life for older students during the critical elementary and middle school years.”
We have brought the same curriculum-first approach to Adventure Academy that we used in creating ABCmouse, which has helped educate nearly 20 million children to date. In developing Adventure Academy, our curriculum leadership conducted an in-depth review of state, national, and international educational standards, and collaborated with practicing teachers across the U.S. to identify the highest priority curriculum topics that students have the most difficulty with in school. As a result, the Adventure Academy curriculum emphasizes key topics such as reading comprehension, vocabulary development, mathematical operations, fractions, world geography, American history, physical science, life science, earth science, and scientific inquiry.
Over the past three years, our world-class team of game designers, artists, animators, and engineers developed Adventure Academywith the quality and engaging features of a AAA game. This development process is led by creators of some of the most successful titles in the history of online gaming, including Kevin Beardslee, one of the original creators of World of Warcraft®; and Alex Galvagni, former General Manager of leading game studio Turbine®, creators of The Lord of the Rings Online®, Batman: Arkham Underworld®, Dungeons and Dragons Online®, and Game of Thrones Conquest®.
Adventure Academy includes these key features:
- Thousands of learning activities across hundreds of topics, including curriculum-based games, books, a wide range of other types of reading materials, educational videos, and additional interactive experiences addressing all major academic domains.
- Builds critical knowledge and skills in language arts, math, science, social studies, and more.
- Hundreds of hours of educational interaction and gameplay, with hundreds of additional hours to be added in the near future.
- Learners create avatars to explore an ever-expanding world, complete learning quests to unlock new zones, and interact with other learners.
- The same engaging experience across all platforms—smartphones, tablets, and computers—with the ability for up to three children in the same household to play simultaneously within the same parent account with individual profiles.
- Subscription-based service, fully COPPA compliant with no advertising or in-app purchases.
- Safe social elements that enable players to interact with other learners in-game, including filtered chat functionality. Parents control the level of interaction their children have with other learners through this filtered chat and can block all in-game communication, if desired.
The Adventure Academy™ app will be available through the Apple App Store or Google Play and can also be accessed at www.adventureacademy.com. Families can purchase an annual subscription for less than $5 per month, or a month-to-month subscription for $9.99, both including up to three separate student profiles per household.