Laurie Jarvis led a session on how to create avatars and their possible uses in Higher Education.

1. Laurie E. Jarvis
Instructional Designer
659-4685
Learning Technologies
laurie.jarvis@siast.sk.ca

2. 1. What is an avatar?
2. Have any of you thought about using one for
teaching? How might an avatar be useful for
teaching?

3. 1. http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=6910057&height=400&width=300
2. http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=6480273&height=400&width=300
3. http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=2109739&height=400&width=300
4. http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=3085940&height=400&width=300

4. 1. To create an avatar using the Voki online application
2. To learn some different ways to use an avatar for
teaching and learning

5. • Go to the website http://www.voki.com/.
• Use an email address and register yourself (top right).

6. • Click on the “CREATE” button (top left).

7. • A window opens with buttons to create your avatar.

8. • “Start Customizing Your Character” (Click on
the first “head” button on the left).
• Note: Do not choose the characters with the grad cap
as they are for the pay classroom version.

9. • Choose “Male, Female or All”
by clicking on the circle
button.
• Slide the arrow button by
clicking it to see different
types of characters—
Randoms, VIP, Politics, etc.
• Then click directly on the
“photo” of the character you
want.

10. • Change how your character
looks by sliding the “Tweak”
buttons under the avatar for
mouth, nose, body, height and
width.
• There are also “Color” palette
options for mouth, skin, eyes
and hair to add diversity .

11. • Follow similar steps
for “Clothing” or to
add “Bling”.
• Click the x button on
the top right of the
“Customize Your
Character” menu
(NOT your window).

12. • “Give It A Voice” by clicking one of the buttons
to add voice by phone, microphone, text to
speech or audio file upload.
• Note: Try the second button for text.

13. • Type your text in the box.
• Choose the
“Accent/Language”.
• Choose the type of “Voice”.
• Click the x button on the
top right of the “Give It A
Voice” menu (NOT your
window).

14. • Choose from
“Backgrounds”.
• Note: Your own
background image can
be uploaded .
• Click the green DONE
button on the bottom
of the menu.

15. • Note: There is an option
to choose “Players”
(skins), but you don’t
have to.
• Click the “Publish”
button to save your
avatar.

16. • “Name Your Scene” by typing a Title
in the pop-up box.
• Click “SAVE”.

17. • Select the player size.
• Use the embed code
if you know how to
put it into a web page
or site, or copy and
paste the link where
you want .
• You can paste into
PowerPoint!

18. • Email the avatar to
yourself or someone
else.
• Log off, and you can
log in again to see
your saved avatar or
create more avatars.

19. I hope you enjoyed making your avatar and considered
how an avatar might be useful for:
• introducing a lesson
• a problem
• role playing
• simulation