ELSA Schools

Developing one of Australia's leading interactive STEM education platforms.

Originally created as the award-winning Early Learning STEM Australia (ELSA) program, the platform has since evolved to the next generation with ELSA: STEM in Schools, a comprehensive digital education platform developed for beyond Early Years Learning covering Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 students.

Mode Games was proud to be selected as the partner with the University of Canberra on this major expansion, funded by the Australian Government Department of Education, helping transform years of educational research into engaging digital experiences that are now used by schools across Australia.

Over a two-year development period, we helped deliver more than 60 interactive STEM learning experiences, combining curriculum-aligned educational content with intuitive gameplay, expressive character animation and accessible interaction design. Developed in Unity as responsive HTML5 web applications, the platform provides a consistent learning experience across interactive classroom smartboards, desktop computers, laptops, tablets and mobile devices.

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From Educational Games to a Complete Learning Platform

ELSA: STEM in Schools is far more than a collection of educational games.

It is a comprehensive digital education platform designed to support classroom teaching, reinforce curriculum outcomes and encourage continued learning through interactive play. The platform combines dozens of connected learning experiences with teacher resources and classroom integration, creating a cohesive STEM learning journey across multiple year levels.

Each activity forms part of a larger educational framework, helping students progressively develop confidence in science, technology, engineering and mathematics while supporting teachers with engaging, curriculum-aligned digital resources.

Turning Complex Curriculum Into Simple Play

One of the greatest challenges of the project wasn't the technology—it was making an incredibly sophisticated educational framework feel effortless for young children.

Throughout development, Mode Games worked closely with researchers, educators, curriculum specialists, instructional designers and numerous project stakeholders to translate complex curriculum requirements into intuitive, enjoyable experiences.

Every interaction was carefully designed to meet educational objectives while remaining simple enough for young learners to understand immediately. Behind every colourful animation, playful interaction and rewarding moment is a carefully considered learning outcome that supports classroom teaching without ever feeling like traditional instruction.

The result is an experience where children simply enjoy playing, while meaningful learning happens naturally.

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Designed for Every Child

Young learners arrive in the classroom with different abilities, confidence levels and literacy skills.

To ensure every child could participate, the platform was designed around accessibility from the very beginning. Large touch-friendly controls, clear visual communication, colourful graphics and intuitive interfaces reduce reliance on reading while making every interaction easy to understand.

Professional voice acting, expressive character animation and natural lip synchronisation further enhance accessibility by guiding children through activities in a friendly, conversational way.

This thoughtful approach allows children of diverse learning abilities to engage confidently while enabling teachers to spend less time explaining software and more time supporting learning.

Built in Unity for Every Classroom

Using Unity allowed us to create a single cross-platform solution capable of running across virtually every classroom environment.

Whether students are learning on interactive smartboards, classroom computers, laptops, tablets or mobile devices, they receive the same polished, responsive experience.

Building the platform as HTML5 web applications simplified deployment for schools while ensuring updates and new content could be delivered efficiently across all supported devices.

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Delivering Quality at Scale

Producing more than 60 interactive learning experiences across multiple year levels required more than technical expertise—it demanded an efficient production pipeline capable of maintaining exceptional quality throughout the project.

Reusable systems, consistent design standards, scalable architecture and close collaboration across multidisciplinary teams enabled Mode Games to deliver a large collection of educational experiences that feel cohesive, polished and engaging while supporting a broad range of curriculum outcomes.

The project demonstrates our ability to manage large-scale interactive productions involving multiple stakeholders, complex educational requirements and long-term platform development.

Proven Educational Results

Educational software should do more than entertain—it should measurably improve learning.

ELSA has been independently evaluated through large-scale randomised controlled trials (RCTs), one of the highest standards of educational research.

The original Early Learning STEM Australia program demonstrated significant improvements in STEM learning and numeracy, leading to the development of the expanded ELSA: STEM in Schools platform.

According to the ELSA research team, all three programs, Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2, proved effective under rigorous large-scale randomised controlled trial conditions, with numeracy outcomes approximately doubling compared with business-as-usual classroom teaching.

These independently validated outcomes demonstrate the impact that carefully designed interactive learning can have when educational research, thoughtful design and engaging gameplay work together.

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Project Highlights

• Developed for the Australian Government Department of Education
• Delivered in partnership with the University of Canberra
• Major expansion of the original award-winning Early Learning STEM Australia (ELSA) program
• Evolved into a comprehensive digital STEM education platform
• 60+ interactive STEM learning experiences
• Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 curriculum coverage
• Two-year large-scale development program
• Built in Unity as responsive HTML5 web applications
• Cross-platform support for smartboards, desktop computers, laptops, tablets and mobile devices
• Professional voice acting with expressive lip-synchronised character animation
• Accessible design for children of diverse abilities and literacy levels
• Extensive collaboration with educators, researchers and curriculum specialists
• Complex curriculum transformed into intuitive, engaging gameplay
• Independently validated through large-scale randomised controlled trials
• Numeracy outcomes approximately doubled compared with business-as-usual classroom teaching