After a good day's grinding in a massively multiplayer online game (MMO), you finally earn enough currency to leave the noob zone. Pleased with yourself, you check your stats: only four more levels until you receive your reward. Rather than a powerful sword, however, you'll earn college credit.

The use of games as an educational tool is a growing trend, but researchers at Michigan State University are trying a new approach to educating students in Chinese language and culture. Given the notorious difficulty of teaching Mandarin in the classroom, Professor Yong Zhao (left) realised that mere instruction wasn't enough to help students learn China's official language.

Zon - The New Chengo Chinese is an experimental MMO (design doc here) which is meant to allow students and instructors to interact and role-play while learning Mandarin as well as Chinese culture and history. Currently being developed in partnership with the Chinese government-sponsored Confucius Institute, Zon is a five-level course designed to prepare students for participation in Chinese advanced placement offerings in MSU's virtual high school program.

Chun Lai, an assistant professor at the Confucius Institute, says that an MMO offers a unique opportunity for students:

Not many schools can offer face-to-face Chinese language instruction to their students... So there's a need for online Chinese teaching.

After learning how to obtain Chinese currency at the international airport, beginners start in "villages" and work their way up to "cosmopolitans." The course covers historical and cultutral aspects from ancient times through modern China.

Upon completion, players can act as tour guides or conduct business in-game. As in most MMOs, there are careers such as scholar, businessman, kung-fu master, officer, and historian/archeologist.

MSU and the Confucius Institute currently offer online Mandarin courses as part of their "virtual high school," which lets students do lessons online and meet with a professor through virtual conferencing. There are also plans to purchase an island in Second Life to set up an interactive exhibit of Chinese culture.

Dan Schulz, who helps oversee the virtual high school program, told The State News:

There is a lot of interest internationally in the Chinese culture, the Chinese economy and the Chinese language. This is the first opportunity that many students in Michigan schools have had to experience this.

-GP Correspondent Colin "Jabrwock" McInnes